FORMER Mayors of Westbury, John and Marion Clegg have just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.
John and Marion were married on 31st March 1956 at All Saints Church, Croxley Green, Herts. They moved to Westbury in 1978 with their four children, two boys and two girls. John was a Civil Engineer and Marion a Secretary working at Bowyers.
During their 38 years in Westbury, between them, they have clocked up 60 years of service to the people of the town and surrounding areas. John served 20 years on the town council as did Marion. They both served the town as Mayor on no fewer than four occasions, Marion 1990-1991 and 1991-1992 and John 1997-1998 and 2000-2001. Previously they had both served on the West Wilts District Council, John for eight years and Marion for 12 years, including a spell as Chairman.
During Marion’s spell as Mayor, in 1990, she noticed that, at the switching on of the Christmas lights, only two people from the public attended! She decided that children were the answer and by the following year the lights were switched on earlier to allow the children to come and, also, enlisted the help of the Lions and had Father Christmas arriving on the sleigh, dispensing sweets to all the children. This of course made it very successful. This is pretty much how it has continued ever since.
Marion and John have been very popular members of Probus for the last five years or so, attending on a regular basis.
On the 2nd April family celebrations took place at the family home in Wellhead Lane attended by some 26 family members.
The secret of a long marriage, according to John, was an agreement that if either of them left then that person would have to take the children! As neither of them wanted to do that (something about teenagers) they stayed together and when the children had all flown the nest, it was too late anyway! John had a big smile on his face as he related the tale!
