Till death us do part: The couple who died within a week of each other

Bert and Mary Barnsley at a family event in Halesowen, England thought to be around 4 years ago. Credit: SWNS

A couple who died a week apart from one another after 71 years of marriage have been laid to rest.

Mary and Bert Barnsley, both 93, were devoted to each other and when Bert died on 18th March this year, his devastated wife and soul-mate followed a week later, dying of what friends and family called a broken heart. Remarkably the pair died at exactly the same time, only seven days apart.

They were married on Christmas Day 1943 - the only day Bert, a structural engineer, could get off work - at Holy Trinity Church in Cradley, West Midlands. On their wedding day they were unable to ring the church bells as they were only allowed to be used to signal an air raid.

The couple on their wedding day in 1943. Credit: SWNS

But at their funeral, held at the same church over 70 years later, the bells were finally rung in memory of the couple.