A COUPLE who escaped a German V2 rocket on their wedding day are celebrating their diamond anniversary today.
Betty and Alwyn Wragg, 83, of Highburton, were due to marry at Bowes Park Methodist Church in Palmers Green, north London, when a V2 landed on the nearby glassworks.
The rocket was among the first wave of V2 attacks on the capital.
The explosions were officially classified as gas blasts, to confuse the Germans.
"It was about 8am and we heard an awful bang," said Mrs Wragg.
"There were pieces of rocket that landed in the street where my family lived.
"My father took bits of it to the police station."
Mr Wragg, from Sheffield, said: "My family were scared about coming down in the first place.
"Then there was this incident at the Southgate Glass and Bottleworks.
"But being Yorkshire people they did not let a bomb stop them from going into London afterwards!"
The marriage ceremony went ahead safely in the afternoon.
The couple, of Woodland Meadows, met during the Second World War at RAF Mepal, a bomber station near Ely in Cambridgeshire.
Mrs Wragg was a nursing orderly and her husband was an ambulance driver on loan from nearby RAF Witchford.
After the war, the couple settled in London.
Mr Wragg was a mechanic before going on to teach the trade at colleges in Enfield and Luton.
Mrs Wragg went on to become an infant school teacher in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, for 22 years.
She was also involved in the Guide and Brownie movement for 32 years and was a division commissioner in Dunstable.
Mrs Wragg also helped her daughter, Barbara Thornton, to run the Highburton Brownie pack, when she and her husband moved to Huddersfield after their retirements.
They have two children and four grandchildren and celebrated their anniversary with a party at the Carlton Club, Kirkburton.
The couple were celebrating today with a meal at home with members of the Salvation Army Silver Threads group.
