the Registrar-General forecasts &amp;hellip; . one of these marriages will fail . but four happy couples say he &apos;s talking nonsense . by Diana Norman . people disapprove of teenagers marrying . they shake their heads and say : they &apos;re too young . they point to official statistics which show that one out of four girls who marry between 16 and 18 ends up in the divorce court . and they say : that proves it . but does it ? to find out , I travelled all over the country , meeting couples who married very young . none of them was newly married . most had been married for between two to six years . I am going to tell you the stories of four such couples . if the Registrar general , who compiles national statistics of births , deaths and marriages is right , one of them will be in the divorce court within the next 20 years . all of them have encountered greater hardship than most couples who wait until they are older before marrying . almost all have had to face the suspicion that they had to get married , although it was untrue . they have come up against parental disapproval , and landladies who wanted to see their marriage lines before offering them accommodation . they have all had to raise children on small wages . take , for instance , the case of the Annandales who were married six and a half years ago , when Brian was 17 , and Pam 16 . now they have a nice home in Germany , where 23-year-old Brian , a regular in the RAF , is stationed . they have a car and Pat has a fur coat . but less than four years ago they went hungry in order that their baby , David , would have food . they told me about it recently when Brian was on leave and they were staying with Pam &apos;s parents in Francis-road , Ashford , Kent . Brian was then a national serviceman , getting just under &amp;pound;5 a week . he found that , because he was under 21 , the RAF would not give him and Pam married quarters . nor - again because he was a minor - would they grant him the guinea a week extra normally given to married men in the RAF who have to pay their own rent . it was a very bad time , said Brian . it could have caused a split between us . but , luckily , it brought us closer together . he added : we realise now that we took a terrific risk , marrying so young . but when our parents pointed this out to us before we married , we thought they were wrong . Brian and Pam went to the same junior school in Ashford . and Brian smilingly recalled : I could n&apos;t stand the sight of her then . take-over . they met again when Brian was in the local cycle speedway team , and Pam , at 15 , was going out with his team captain . within a week I had accidentally crashed into the captain on the track , broken his arm , taken over his position as captain and taken his girl away from him , grinned Brian . he was best man at our wedding &amp;hellip; . neither Brian nor Pam can tell you the exact moment when they decided to get married - it was just an understanding between us . proposals are rare among teenagers . nearly all say : we just knew we were going to marry - that &apos;s all . Pam told me : we came up against a terrific amount of suspicion . suspicion that we had had to get married . even though our baby arrived two years after our wedding , some people still think that he was the reason for our early marriage . Brian agreed that the dice are loaded against teenage marriages . we refused to borrow money from our parents during those difficult times . we thought we &apos;d save rent by buying a caravan on HP . but , because we were both under 21 , the firm refused to sell to us . in the end we had to buy it in Pam &apos;s father &apos;s name . despite the travelling Brian has done since he joined the RAF , Pam has managed to go with him almost everywhere . in fact , she told me : in the six years of our marriage , I &apos;ve been away from him only for about three months . do they quarrel ? of course , said Brian . like mad sometimes &amp;hellip; . but he added : we never row in front of David . we have a really happy marriage . the months I spent apart from Pam were the most miserable of my life . well , that &apos;s the Annandales . I &apos;d risk a large bet that it will n&apos;t be their marriage which ends in failure . scarce . and so to the Bowketts &amp;hellip; . in the two years they &apos;ve been married , Keith Bowkett and his pretty , fair-haired wife , Violet - they &apos;re both 18 - have n&apos;t lived together at all . the housing shortage and scarcity of flats in their home town of Pontardawe , near Swansea , south Wales , have forced Violet to go on living with her parents , sister and three brothers at their home in Holly-street - although she is now a married woman with a small baby . Keith , whom she married on her 16th birthday , lives with his parents a short distance away , just as he did when he was a schoolboy . they meet each other whenever Keith &apos;s job as a collier on shift work will allow them to . they sit in one or other of their parents &apos; homes watching television . or they hold hands in the pictures or go for walks . and at night they kiss each other goodbye and then go back to their respective homes . we thought we would be able to find a place , but we have n&apos;t , said Violet , bluntly . both our parents &apos; houses are too small to let us have a bedroom of our own . we &apos;re on the council &apos;s waiting list , but I &apos;ve known people around here who have waited nearly ten years to be given a house . flats are scarce and expensive , and landlords do n&apos;t want you if you &apos;ve got a baby . Keith and Violet , like Brian and Pam Annandale , and so many other youngsters , met at school and began courting at 15 . they insisted on marrying as soon as Violet was