IT was the year Sugar Ray Robinson was crowned world middleweight boxing champion and the United States beat England 1-0 in the football World Cup.

And 1950 was also the year Olive Cundy married Roy Eighteen at Southend’s London Road Register Office. The couple married on October 16, some five years after they had first met.

The couple, both from families with deep roots in the town, will be celebrating their Blue Sapphire anniversary later this month.

They had grown up and gone to schools in Southend’s Bournemouth Park Road and Wentworth Road educational catchment area.

Mrs Eighteen, 83, worked at the Dawson chemist store that many older locals will recall at the junction of Southend High Street and Heygate Avenue.

Her husband, 85, did his National Service in the Army and was an accomplished woodworker who went on to roles in local government and became a senior housing officer at Havering Council, his last job before retirement.

They live in Blatches Chase, Eastwood.

Mr Eighteen’s skills as a woodworker are clearly evident in their home. The beautiful garden is down to the dedication of Olive.