The dazzling lights of Hull Fair hold extra sparkle for one couple this year as the event provides a fitting backdrop to their diamond wedding anniversary celebrations. Tom and Eunice Anderson had their first ever date at the fair – and their marriage was also held on the opening Saturday of Hull Fair, on October 8, 1966.
Tom said he and Eunice had fond recollections of the fair ever since, having accompanied their children and then grandchildren around the famous Walton Street fairground over the years. Tom, 84, said: “Eunice was only 15 when I met her.
“Our first date was at Hull Fair. We had our photo taken there.” It was a faltering start for the couple, who live off Pickering Road, because they finished soon afterwards.
It was only later when Tom and Eunice, now 80, who worked together at Cornelius Parish car dealership in Anlaby Road, got together again – when Eunice was engaged to another man. “She broke off her engagement for me,” Tom said, agreeing that fate must have intended them to be together.
“The Palace Theatre, in Anlaby Road, was a nightclub and I booked a table for four. It was for a friend of mine and his wife [who were accompanying them], and I said I’d asked Eunice out the night before, telling her I’d pick her up at 7pm tomorrow, not realising it was her 18th birthday that day.
“It worked out really, really well. It just went from there, really.
“We got married on October 8, 1966, which was the first day of Hull Fair. The wedding was at the Church of the Ascension in Priory Road in Hull.
“There was a cake and wine reception at the Wolds pub, in Wold Road, then it was back to the flat in Anlaby Road for a buffet for family and close friends.” Tom is originally from Folkestone and Eunice hails from Doncaster.
“I was about three or four when I was adopted and brought to Hull,” Tom said. “I only found out when I was 50 that I’d been adopted and that I’d had the name Garnham.
“Eunice’s mum and dad broke up and she came to live in Hull with her grandparents … so the Yorkshire lass met her man from Kent here.” After Tom found out about his early life, he discovered two brothers he never knew he had and “about 80 relatives” at a function he was invited to.
“The Christmas card list suddenly shot up.” Tom and Eunice have a son, 54, and a daughter, 50, and two grandsons aged 22 and 17 and a granddaughter aged 19.
The family were celebrating the diamond date for Tom and Eunice at Costello’s Bistro in Warners Health Club, Pickering Road, last night (Saturday, October 10). The couple both have health issues but “keep going”, said Tom.
“The photo we had taken on that first date at Hull Fair, for some strange reason, I never got rid of it,” Tom said. “It was only after we got married that I found it again.”
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