Last updated 19:45, Thursday, 10 July 2008

A COUPLE who have given a lifetime of service to the Labour Party in the Workington area will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary tomorrow.

Jack and Theresa Fryer, of Trinity Drive, Northside, Workington, were the first couple to serve a full term as mayor and mayoress of Allerdale after the borough came into being in 1974.

Mr Fryer had served on the old Workington Borough Council, one of the councils which was incorporated into Allerdale, and served on the borough council until a few years ago which included a spell as leader of the Labour group on the authority.

The couple were married at Workington’s Our Lady and St Michael’s Church on July 12, 1958.

They had met a few years previously when Mr Fryer, a native of Bristol who joined the Merchant Navy at 20, was sent to Workington to join a ship. Looking for the town’s shipping office, he popped into Tognarelli’s cafe, where Theresa was working, to ask the way. Later, they met up again at a dance.

After leaving the Merchant Navy in 1960, Mr Fryer worked for Albright and Wilson at Whitehaven for 31 years before retiring in 1992.

Mrs Fryer, nee Stagg, was brought up in Workington, first at Cloffocks View and later at Elterwater Avenue.

She worked at Tognarelli’s until she married, and was later steward of the town’s Labour Club for more than 20 years. She is still closely involved with the church where she was married, as a eucharistic minister.

Mr and Mrs Fryer, aged 78 and 71, have four sons, Paul, Mark - himself a former Allerdale council leader - John and Steven, all of whom live locally, and 11 grandchildren.

They marked their anniversary with a family party in the Tithe Barn at Cockermouth.