They met, they fell in love and then they graduated.

The University of Nottingham has played a special part in many hundreds of students’ lives by bringing them together as couples during their time here.

And at a special event in September, around 25 couples came back to where it all began to celebrate an inaugural alumni event called From Nottingham With Love…

(Cue theme tune from Franco Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet… )

Pat and Dick Bond from Devon met at the University ‘hop’ in Christmas 1954. They were never an item but were photographed together outside the Great Hall.

Karnival director Dick graduated in Economics in 1956 and Pat, a hockey player and athletics star, a year later with a Maths degree. Both went their separate ways and lost touch

Dick went on to do National Service in the Royal Army Pay Corps and later got a job with IBM.

Pat married, moved to Birmingham, had three children, adopted another and returned to full-time work in adult education, later working overseas.

Half a century later and with lives lived to the full, Pat and Dick both found themselves single.

Dick, now retired, traced Pat through Friends Reunited and the couple met up again, taking two trips abroad before deciding to get married.

In August 2010, the couple returned to Nottingham, where it had all begun, for a registry office wedding and a trip back to the Great Hall at the University for a ‘repeat photo’.

And last month, the Bonds came back to the Helmsley Restaurant at the University Staff Club to celebrate their University love with other couples.

Pat said: “It was an extremely enjoyable weekend. Although we didn’t find any exact contemporaries, we discovered so many fascinating couples to talk to. It was a joy to be part of it.”

The guests enjoyed a walk round the University parks and gardens and heard a presentation on the subject of the love lives of the romantic period novelists from Professor Lynda Pratt of the School of English Studies. Afterwards they were treated to tea and cupcakes while they all enjoyed chatting.