Historic wedding led to modern-day romance

Feb 14 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

Emma Pinch meets the couple who got married before they fell in love

THEIRS was a simple wartime wedding with gifts of home made sausages, a bower of land girls’ pitchforks, and a wealth of love to bind them.

Now the Forces sweethearts are set to waltz down the aisle again, as vigorous and passionate as twentysomethings, proving that love does keep you young.

Youth has had a hand in keeping them young as well.

For Paul Brennan, 24, from Huyton, and Jennie Howell, 21, from Birmingham, met through a World War II re-enactment society, fell in love and last autumn had starring roles in a wartime mock wedding.

And they’ve since become engaged for real.

“When we were saying ‘I do’ we had tears in our eyes, because it felt like a dry run of the real thing,” says Jenny, a receptionist at De La Salle School, in St Helens. “I was so nervous and he looked so handsome in his uniform. Just being with him felt right.”

Jennie decided to get involved in WW2 re-enactment after being infected by her brother’s enthus- iasm for the period, after he had been delving into his late grandfather’s exploits in Africa.

“I was quite shy and I needed to make a change and come out of myself a bit more,” she explains. “I like a man in uniform – and I thought I would get one myself.”

She chose the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the dedicated corps of women supporting the men behind the front line, and travelled to the Imperial War Museum in London to research them. “I liked their attitude,” she says. “They weren’t overskinny back then; they didn’t want so much as we do now. I think that’s quite cool.”

She found fairs around the country selling uniforms, and the first costume to catch her eye was a vintage 40s red dress. “I wanted to play the part of my brother’s cool sister who all the soldiers liked,” she reveals. “In real life, I don’t really do dresses and I can’t apply make-up to save my life, so the glamorous femme fatale look was quite exciting.”

She threw herself into her new hobby with gusto, soaking up as much detail about the period as she could at re-enactments, where mock battles with up to 1,000 combatants are staged.

She met Paul on a WW2 forum on the internet in July, 2006. She learned that he was a radio operator in a commando unit called the Jedburghs, which dropped into France to galvanise the resistance movement. At a Victory Show in Leicestershire the following month, she spotted her new friend at the NAAFI tent having a cup of tea. “Although I was with someone at the time, I did think Paul looked very nice in his uniform and we got on like a house on fire,” she remembers. “I liked his energy and his passion.”

Paul, a design engineer who has been re-enacting for eight years, recalls: “I was immediately taken by how beautiful she was in her picture on the internet, and she was a real laugh. She has a lot of energy and she’s really up for re-enactments, and I thought ‘this is someone I’d like to know’.”

Jennie’s confidence in herself blossomed each time she buttoned herself into her ATS uniform.

“It’s nice knowing I’ve got a hobby most people haven’t heard of,” she says. “Some people think I’m really weird dressing up in old clothes, and it does feel weird leaving the house and getting into the car, feeling them looking and thinking we are a bit mad, but that’s all part of the fun,” she laughs.

When her relationship ended five months later, Paul had become a good friend. “I was quite ill and I couldn’t eat,” she admits. “He gently encouraged me to eat again and brought me back to life. Paul gave me hope again.” At the next event in Derbyshire, clad in her favourite battle dress of serge, the two attended as sweethearts who had met at a dance. As an authentic WW2 love token, she presented him with an ATS diamante brooch.

“I bought it for £15. You gave it to your sweetheart and it showed people you had a loved one in the force.”

Jennie’s uniform was becoming more authentic as well. “I have a suspender belt issued by the ATS in pink. It comes up to the top of your hips, and most people found it uncomfortable, but I haven’t had a problem with it.

“I haven’t been brave enough to do the gravy browning line down the back of my legs, though. I wouldn’t be able to get it straight!”

Both agree that the timeless glamour of the period adds a soupcon of sizzle to their relationship.

“Back then, clothes were designed for curves, not for Size Six models like they are today,” says Paul. “You look at the clothes and fashion and they had a lot of shape to them, and that adds an extra dimension to the person who wears it.”

In June, 2007, the two staged their first mock wedding on the edge of the Severn Valley railway, in Worcestershire, during a re-enactment event. A vicar decked out in 40s apparel read their vows and a black marketeer bought them sausages. Land girls formed an arch with their pitchforks for the happy couple to walk under.

In real life, their romance was flourishing, too. On the top deck of a boat on a romantic evening cruise through Prague last September, Paul popped the question.

“It was very romantic and I impressed myself because I managed not to cry,” says Jennie. “There was no hesitation at all. But when we get married I want a modern wedding, so nobody feels left out. Some people do live their real lives like they’re in the 40s, but I think that’s a tad mad.”

Both agree that their hobby brings them closer together, and hope their common interest in the past will continue to bond them together through the future decades.

“It’s nice because, if you find out something that’s new while you’re researching you can tell the other person,” says Paul. “This time last year, I wouldn’t have thought I would have got knowledge on the women’s side of WW2, but I have and it’s interesting to look up and read about it.”

“It brings us closer together because it’s something we can share that we really enjoy doing,” adds Jennie. “It adds a touch more romance, and that does no harm at all.”

emma.pinch