After meeting on a street corner in 1937, the pair "took a fancy to each other" and enjoyed spending time together cycling and walking, Mr Shield said.
At the time, they lived in separate villages in Lincolnshire, England.
However, it did not stop them courting for seven years before marrying in 1944.
They both had to get leave from the RAF where he was working as ground crew and she in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
A four-day honeymoon ended abruptly when he was posted to South Africa for two years, followed by nine months in a military hospital in England where he was treated for a medical condition, before they were reunited.
However, Mrs Shield did not seem to mind.
"When it's war-time, things are so different for everyone. You have to do the best you can," she said.
No houses to rent and the continuation of food rationing meant life after the war left them wanting more.
They felt "there was a better life" for them on the other side of the world.
Hopes to move to New Zealand were thwarted after they were unable to find a sponsor, so they settled for seven years in Campbelltown, near Sydney, with their two children, Richard and Jane.
The heat became too much for Mrs Shield, so they moved to Dunedin.
After retiring in 1982 from her work as an administrator and his as a building supervisor, the couple moved to Waikouaiti for 25 years, then to a smaller property in St Clair, Dunedin.
Mrs Shield now has Alzheimer's disease, but Mr Shield is determined to care for her as long as he can.
"I can look after her better than anyone else can," he said.
For them, marriage is about tolerating each other and working together through life's ups and downs.
But more than anything, "you have to love each other", Mr Shield said.
