Cuminestown couple celebrate blue sapphire anniversary

Hardworking couple Harry and Margaret Finnie are celebrating a very special anniversary this week, 65 years after everyone insisted that they were too young to be getting married.

In the summer of 1954, aged just 17, Harry met Margaret at a marquee dance near New Deer and Harry popped the question on Christmas day in 1955.

The couple married on March 31 1956 in New Deer Parish Church.

They didn't have long to relish in their newly wedded bliss, however, as both of them returned to work at Eirne Lee farm near Haddo just three days after their wedding, with Harry on his tractor and Margaret working in the farm house.

Their lives have been dedicated to farming and Harry worked on his tractor at the Barnyards Of Delgaty and West Pitdoulzie (Auchterless) before moving to the family farm at Wellside near Cuminestown in 1960.

Here they lived and worked until 2014 when they took a step back from farm work and moved into a house that they built elsewhere on the farm.

Many hardworking years on the farm did not leave the couple much time for leisure activities but in recent years Harry has taken up a keen interest in rugby and enjoys watching Scotland play.

In addition to their farm work the couple also welcomed four girls into the world, and now also boast five grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

While Harry jokes that "a happy wife is a happy life" the couple attribute their marital success to hard work and plenty of home cooked food.

Current restrictions have put a stop to any planned celebrations but the couple plan to toast the occasion with a dram.

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