legally old enough - 16 . Violet &apos;s parents were against the marriage . her mother , 40-year-old Mrs Pearl Epps , said : I did n&apos;t want Violet to marry so young , but when youngsters make up their minds you can n&apos;t stop them . so I made up my mind to make the best of it and gave them a nice wedding reception here at home . heartbreak . sometimes when I see Violet looking after her baby , Steven , and remember it was only a short time ago that she was a baby herself , it nearly breaks my heart . she has no idea of the cost of things , because she &apos;s never had a home of her own to run . but I must say she &apos;s making a good job of bringing up Steven . people have told Violet that she deserves better , and that because Keith has n&apos;t provided her with a home , she has grounds for divorce . but Violet just pushes back her long hair and hugs Steven even closer . maybe Keith has n&apos;t been quite as responsible as he should , she told me . but if I had my time over again , I &apos;d marry him just the same - although perhaps not quite so early . he &apos;ll find a home for me one of these days . she added resolutely . and I &apos;ll stick by him . if love , loyalty and courage count for anything , it will n&apos;t be Violet &apos;s marriage that will break up . perhaps Pat Cane , 17 , and her 23-year-old husband , Tom , are a bit luckier . at least they have a room to themselves , with a cot in it for their seven-month-old daughter , Michel . divided . the room is in a council flat at Tulse Hill , in south London - the home of Pat &apos;s parents . the other three bedrooms in the flat are divided among Pat &apos;s parents and seven of her ten brothers and sisters . quite a crowd , eh ? we &apos;ve tried to find a place of our own . said Pat , who also married on her 16th birthday . in fact , recently we left here for a flat that Tom had found for us . but the landlady was terribly bossy - they can be you know - and kept hinting that we were n&apos;t married . eventually I showed her my marriage lines . but she said they were probably forged . so we moved back with Mum , who &apos;s been very kind , and we &apos;re now trying to find somewhere else . Tom , a &amp;pound;12-a-week decorator , met Pat over two years ago . I asked her to go to the pictures with me . said Tom . the film was look back in anger , but we have n&apos;t - not once . when we decided to get married , Pat &apos;s parents did n&apos;t object at all . Pat &apos;s mum was only 17 when she married , and has been happy ever since . but my mother was very opposed to the marriage . she even refused to come to the wedding . Pat , taking up the story , said I did n&apos;t like Tom being estranged from his mother , so when Michel was born , I took the baby round to show her , and tried to make things up between them . the moment she saw Michel she came round . now we get on very well . Pat &apos;s mother , 42-year-old Mrs Lille Barnham , told me : I can n&apos;t think why people are so down on teenage marriages , and try to wreck them . if girls are as sensible as Pat , who helped bring up her young brothers and sisters , I can n&apos;t see any objection to their marrying when they like . surely it will n&apos;t be Tom and Pat Cane who break up . then there are the Bandeys of Wandsworth , London . Alice Bandey , age 17 , was expecting her first baby in six weeks when I saw her . and she and her 17-year-old husband , Michael , whom she married just over a year ago , were going to have to find another place to live . their present two-room flat they knew would n&apos;t be suitable when the baby arrived , because a child might disturb the other tenants . they &apos;d already had to leave one flat because the landlady learned of the expected baby . Michael , who works in a banana-packing warehouse , earns &amp;pound;7 10 s a week , from which , when I saw them , they were paying &amp;pound;3 10 s a week rent . they had no honeymoon - could n&apos;t afford it - and the last new dress Alice had was for her wedding . yet , despite their money and home-hunting problems , they are happy . Alice , an orphan , met Michael at school . they started courting at 14 , and at 15 decided to get married as soon as they were of age . I never thought of marrying anybody else , said Alice . and I do n&apos;t think I &apos;ve missed anything . Michael said : I reckon I &apos;ve got the perfect wife . she &apos;s always here when I get home ; always kind , and cheerful - and a lovely cook . but he added : marriage certainly is n&apos;t a bed of roses - especially at our age . the marriage menders . by Diana Norman . Sheila and Jim were living with Jim &apos;s parents - and none too happily . there always seemed tension between Sheila and Jim &apos;s mother . and one day it broke , in a blazing row . she started shouting that I could leave as soon as I liked , Sheila confided afterwards . I said right now was n&apos;t soon enough for me . she said I never cleaned our room , which is a lie . and when she started on about the baby always crying , I got really wild . nobody &apos;s going to criticise my baby , I said , and started slinging some of my things into a suitcase . she said it was Jim &apos;s case and I was n&apos;t taking that , and she tried to pull it out of my hands . Jim came in . he pushed me and shouted that it was his baby and I was n&apos;t going to take her away . he hit me across the face and I began to scream . eventually Sheila left , taking her baby with her and went to live with her own parents . and so another marriage might have fallen in ruins had Sheila not had the sense to pour out her problems to the citizens &apos; advice bureau . she went there , hurt and angry , to ask about getting a legal separation from Jim . 