Meet Britain's oldest newlyweds, with a combined age of 184

London (ANI) - When Henry Kerr met an attractive younger woman four years ago; he feared she wouldn't even look at him.

But 97-year- old Kerr's dream became a reality when he married his younger companion - Valerie Berkowitz, 87.

The couple has also walked away with the title of Britain's oldest newlyweds - previously held by Les Atwell, 94, and Sheila Walsh, 87.

"I would have asked her much earlier, if I had thought such an attractive, witty young lady of 87 would have anything to do with an old codger like me," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

Kerr said he was 'struck like a thunderbolt' when he met Berkowitz at the North London care home they share.

"I thought she found me pushy and conceited - until she acquired an analytical interest in the poems I read at the poetry circle I founded when I moved in here. Then we found our affinities," 'he said.

Kerr, who moved to the care home in 2006 when he was 94, said: "When I did ask her to marry me a few months ago she went hysterical - she put her head down on the table and couldn't stop laughing."

Even once Berkowitz had accepted the proposal, the couple expected to stay permanently engaged to avoid the ' complication' of marriage.

But Kerr, who ran an investment company before retirement, said: "I felt people were whispering behind their hands and gossiping about us moving in together, and that it was important for us to be Mr and Mrs."

The couple finally married in a traditional Jewish ceremony at their care home in Golders Green, followed by a high tea for 90 guests.

The newlyweds, who have six children, 19 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren between them, will embark on a one-day honeymoon but plan to keep its location a secret.

The new Mrs Kerr, a former biochemist and counselor whose first husband Abraham died in 2005 at the age of 82, said: "He is so totally talented and full of fun, yet also very serious.

"He's different from my late husband in every way, except that they both had enormous brain power. It's absolutely incredible that we found each other so late in life and that we are so loving - and lovely - together," she added.