Celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary in 1990, Henri and Violet Mayoux of Ontario, Canada, represent a bygone era that we’ll never know the like of. In their day, marriage was for keeps. But since the 1960s the divorce rate has skyrocketed around the world. Today, the UK leads Europe in the divorce stakes, with two out of five marriages ending in court.

Notwithstanding a flurry of marriages since last month’s terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the general trend has been a nose dive since the 1960s. The mini surge is a kind of carpe diem response: live for today; tomorrow may never come.

After the First and Second World Wars, there was a marked increase in the number of couples getting married. Somewhere, there’s bound to be a research student planning a study looking at how long the post-September 11 relationships will last.

But in 1930, which is when the Mayouxs exchanged their vows, most people married young and stayed married. Today they wouldn’t have a chance: the younger you marry, figures show, the more likely you are to divorce. But a new report funded by Economic and Social Research finds that young people today prefer to wait until they are older, to give relationships a better chance of success. They believe having an education, a career and financial stability offer sound foundations to a long-term commitment.

Looking at the social conditions in which the Mayouxs started married life, their conjugal longevity seems even more amazing. When they got married, chances are they had to share a house with the in-laws until the groom earned enough to rent a place. The Marriage Bar, introduced in order to get more men back into work after the First World War, prevented many women from working after marriage. Only about a tenth of wives were in employment in the 1930s.

Being a working-class housewife in 1930 was a grind - a constant round of cleaning, looking after children, cooking and washing and, during the war, managing food that was rationed.

But, while life was hard, people looked out for each other. Family support networks were strong and relatives tended to live near each other. Communities were cohesive, too, with neighbours keeping an eye on each other’s children and caring for the sick and elderly. Expectations of married life were different from today. Divorce wasn’t commonplace and neither was equality between the sexes. But, according to scientists, married couples live longer. C’est la vie, say the old folks.

Reva Klein. Photograph by Ricardo Ordonez

Weblinks

Sex and the elderly: www.umkc.edusiteshswage UK divorce rates: http:news.bbc.co.ukhienglishuknewsid_692000692150.stm Senior health: www.intelihealth.comIHihtIHWSAOL0022203011127.htmlTeaching about divorce: www. learn.co.ukgleamingsecondarytopicalks4divorceteachers.htm This photograph can be found in Love: a celebration of humanity (Headline pound;30), a selection of pictures from the Milk (Moments, Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship) collection and photographic exhibition, sponsored by W HSmith, showing at the Science Museum, London, until November 18, admission free