First Watch

About the Book

I came into this world in a room above my parents' grocery shop at 63 Cranbrook Road in Deptford, Southeast London, on March 4, 1920, a stone's throw from Greenwich, the Royal Observatory, and the Prime Meridian — the middle of the world.

First Watch is the opening volume of Seawater in My Veins, the life history of Douglas J. Harrison.

This first act, detailing Harrison's life from birth to the dawn of World War II, pulls the reader into the remarkable true story of a young dreamer who before he reached the end of his adolescence had lived a lifetime of adventures.

First Watch brings the key events of Harrison's young life together in a perfectly recalled memoir of family, youth, and the anticipation of both war and love.

About the Author

Douglas J. Harrison was born in London in 1920. After growing up in England and the United States, he went to sea in World War II in the Merchant Navy and visited six continents. After the war, and after losing his Norfolk home in the 1953 North Sea Flood, he and his family emigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, before finally settling in Victoria, British Columbia.

A carpenter by trade, Douglas worked in home construction and renovation as a contractor for many years until retirement in the 1990s. Harrison continues to stay active in gardening, home renovation and painting. He and his wife Doris have been married since 1942, and have two children, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. The years 1939 to 1945 will be covered in Volume 2 of the Seawater in My Veins series.