60 years of wedded bliss.

HAPPY couple Gordon and Vi Bagier are celebrating sixty years of wedded bliss.

The pair, who married on September 3, 1949, are holding a party today to mark their diamond anniversary.

Former Sunderland South MP Gordon, 85, met his future bride Vi, 83, at a dance in Gilsland, Northumberland, in 1947.

He was working as a signalman on the railways after being demobbed from the Army, while Vi, who is originally from Edinburgh, was working as a waitress during the summer.

"We met at a dance, and we still love to dance to this day," said Gordon, who now lives at Whaggs Lane, Whickham, Gateshead.

"I met Vi in the summer of 1947, and I chased her back up to Edinburgh when she went home," he said. "Two years later, we married."

Before meeting his sweetheart, Gordon had fought in the Arctic Star convoy, delivering supplies and munitions to Russia during the Second World War. In 2007 Gordon was awarded a longoverdue medal for his bravery in the danger-fraught missions, which claimed 153 lives.

Gordon was elected as Labour MP for Sunderland South in 1964. He served the constituency for 15 years, retiring in 1987.

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