WHEN childhood sweethearts James and Mina Lownie tied the knot, the Second World War had just broken out.

WHEN childhood sweethearts James and Mina Lownie tied the knot, the Second World War had just broken out.

But the couple had met as eight-year-olds four years before Adolf Hitler had even risen to power.

Now aged 93 and 92, the Lownies - who have never spent a day apart since the war - have just celebrated 75 years of marriage - and more than 85 years as best friends.

They also ran a fish selling business together for 50 years.

It is a love story that began at a small school in the fishing village of Gourdon, Aberdeenshire, when Mr Lownie, an only child, gave his future wife a go on his new bicycle.

Mr Lownie, who was part of a Naval operation which successfully rescued 246 troops from the notorious beaches at Dunkirk in 1940, said: "We lived in the same village and were at school together and I fancied her straight away. She couldn't get away from me.

"I got a new bike. It cost my mum £4.50, and she paid it by instalments. It was hard times back then and Mina was the only one who got a shot - and she hit a wall.

"I didn't say much - I was frightened to lose her. But, anyway, it wasn't badly damaged."

Mrs Lownie, who will be 93 on Christmas Eve, said: "He was very good natured."

The couple both left school at 14, when the weekly wage was just 10 shillings a weeks, or 50 pence.

They courted from then until they married in a small ceremony in an Aberdeen registry office when they were just 18.

Times were hard and they were never formally engaged, nor did they have an official photograph taken of their special day.

But Mr Lownie said they had "done well" and put the success of their marriage down to "patience and perseverance".

Mrs Lownie added: "There was no secret, we just got on with it."

But she joked: "I think the perseverance was on his side."

Just weeks after they married, Mr Lownie signed up with the Royal Naval Reserves, which saw him take part in active duty across the world, including the rescue of 246 British soldiers from Dunkirk in 1940 and the allied invasion of North Africa in 1942.

Mr Lownie said: "We were newly married and my wage in the Navy was three shillings a day - two to the wife and one for me."

He was finally demobbed in January 1946 and he met his son, Edward, for the first time when he was 20 months old.

Following the war, Mr Lownie briefly worked digging drains for the prefab houses in and around the community where he grew up - travelling on the same bike he had shared with his wife as a child.

The Lownies then set up their own fish business, which they run together for 50 years.