Anzac Day 2019: Tamworth war widow Ethel Clegg walks in her last Anzac Day parade

AGE did not weary war widow Ethel Clegg as she walked in her last Anzac Day parade in 2019.

With a sprig of rosemary held tight in her left hand and another pinned over her heart, the 95-year-old walked alone in Tamworth's Anzac Day march.

As she rounded the corner onto Fitzroy Street, crowds cheered and applauded Mrs Clegg who had fallen well behind the rest of the descendants of veterans in the parade.

It's the last time she will walk in honour of her late husband, Private Wilton John Gordon Clegg, a rat of Tobruk.

"I felt that he was here, I'm 95 and this will be my last march, so I'm going to march for him," she said.

The pair met at a dance at Kempsey Town Hall, Mr Clegg plucked up the courage to ask Ethel to dance.

"I said, 'No I can't do that!' because I couldn't dance properly," she said.

"We became friends and were together for 12 months while he was here, he said, 'When I come back from the war, if you're still single, I'm going to marry you.'

"And he did, as soon as he came back from the war he rang my mother up to see if I was still single, she said yes and he was on the next train here."

Read also:

That was it, the pair were inseparable.

On her wedding day Mrs Clegg wore a dress with 22 yards of material in it and another 11 in the veil.

Mr Clegg wore his army uniform, the pair were married at St John's Church and remained together for 79 years.

Want more local news? Subscribe to the Leader to read it here first