A HUSBAND and wife, believed by their family to be the first mixed-race couple in Long Eaton, will today celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary.

George Leigh, born in Jamaica, and Dorothy Leigh endured years of intolerance after tying the knot 60 years ago.

Nearly 200 curious people turned up outside the register office in Ilkeston when they married in 1949, forcing police to dispel the crowds.

The pair also faced hostility when applying for a council house, with other budding tenants claiming they did not have the same rights to a home.

But Mrs Leigh, 82, said their diamond anniversary was the perfect way to forget the past. She said: "It would have been nice if people had been more tolerant. Life was difficult.

"We had some nasty little incidents but there have been a lot of changes in the world since then, for which I'm grateful.

"We've taken the rough with the smooth and always stood by each other, so our marriage has always been very happy."

The couple, of Bracken Close, first met in 1947 at Long Eaton's Rialto Ballroom.

Mr Leigh, 80, who came to England as a member of the Royal Air Force, said they were dancing in the same part of the room when his future wife fell over. He said: "I picked her up and we just carried on dancing and, from that moment, we stayed together. I think she liked my uniform. I was demobilised from the RAF in October 1948 and that's when we decided to get married.

"Hardly anyone was outside the registry office when we went in to get married but we felt like film stars when we came out because so many people were there.

"Except for my best man, everyone else at the wedding was English, so it must have been a real surprise to people.

"But I was too busy living down the shame after forgetting the wedding ring – Dorothy had to wear her sister's ring and I've never lived it down."

They spent several years living in the Long Eaton house of Mrs Leigh's father, before moving to Draycott and then back to the Long Eaton house in which they have spent 55 years.

Mr Leigh was a welder and spent several years at Celanese, in Spondon. He also helped found Derby West Indian Community Centre, in Carrington Street. After a short spell at a Long Eaton factory making uniforms, Mrs Leigh went on to work for 14 years as a kitchen supervisor at the town's Harrington Junior School.

The pair have two daughters, Jacqui, 55, and Cheryl, 49, and two grandchildren, Alex, 26, and Gina, 23.

Mr Leigh said: "The war brought us together and it seems like fate."

They will celebrate with a family meal tonight.