It was a case of We’ll Meet Again for a pair of sweethearts who were separated by the Second World War.

Now, 60 years on, Frank Walker, aged 88, and 86-year-old Maimie Meakin are enjoying a second bite of the cherry after rekindling their romance.

The pair thought their paths might never cross again, after being forced to go their separate ways in early 1945.

But true to the words of the Dame Vera Lynn classic, the happy couple are back together.

Glaswegian Mrs Meakin, who spent more than 50 years living near Walsall, went on a quest to track down Mr Walker, from Stockport, some time after the death of her husband Harold in 2002. “I knew everybody there and they all had their families but my family was scattered all around the place.”

Her thoughts turned to her first love Mr Walker, as curiosity prompted her to place an advert in a newspaper asking him to get in touch.

The pair had first met in Glasgow when Mrs Meakin was 19-years-old and Mr Walker had been posted there as a 21-year-old tailgunner in the RAF bombers. Romance blossomed and their thoughts turned to marriage.

Fearing there may be no future in it, Mrs Meakin’s mother advised her daughter not to pursue the romance and the pair separated. “I decided to trace him,” said Mrs Meakin. By coincidence, Mr Walker had also lost his wife around the same time.

The pair got in touch in 2005, first by letter and then by on the phone.

Mr Walker, who worked as a sign writer in Stockport after the war, said: “I did think about her all the time.”

Meeting up at Trentham Gardens, the attraction was still there.

“She was just the same,” said Mr Walker. “The spark was just there between us. It was her smile that first attracted me to her.”

And Mr Walker and Mrs Meakin, who have had six children between them are now sharing a new life together in Stockport, where thoughts have again turned to marriage.