The Post Office campaigner Alan Bates has married his partner, Suzanne Sercombe, on Richard Branson’s Necker Island in a ceremony officiated by the Virgin tycoon. The wedding took place last month on the entrepreneur’s private island in the British Virgin Islands, the Sunday Times reported. Branson reportedly invited the couple to the island after the recently knighted former post office operator , 70, said in an interview in January: “If Richard Branson is reading this, I’d love a holiday.
” The wedding came as a surprise to the new Lady Bates, 69, who had to wear a patterned sundress she had packed for the holiday, the newspaper reported. Branson, 74, told the Sunday Times: “It was an absolute joy to play a small part in Alan and Suzanne’s love story, and I know they will continue to spread the beautiful light they share with everyone around them.” The couple, who live in Wales, have been together for 34 years.
Bates, founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, came to prominence after an ITV drama earlier this year explored his campaign over the Horizon IT scandal. He was played by Toby Jones in the ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office . More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office and given criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015, as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
The Post Office inquiry will resume on 23 September. In an article for the Guardian in May, Bates.