FIREFIGHTERS formed a guard of honour when a colleague got married.

Colleagues of retained and Romsey’s longest serving firefighter, Gary Hounsome, gathered outside the White Horse Hotel where he tied the knot with Jane Harris, a travel counsellor who works from home.

Jane arrived at the hotel in a 1960 Porsche. The couple met while out with their friends on April 24 1998 and they married exactly 17 years to the day.

Their romance began on the eve of Jane moving from the Romsey area to Wales.

But they kept their long distance romance going by telephone and after a time London-born Jane returned to Romsey.

Before coming to Romsey originally, Jane had lived on the Greek island, Corfu.

Gary, who is a builder, has lived in Romsey most of his life and has been a serving firefighter in the town for nearly 33 years. They have five children – Mitchell, Yiannis, Georgina, Ashleigh and Milan.

The newlyweds chose the Maldives for their honeymoon.