SEVENTY-TWO is becoming something for a special number for Fred and Jeane Pope.
Two years since D-Day veteran Mr Pope received his Legion d'Honneur medal 72 years after he earned it on the battlefields of France, this week he and Mrs Pope are celebrating their 72nd wedding anniversary.
The couple, who live in Saxon Court in Bicester, will celebrate their anniversary at home tomorrow with friends.
When both asked the secret to a long and happy marriage Mrs Pope said the key was patience and Mr Pope, a retired plasterer, joked: "I think you have got to be a little bit deaf."
The perfect pair met when Mrs Pope, nee Kitching, was at a local dance with friends in her home town Tring and a young, 'handsome' 20-year-old Mr Pope walked in, having been stationed in the area.
Mrs Pope, 90, who was working as a Red Cross nurse at the time, said: "We were at the dance and these two soldiers walked in, my friend said 'isn't he handsome'.
"I remember also thinking Fred was very handsome and then he came over and asked me to dance."
But soon after meeting, Mr Pope was deployed as one of thousands of troops to land on Gold Beach, the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944.
The Royal Artillery gunner, attached to the London Welsh Regiment, fought across France, Belgium and Germany and ended up in Hamburg at the end of the war in May 1945.
Mrs Pope added: "I didn't know where he was but would write to me, then as soon as he came back he took me to meet his parents in Bristol."
Mr Pope proposed to his beau in May 1946 under the Clifton Suspension Bridge, before they married back at Tring Church on August 3 that year with family and friends.
Amusingly, after the ceremony the pair jumped in the car and were taken to their reception – at the Rose and Crown pub directly opposite.
They went on to have their daughter Hilary, and later moved to the Bicester area in about 1990 where they are now great grandparents to four great grandchildren – the youngest just three weeks old.
Despite joking about his selective deafness helping the marriage along, Mr Pope added: "Really we have been a good team, I worked and Jeane handled the money.
"We never argued and even going back she was great with the rationing."
It was two years ago that Mr Pope finally received his Legion d'Honneur medal from the French government after a 72-year wait.
The Oxford Mail helped the proud D-Day veteran get his medal in 2016 after a mix-up at the Post Office.
Mr Pope, while he does not talk of his experience of the war, said he was very happy to receive France's highest honour recognising his bravery.
He said: "I was very happy to receive my medal, it is a beautiful medal.
"It is important to me as it is something I can leave to my grandson to remember me by."
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