A Malmesbury couple who met while dropping supplies over Afghanistan from a Hercules aircraft have started an art business.

Alex and Jake Hamilton-Burnet met when they were posted to RAF Lyneham.

Mrs Hamilton-Burnet, as navigator on the C17s, would identify where to drop supplies while Mr Hamilton-Burnet, as loadmaster, made the drop.

Now Mrs Hamilton-Burnet, 40, has retired after 16 years with the RAF to look after the couple’s four-year-old daughter India.

She is also running a business set up to sell pen and ink drawings made by her husband in a bid to relax from his stressful job.

She said: “Jake does the repatriations and doing the artwork is his way of relaxing.

“It was originally a hobby but lots of family and friends asked him to do pictures of their houses or the churches where they got married and it went on from there.”

She added: “Each picture takes 12 hours to complete, usually spread over a few days.

“Jake sketches the outline in pencil from photographs and then finishes the picture in ink.”

Mr Hamilton-Burnet learned architectural drawing while serving in the Army, before he joined the RAF.

His work, which includes many famous Malmesbury landmarks, is now displayed at the Summer Café in Malmesbury High Street.

Mrs Hamilton-Burnet said: “We really just want to find out whether it is something we can do full time once Jake retires in two years.

“I’ve never sold anything before and at the moment I’m trying to get the pictures displayed in galleries and small trade shows.

“So far the response has been very positive.”

The pictures can be viewed and bought from the couple’s website www.hamilton-burnet-art.com