1969 Paul McCartney weds Linda Eastman

Paul McCartney has married Linda Eastman in a civil ceremony in London.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Marylebone Register Office to catch a glimpse of the couple as they arrived with Miss Eastman’s six-year-old daughter, Heather, from a previous marriage.

A dozen policemen were on hand to fend off enthusiastic teenagers, many of whom were distraught that the last remaining bachelor Beatle was tying the knot.

The couple entered the building via a side-door to the disappointment of many of the crowds.

Miss Eastman, 27, was wearing a daffodil yellow coat over a fawn dress, while 26-year-old Mr McCartney was sporting a matching yellow tie.

The ceremony was delayed because the best man, Mr McCartney’s brother Mike McGear of the Scaffold pop group, arrived late.

He had been travelling from Birmingham where he had been performing the night before when his train became delayed.

After the ceremony the newly-weds were ushered through the crowds into a waiting car and driven away to their local parish church where the marriage was blessed.

The couple met two years ago when Miss Eastman, a professional photographer, was taking photographs of the Beatles in America.

Linda Eastman was born in 1941 in New York and was educated at the prestigious Scarsdale High School.

After leaving school, she trained as a photographer and throughout the 1960s has photographed many famous names, including Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, the Who, Bob Dylan and Otis Redding.

Paul McCartney was born in 1942 in Liverpool and had written his first song, I Lost My Little Girl, by the age of 14.

The Beatles were formed in 1960 and by 1963 Beatlemania had gripped the country.

The couple plan to spend their honeymoon visiting relatives in America.

Courtesy BBC News

In context

Paul and Linda McCartney were married for 29 years and had one of the most successful marriages in show-business.

The couple raised four children – Heather, from her previous marriage, Stella, Mary, and James.

A year after their wedding the Beatles split up and Linda McCartney joined her husband’s band Wings.

A well-known vegetarian and animal rights campaigner, she went on to become a millionaire in her own right with her successful range of vegetarian meals which she launched in the 1990s.

She died of breast cancer in 1998 at the McCartney ranch in Tucson, Arizona.

Paul McCartney married former model Heather Mills in 2002 with whom he had a baby daughter in October 2003.

The couple announced they would separate in May 2006 and began divorce proceedings in July of that year.