NO EXTRAVAGANCE was spared for former headteacher John Veysey and wife Sheila's golden wedding celebrations when they were whisked off to an anniversary soiree in a stretch limousine.

And the party, which was held last Friday, was just the beginning for the golden couple who are now looking forward to a Mediterranean cruise in September to celebrate the milestone.

The couple met at Rickmansworth Baptist Church Youth Club in 1949 after Mr Veysey was demobbed from the British Forces. They later married in the same church on August 22, 1953.

Mr Veysey's teaching career brought the family to High Wycombe in 1967 when Mr Veysey took up his post as headteacher of King's Wood Middle School, Totteridge.

Mrs Veysey joined her husband at the school in Totteridge for a few years where she was school secretary until she took up the position of welfare assistant at Hughenden First School where she worked until her retirement in 1991. Mr Veysey retired in 1990.

The couple moved from their Hughenden Valley home of 34 years to Main Road, Naphill, in 2001.

And despite juggling work with a busy home life, three children and seven grandchildren, the pair still managed to find time for their community.

Mr Veysey paid his own tribute to the Union Baptist Church, High Wycombe, of which they are both members, by writing a book on the church's history.

He is also well known in Hughenden for his tireless work with the Hughenden Village Hall Committee, the village's allotment and garden association and the scouts while his wife was secretary of the Multiple Sclerosis Society's Wycombe Branch in between volunteering with Wycombe Hospital and bouts on stage with Hughenden Theatre Group.