Couple reunited after 57 years with lost wedding film

A husband and wife in Australia have been reunited with long-lost footage of their wedding in Scotland after it was found by chance 57 years later.

Aileen and Bill Turnbull married in Aberdeen in 1967 and later emigrated – but without the film.

The footage was found when an old cinema film was transferred to DVD for a man in Aberdeen. He posted an image of it on social media and the Brisbane couple later recognized themselves.

After re-watching the film – which she had only seen once before – Ms Turnbull told BBC Scotland News it was an “absolutely amazing” feeling.

The couple married in August 1967 at Mastrick Church in Aberdeen.

They were filmed leaving the church with equipment borrowed from a colleague.

They then borrowed a projector to watch it, but returned it without realizing the film was still there, and couldn’t figure out where it had gone.

They emigrated to Australia in 1981, where they are now grandparents, both aged 77.

Fast forward to April this year, and in Aberdeen Terry Cheyne was getting old footage he had filmed transferred to DVD.

When he looked back, there were wedding images he knew nothing about.

Mr Cheyne posted a still image taken from the happy couple’s recording on a Facebook page, but it was almost six months before a shocked Mrs Turnbull came across the photo.

“It was absolutely amazing, I couldn’t believe it,” Mrs Turnbull told BBC Scotland News.

“I was looking on Facebook and came across this wedding photo. My husband was sitting here, I turned to him and said, ‘there’s our wedding photo.’

“I messaged Terry and it just grew from there. His uncle was the guy we borrowed the projector from to see the movie after the wedding. He worked with my husband.

“We returned the projector, and unbeknownst to us the film was still in the projector. We just found out now.

“We looked at it once but couldn’t find it again and didn’t know what had happened to it. It must have been mixed up with something and it just turned up now. That’s when Terry decided to try and track this couple down.”

Mr Cheyne was able to send them a link so they could view the footage – and it brought back some special memories.

“It just seems strange to me to see my mother and my father, not just in a photo, but actually moving and walking,” Ms Turnbull explained.

“And my husband saw his grandmother and his grandfather, who was 100 when he died.

“I looked at it again today, I could still recognize everyone.

“To look back and see these people was just absolutely amazing – I still can’t really believe it.

“I was just saying to my neighbors, we have our wedding album and the majority of the people in it have passed away. So seeing the film was just surreal. A few of them are still with us.”

She said filming part of their wedding – the footage lasts less than three minutes – was “probably very unusual” at the time.

“Terry sent me the link so we could see it here, it was just so surreal.”

Mr Cheyne said he was in the Royal Navy and had a lot of film footage of him.

“When I got home I gave it to my uncle, he kept them safe for me,” he said.

“One day he decided he was moving, so I found my movies. I kept them in my attic for a long time. And then I decided to transfer them to DVD because I didn’t have a projector.

“The first film on the DVD was a mysterious unknown film to me. It was obviously a wedding, at Mastrick Church. I watched it many times, I didn’t know anyone.”

He posted a photo on a Facebook page, but when someone shared it on another page, Mrs Turnbull saw it.

“I waited almost six months, and then Aileen said ‘that’s us,’” he said.

“When she told me she had only seen it once in 57 years, it was a truly joyful moment.”

He hopes to actually meet the couple if they can come to Aberdeen on holiday.

“I’m glad I was able to help Aileen and Bill,” Mr Cheyne said. “They are delighted 57 years later. A very happy ending.”