A COUPLE of weeks ago Mrs Lynn Beck, of Hollinhurst Drive, Lostock, wrote to ask if anyone remembered in the early 1960s a Bolton vicar conducting the marriage ceremony for film stars Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
Well, without knowing a name I could not find any cuttings of the event. Then Mrs Gwyneth Tench, of Chorley New Road Horwich rang to say that the person involved was the Rev. Leonard Mason, of the Ainsworth Unitarian Church.
So with that clue, I looked in the Evening News' library, and came up with the goods.
The story appeared in March, 1964, when the heading was "Local man weds Liz and Burton. Ceremony in hotel room".
And the story read: "The man who conducted the wedding of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in a Montreal hotel room yesterday was Unitarian Minister, the Rev. Leonard Mason, of Ainsworth, near Bury. On learning that today, his brother, Mr Irving Mason, sat down in his council semi in Thompson-ave, Ainsworth and said 'I'm amazed, flabbergasted.
"He continued: 'Our Len marrying her. I can hardly believe it. Mind you, he's not the type who would refuse just because she's been married four times before'."
At the time, Liz Taylor was 32, having just divorced Eddie Fisher. Richard Burton was 38, divorced by his first wife the previous December.
The Rev Mason was born at Meadow Cottage, Ainsworth, went to Manchester University and Harvard University in America before he was ordained. He served at chapels in Bethnal Green, Norwich and Leicester before going to Montreal in 1960. However, we have no further details of what happened to the Rev Mason later than 1964.
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