When Peter was on HMS Wotton (based at Portland), he would go and stay at his grandparents house when he had a weekend off. During this period his grandparents used to go to a hotel in Westcliff, Kent. This is where they first met Wendy, who wrote to them after they finished their holiday there. Peter's grandparents invited Wendy to their home for weekends, and it was during one of these weekends when Peter was also home, that he first met Wendy. Peter had planned to go out to the pub with some friends, and it was suggested to Peter that he should take her along. This happened a few times and they seemed to see each other quite a bit after that and would write to each other. Things seemed to move on from there and when she became pregnant with Neil the Council gave them a maisonette in Plumstead. By now Peter had been drafted to HMS Fearless, which was based in Plymouth but spent most of the time at sea. This made getting home very difficult, which is partly why Peter requested early discharge at this time, as he felt he needed to be at home with his family. However it was not an easy marriage and Wendy left in 1987 and the decree absolute came through on 22nd March 1988.