Dorothy and Anthony's first home together

...St Peter's vicarage, Plough Road, Battersea

Dorothy and Anthony married at 8 am on Wednesday 17 January 1951 at St Peter’s Battersea in an almost secret ceremony attended by a few close family members and friends. They did not want to draw attention to themselves. They had previously been splashed across the sewer press : ‘Bachelor vicar and 19-year old choir girl half his age’. Nowadays, we read about married premiership footballers playing away from home, courtesy of kiss-and-sell sluts. Back then, vicar stories were good for selling the sewer. In my parents’ case, junk-journalists were alerted by an aggrieved ex-scoutmaster recently dismissed for fiddling with the boys.

Dorothy moved into the vicarage on Saturday 20 January 1951 after a brief honeymoon in Chichester before a longer honeymoon/holiday in the summer on a boat on the Thames in Oxfordshire. Dorothy and Anthony moved to St Dunstan Bellingham near Catford in February 1953.

The large, late Victorian church where they were married was burned down on Bonfire Night 1970. The tower stood for 24 more years before being knocked down: it was an unsafe structure.