Two of their daughters, Christian Hansen and Diane Lacey, had travelled all the way from New Zealand to be with mum and dad for the occasion.

The couple had asked guests not to buy presents but instead make a donation to the Children's Hospice Association Scotland and a total of some £1,200 was realised.

Both are natives of the Peterhead area. Mr Thomson (80) was born at Udny and attended Blackhills Public School and Peterhead Academy.

He worked as a blacksmith and farrier with his father at Cowsrieve Smiddy for five years before joining the engineering staff of Grays, of Fetterangus, who made agricultural machinery.

He later moved to Fife, where he again worked as an agricultural engineer, and then took up a post as an engineer in Dundee. He joined the maintenance staff at Condor in 1967, retiring in 1993.

Mr Thomson is a long serving elder of Arbroath United Free Church and is a member of Arbroath Friendship Club.

His wife was born in Peterhead and attended St Peter's Episcopal Primary School there and Peterhead Academy.

When she left school she became a sales assistant with Jacks, a high class drapers and outfitters in the town where she remained until her marriage.

She and Sandy were married in South Church, Peterhead, on June 2, 1948. They came to Arbroath about 10 years later.

They have five daughters: Ann Burnett, Arbroath; Yolande Gordon, Arbroath; Victoria Russell, Spain; and Christian Hansen and Dianne Lacey, both New Zealand. There are 12 grandchildren and about 20 great-grandchildren.

Over the years, the couple have also been foster parents to an incredible 111 children.

Once the children were able to fend for themselves, Mrs Thomson took a post as manageress of Fair City Decorators, in Arbroath. She later managed the three local stores of the Army and Navy Stores, and later bought the Montrose outlet. She retired in 1990.

Mrs Thomson is a long-standing member of Arbroath Friendship Club and has just retired as president.