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- When David left school he worked in the Chemistry Laboratory at Richard Thomas and Baldwins Steelworks in Ebbw Vale. He left there to join the Royal Marines in 1956. On the 20th. August 1960 David was on leave and visiting his mother in 27 Pennant Street, ebbw Vale and on Saturday night of the 20th. August 1960 he went to the dance at the drill hall, David had been to the pub before going to the dance as the Drill Hall was alcohol free and like a lot of men needed some dutch courage to approach girls for a dance. David asked Joyce for a dance and they had a couple of dances together and then for the last waltz they danced for the last time that night. David walked Joyce home and arranged to see Joyce the following morning as he had to return to the Royal Marine Barracks, Eastney in Portsmouth that Sunday evening. This was the start of a blossoming romance which culminated in David and Joyce getting married at Christ Church, Ebbw Vale, in December 1961. The happy couple went on honeymoon to Cornwall and then to Torquay in Devon for an Idyllic two weeks. They then collected their belongings and moved down to Portsmouth together, renting a "Flat" with a shared bathroom at Francis Avenue in Southsea. This proved to be a problematical arrangement because the landlady in Joyces's words "was a very unpleasant person". Joyce found work with Vosepr Thornycrofts' shipyard, working in their drawing office as a tracer, a job she had done at RTB's in Ebbw Vale before her marriage. Joyce, one day, was taken ill at work and sent home to recover. When Joyce arrived at the flat she opened the living room door and found the landlady and the Landlady's aunt nosing through their belongings. When David found out he arranged a move to rooms at Winstanley Road, Northend in Portsmouth with a lovely landlady and her husband who were in their late sixties, a Mr and Mrs Waites. He was disabled following the removal of a lung after a T.B. infection. They were very kind to David and Joyce, a far cry from their previous miserable landlady.
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1937 - 2004 (67 years)
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