Loving couple die within hours of each other after 72 years together and share coffin at funeral in Sheffield

Alan and June King were just 15 when they met at work and fell in love, and they remained smitten for more than seven decades. June sadly died on June 9 this year, aged 87, at Brookfield Nursing Home in Dronfield. Alan died the following day, around 21 hours later, at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, where he was being treated for cancer. He was also 87.

They were given the send-off they would have wanted at their joint funeral at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium on Thursday, December 8, lying side by side in the same coffin, holding hands as they had spent much of their lives doing.

Their son, Alan King, said: “Mum and dad were inseparable to the end. It was really fitting that they were able to share a coffin and hold hands one last time because they’d been together all their lives and were so happy together. I’d like to say how much they will be missed and how grateful I am for everything they did for me. After 87 years, for them to die within 21 hours of each other, I couldn’t believe it. The odds must be pretty astronomical.”

He told how they lived in Dronfield Woodhouse and met at the printing firm Arnold Biggins and Sons, where they both started working as teenagers. They tied the knot in 1959 after Alan had completed his three years of national service in Germany, and they had one child together. They lived in the same council flat in Dronfield Woodhouse for 63 years before declining health meant they were briefly separated towards the end of their lives.

Alan remained in the printing industry throughout his working life, while June had a number of jobs, including working at a canteen, an engineering firm and as a housekeeper. They shared a love of the Derbyshire countryside, enjoying many trips together to Chatsworth House and other beauty spots. They have asked for their ashes to be scattered at Shillito Woods, which was one of their favourite places.

Alan was the projectionist at Dronfield Picture House and a keen photographer, once selling a photo to the Daily Mirror of the tragic accident at Coniston Water in the Lake District which killed Donald Campbell as he tried to break the water speed record. He also represented Derbyshire at darts. June had severe mastoiditis as a child, which required surgery, and her son said her memory was affected for the rest of her life but she was ‘so funny’ and was always the ‘life and soul of any party’.

Their son, Alan, said he was grateful to Michael Fogg Family Funeral Directors for organising the funeral and suggesting that his parents could lie side by side in the same coffin, which he thought was a lovely touch.