Is this the longest marriage in the Black Country?

King George VI was on the throne when they wed in 1939, and, except from wartime when Harry was away with the RAF they have barely spent time apart.

And the secret of their success is simple – never go to bed on an argument.

The couple first met in 1938, with the help of the milkman.

Mrs Hingley said: "I went out with a friend and we were supposed to be going ballroom dancing. We ended up going to the pub instead which was run by Harry's aunt.

"We didn't meet there but Harry noticed me and he found out where I lived from the man who delivered the milk and he turned up on my doorstep a few days later."

The couple married on November 4, 1939 at St John's Church in Brierley Hill.

Mrs Hingley said: "He wasn't much of a drinker but I remember he came home one day a bit drunk - me and my mother shuffled him off to bed and when he woke up later the first thing he said to me was 'let's get married'."

The wedding was a small affair according to Mrs Hingley.

"In those days only people with a lot of money could afford to have big weddings," she said. "I had a new outfit and Harry had a new suit and that was it."

Mr Hingley served in the RAF and was deployed to France two days after the D-Day Landings in 1944. He repaired aircraft and followed the Allied forces to Copenhagen.

Mr Hingley said he also saw inside the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. He took a picture with a camera but was not allowed to keep it.

When he returned to the UK after the war ended he established his own building firm which he ran until he was 60, when he was forced to close due to heart problems made worse by a burglary the couple suffered around thirty years ago.

And up until around eight years ago Mr Hingley was also the secretary of the Midland Counties Entertainment Council, where he gave several entertainers their big break, including Lenny Henry and even the Krankies.

The couple had their eldest daughter Patricia, now 73, in 1942, and second eldest daughter Greta, now 70, followed in 1944.

The couple's only son Robert, now 68, was born in 1946.

Their family has grown and now has over five generations, with six grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren and four great great grandchildren.

To celebrate the couple held an open house for family and friends.

The couple said after they retired they enjoyed travelling and enjoyed holidaying in Benidorm in Spain in the late 60s before it became a holiday hotspot.

Mrs Hingley said: "We both retired at 60 because that is what you did then, they did not make you work for so long like they do now.

"We used to love our holidays and went to Benidorm when there was just a few hotels and a shed on the beach where you would get your drinks and that was it.

"We also had a caravan in Spain and we used to go there quite a lot."

At 75 years, the pair are amongst the longest married couples in the Black Country, if not the entire country.

"It doesn't at all seem like 75 years," Mrs Hingley said. "It only feels like yesterday. My mother was a very wise woman and she told me that you never go to bed without settling an argument, that is why we are still together.

"We have had a good life. We've had some ups and downs but some good times, we can't grumble."

Mr Hingley said: "I don't think there is a secret really., just sorting your problems out amongst yourselves.

"You just have to love one another. We have never been apart and I have never been off on my own, and if you love each other you will want to spend all your time together."

The couple said they like to keep busy and still go out to visit the clubs that Mr Hingley used to provide the acts for, although they admit they need their children to help them about.

The Hingleys' eldest daughter, Patricia Didlock, said: "I think it is absolutely wonderful. You don't hear about a 75th wedding anniversary that often and I am not even sure what they use to mark it.

"Not too many couples reach it. They were both young when they met and they have done well to get to 93 and still be married.

"I think it is marvellous."