Another article found in an old suitcase about Old Auntie Bella and Uncle Joe tells of their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

This picture is of Auntie Bella and Uncle Joe with their daughter Bella.

Married in Corn Exchange 50 years ago

Mr and Mrs G Webster's Anniversary

Some time tomorrow a silvery haired couple will walk arm-in-arm into Montrose Corn Exchange. Oblivious to the market day crowd they will stand silent for a few moments in silent meditation. Their memories will go back to the day exactly 50 years agi when as a young couple they became man and wife at a ceremony in the Exchange.

When they do this Mr and Mrs George Webster will not have far to walk - 300 yards to be precise from their home at 20 Lower Hall Street. "We have never been very far from the place we were married and maybe that's why it has been such a happy marriage" said Mr Webster.

Nowadays marriages are not performed in the Corn Exchange but when Mr and Mrs Webster were young such ceremonies took place every week. The Exchange also used to house dances and other functions and at term time it was the social mecca for all young ploughmen.

WAGES £1 A WEEK

"An awful lot has happened in those 50 years" Mr Webster told a "Review" reporter. "I mind how proud I was when I brought home my first week's wages to my wife and that was only £1. I got £32 a year in my first place at Dubton of Brechin".

"Aye we got along fine on that" interposed Mrs Webster. "We got our milk, potatoes and meal on the farm. We didn't need any butcher meat because we kept a pig. When we killed it, it kept us in meat for a 12-month".

Born at Stone o' Morphie, Mr Websterhas worked on the land all his life. He left Dubton after a year for an extra £1 at Burghill, also near Brechin. He was at several other farms in the Brechin district until he decided to give up farm work. He went as assistant gardener to his brother-in-law at Old Montrose and stayed there seven years. He came to live in Montrose about ? years ago and took a job with Mr Connachie, market gardener. He also worked at Redfield Nurseries and his last job was at Montrose aerodrome during the war.

PLAYS MELODEON

When the couple celebrate the anniversary with a family party in the Co-operative HAll on Saturday one of the principal performers will be Mrs Webster who will give a slection on her melodeon.

If she plays "Caddam Woods" and "Lunan Woods" as well on Saturday as she did to our reporterthe 50 guests at the party are in for a treat. Mrs Webster takes her musical talent from her father, Mr Andrew Duncan, who was gardener at Old Montrose for 38 years. "My father was a well-known piper and he used to diddle a tune for me to follow. If I was one note out I heard about it," she said.

Mrs Webster confines her playing now to entertaining her husband and friends but not so long ago she was a star at O.A.P concerts and Co-op Women's Guild meetings.

Among the guests will be Mr and Mrs Webster's two sons and daughter. Eldest son Robert is coming from Arbroath, George from London and daughter Bella from London.

From The Montrose Review Thursday December 4th 1952.