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Ted Cowling celebrated his 90 birthday recently with a special party for 100 guests at the Pheasant Inn, Admaston. Ted has lived a full and varied life. “Two years ago my late wife and I won the Most Romantic Couple in Britain award. And last year I was invited to attend a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace by the Queen.”

Ted tells the story of how he met his wife. “I had taken off one dreary and dark February night in 1945 to do a weather test with the station medical officer as my passenger, when my starboard engine packed in. As I was only 50 feet above the runway, I had difficulty seeing the runway due to trees, so I had to use the R.T. to communicate with the tower. I switched my navigation lights on and the young lady who was the R.T. operator was able to talk me back on to the flare path. She enabled me to make a perfect landing.

“I went to the control tower to personally thank the person who had saved my life. I looked at her and thought: ‘by jingo, what a beautiful young lady!’ We met for coffee the next day. She accepted my invitation to dinner and on 12 July, we married.”

In recent years Ted has devoted much of his time to raising money for various charities, including the Severn Hospice, Princess Royal Hospital and the Eden Valley in Cumbria. In total over £55,000.