The Extraordinary Wedding of Olive Crofts and Ray New

My mum, Olive Crofts, was a WAAF stationed at Longleat on Lord Bath's Estate in Wiltshire and my dad, Ray New, was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. Dad was from the Isle of Wight and, although my mum had been raised in Winchester, she too was living on the Isle of Wight. They had met when my mum was singing to the troops before she joined the WAAF.

They got engaged on her 21st birthday, 13 March 1944, with a plan to marry after the war was over. However, my dad got his orders for the D-Day landings and they decided to bring their wedding forward and got a special license to marry on 22nd May 1944, knowing that they may never see each other again.

My mum's commanding officer asked her what she planned to wear, and she replied that she had a powder blue two-piece suit she had managed to buy second hand. Her CO told her that she could wear a wedding dress that had been sent to the serving forces brides by wealthy American ladies. It turned out my mum's dress had been provided by the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. The only condition was that the dress was cleaned on its return to the HQ and my mum had the privilege of being the first bride to wear it.

The dress was stunning, and my mum looked like a fairy tale princess. They were married at the parish church in Warminster surrounded by friends and family who were able to attend. And, because there was an American base, also stationed at Longleat, and the connection of the dress with their president's wife, they kindly provided a wedding breakfast for the occasion.

My dad left a few days later to join his regiment and was involved on the 2nd wave of the D-Day landings. Thankfully, he returned, and, after the war, they settled down to married life and raised six children. They celebrated almost seventy years of marriage before my dad died at the grand old age of 92.