MORE than 100 people have gathered at Scholemoor Cemetery in Bradford today to say their final farewells to a man believed to have had the world’s longest marriage.

Karam Chand, of Girlington, Bradford, died aged 110 of natural causes in hospital just six weeks away from celebrating his 111th birthday.

A white glass-sided carriage pulled by two white horses adorned with orange plumes carried Mr Chand on his final journey.

Mr Chand and his wife, Kartari, 103, hit headlines across the world last year when they celebrated their astonishing 90th wedding anniversary.

The couple have been guests-of-honour at many community events and were invited to open The Broadway shopping centre, alongside star Alexandra Burke, last November.

Mr Chand lived with his wife, their son, Paul, and his family at their home in Girlington.

He was born in 1905 into a farming family in the Punjab during the height of the British Raj, at a time when it took six weeks to reach India via the Suez Canal. He had an arranged marriage, wedding his bride in a Sikh ceremony in 1925 and they came to Bradford in 1965, when he replaced his hard work as a farmer with equally hard work in the city’s woollen mills.

Their family now consists of four generations with a huge family tree stretching down from Mr and Mrs Chand and including eight children, 27 grandchildren and dozens of great-grandchildren.

Mr Chand’s death, at the end of last month, meant his marriage lasted 90 years and 291 days in total.

Although this was believed to be the world record, it had never officially been recognised by Guinness World Records.