The secret to a long life is sherry and the secret behind a long marriage is patience.

That is according to a couple who celebrate their 78th wedding anniversary, 100th and 101st birthdays, all this month.

Frank, 100, and Gwen Turner, 99, are one of Britain’s oldest married couples and share a double room in Grace Lodge care home, Hinchley Wood, having never been separated.

On each of their bedside tables sits an empty glass of sherry, which they drink every morning, describing it as “their medicine” and in the drawers lie black and white photo memories of days gone by.

The pair first laid eyes on each other at Speakers’ Corner when Mrs Turner was an innocent 17-year-old, scared to kiss him because she thought she would have a baby if she did.

He introduced himself, walked her home, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, 78 years after getting married in Bayswater they are still happy together, with one son Johnny and grandson Mark.

Mr Turner said: “We’ve never had any arguments, I don’t believe in it, and we always did everything together.

“It’s all about patience, and give and take. Life’s too short to argue.”

After getting married, Mr and Mrs Turner lived in Tolworth, where they remained until they moved into the care home in 2008.

In their younger days, they would spend their days cycling, or holidaying in their caravan near Arundel Castle and almost every Saturday evening would be spent dancing at a civil service centre in Tolworth.

Sometimes the whole family would join them, including Mrs Turner’s sister Rene, who married Mr Turner’s brother George – making a family foursome.

The siblings grew close before Mr and Mrs Turner married, when Mrs Turner’s mother said her daughter could only holiday with Mr Turner if his two brothers and her two sisters accompanied the pair.

Mr and Mrs Turner were from different sides of the track.

He had two jobs before even starting school, including a job as a paper boy, and as a general hand cleaning grates, while Mrs Turner, whose father was Eisenhower’s personal driver during the war, went to finishing school.

Mr Turner said: “She was the one of the fastest shorthand typists around. I used to meet her at work to walk her home, and I’d listen to her typing away from outside.”

Despite their differences, Mr Turner was welcomed in to the family with open arms, and when his mother died aged 50, Mrs Turner’s mother stepped in to fill the void.

Mr Turner said: “Her mum was a good mum to me.”

Mrs Turner gave birth to their son Johnny at Kingston Hospital, and worked for an accountant in Regent Street throughout the pregnancy.

One time, while heavily pregnant, she was grabbed off the street in to Austin Reed when the air raid sirens went off, and was covered in cushions in case a bomb hit.

Kingston’s maternity ward told her they would throw pillows over her head if the sirens went off, but she was safe there.

Mr Turner visited Johnny in hospital when on 48-hour leave from the RAF, where he finished a corporal.

He made an impression, because one nurse chatted him up and asked him to a dance, which he politely declined.

Lopa Thakur of Grace Lodge said: “They are such a lovely couple, and the fact they are still together is so nice, and very unusual in a care home.

“They are both very well. Frank’s memory is better than mine, and Gwen’s hearing is going, but she has amazing skin and still looks beautiful.”