Local love birds, John and Sheila Court, recently celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary. The pair married on 1 July 1961 in a small Welsh village called Mumbles. They attended the same Church Junior School until they were 11-years-old. They went to separate grammar schools. John went on to study engineering, and Sheila joined the Swansea Borough Police Force as a female constable. She worked there until the birth of their first child, Peter, born in 1964.
In 1967 they went to Nigeria where John worked as a mechanical engineer for the Nigerian government. While there, Sheila worked as PA to the director of the Nigerian Institute for Trypanisomiasis. They were there for four years during the Biafran War, during which time their daughter, Susan, was born. Then it was back in Wales for six years after which there was a call to return to Africa.
In 1976, they returned and John took up a position as a plant engineer in Sasolburg for African Explosives and Chemical Industries (AECI). During a career of 22 years, with the company, John rose to general manager at Modderfontein and retired in 1998 as the general manager of AECI Umbogintwini, Chemical Complex. The charming couple has played badminton and golf together for years.
Sheila now enjoys bowling at Winkle Bowling Club, oil painting and sewing. John enjoys catching up on all the books he collected over the years and doing house maintenance. He also worked as a consulting engineer for five years at the Durban Water Department.
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