A BRITISH couple born on the same day at the same hospital have tied the knot in a touching ceremony 50 years later.

    Alison Blackwell and James Hodges say they were “destined to be together” after being cradled in their mothers arms just meters apart at the Berkeley Hospital in Gloucestershire.

    The pair were in the same class at Cam Hopton Primary School, where they were pictured just feet apart on their official school photo.

    They lost contact after James moved school aged 8 but found each other online when he sent a light-hearted message to ask Alison the date of her birthday.

    Alison’s mother Isabel Denning gave birth on the same day as James’ mother Linda Hodges, on Feb. 3, 1967, before she passed away eight years later.

    A wool machinist, James moved away when his father remarried following his mother’s death, and they occasionally bumped into each other a few times over the years, politely saying hello.

    Mother-of-two, Alison got married when she was 21, but divorced 10 years later.

    The schoolmates reconnected via Friends Reunited and then through Facebook before they finally organized to meet up just after Christmas in 2012.

    “He said hi and asked me when my birthday was — obviously knowing full well when it was,” said Alison.

    “We arranged to meet a few days after Christmas and then started seeing each other soon after. We’ve been together ever since.”

    Four years later the pair tied the knot — the day after their 50th birthdays — in front of their former classmates.

    James popped the question in September 2015 while the pair were on holiday in Devon and they married at Cam Methodist Church on Feb. 4.

    At the touching ceremony, their teacher presented them with an old class photo.

    Alison, a pub manager, said, “People say it’s destiny that we ended up together because we have so many connections.

    “It is absolutely destined to be.

    “James hasn’t stopped grinning since the wedding.”

    James added, “People ask when we met and when we say ‘on the day we were born,’ they are shocked.

    “We could have been in beds next to each other — we really don’t know,” said Alison.

    They both joined Cam Hopton Primary School in Dursley, Gloucestershire, at the age of 4, and Alison said her first memory of James was as a “round faced little boy.”

    James added, “I just remember her really kind smile. That always stayed with me —and it’s still the same today.”(SD-Agencies)