COMING SOON

TWO LIVES, TWO WORLD WARS

This book is a tribute to Reginald William Parrish and his son Reginald Edward Humphrey (Ted) Parrish, one a Watfordian by adoption, the other by birth; one a seasoned soldier in the Royal Fusiliers when World War I was declared, the other a volunteer RAF reservist in World War II. Each experienced the dangers and deprivation of active overseas war service. 
 
Reginald’s musical abilities led him to become a Royal Fusilier Bandsman who policed the Empire in India prior to World War I. Born in Richmond, Surrey, he married Agnes in Oxhey in 1919. His only child, Ted, became a leading local historian and writer, meticulously recording on film and documenting in print the rapid environmental changes in Watford, Bushey and Oxhey.
 
TWO LIVES, TWO WORLD WARS explores the men’s parallel, yet contrasting lives and the impact war had on them and the loved ones they left behind.
 
This is a companion volume to Ted Parrish’s ECHOES OF OLD WATFORD, BUSHEY & OXHEY, in which Watford, Bushey and Oxhey take to the stage once again. Between them, Reginald and Ted called this area home for 108 years. Richmond, Surrey, where Reginald was born and spent his formative years takes a worthy bow, as does Colwyn Bay where Reginald asked Peggy to write to Ted in South East Asia Command. TWO LIVES, TWO WORLD WARS is a fusion of local, military, social and family history.