Diamond Wedding: Douglas and Gloria Wheeler (From Surrey Comet)

Diamond Wedding: Douglas and Gloria Wheeler

2:41pm Wednesday 23rd January 2008 in

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More than 50 wellwishers turned out to celebrate the diamond wedding of Douglas Wheeler and his wife Gloria at a mass in St Joseph's Church, New Malden, on Saturday, January 12.

The happy couple from Albenar Gardens, New Malden, were presented a Papal Nuncio from Pope Benedict XVI and written congratulations from the Queen before heading outside for a mass release of balloons to mark their special day.

Mr Wheeler, 82, met his future wife performing a daring escapade while working for the police force in Calcutta more than 60 years ago.

He said: "It was during the Muslim-Hindu riots in Calcutta. My wife's mother had a private school and across the road were some tailors who were forced to run across to the school and hide.

“I went in the middle of the night in a police jeep and took the tailors to safety and then started hanging around the place so I could see Gloria, and the rest is history.”

Douglas Wheeler

"She knew an ex-pupil who said he knew someone in the police who could help, so he came and told me and said there was a nice young girl there who I'd probably meet if I helped out.

"I went in the middle of the night in a police jeep and took the tailors to safety and then started hanging around the place so I could see Gloria, and the rest is history."

Mr Wheeler spent 28 years with the Calcutta police before moving to England and working at Scotland Yard for 20 years, while Mrs Wheeler taught at a private school for poor children before the couple left India.

Harking back to his wedding day at St Thomas' Church in Calcutta, Mr Wheeler remembered placing an open invitation on the police noticeboard and being overrun with people attending the ceremony.

He said: "There were so many people that you couldn't count them, it was packed."