A Ramsbury family celebrated double golden wedding anniversaries on Saturday, with one sister travelling more than 3,000 miles to join the festivities.

Anne Morrison, 82, married Prof Karl Morrison on August 29, 1964, at Holy Cross Church, Ramsbury.

They met while Prof Morrison, an American medieval history professor, was in Ramsbury to look at an old coin collection.

Four days after the couple wed, Mrs Morrison’s brother, Simon Blunt, 81, tied the knot with Julia Lampson at St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge, London.

Mrs Blunt, 77, met her husband at a mutual friend’s wedding in London but she had been friends with his younger sister, Judith, for many years before.

She said: “I thought he was incredibly nice and very good looking.”

Mr and Mrs Morrison moved to New Jersey shortly after they married but they flew over to England to celebrate the golden wedding anniversaries at Mr and Mrs Blunt’s home in Ramsbury Hill, which has belonged to the family since 1952.

Mr Blunt, who used to work for IBM, said: “It was a family dinner party – there were 11 of us and it was wonderful. We decided to keep it small because we had a big party last year for my birthday. I think we’ve had a wonderful life together, we used to go travelling a lot.”

Mrs Blunt had a career as an interior decorator and their daughter Amanda now runs the business in Wootton Rivers. Mrs Blunt believes that the secret to a long and happy marriage is a good sense of humour and hard work. She said: “He is one of the kindest people I know.”