Randall R Perrey 1942 – 2024
September 21, 2024 6:41 pm | by Terry Brown | Posted in Tributes
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Randall Perrey of Henlow, Bedfordshire, ringer and chorister at St Mary’s church for almost 50 years.
Randall was born in a nursing home in Hanslope Bucks, and grew up in Leighton Linslade, where his parents, Randall and Jenny had been evacuated to from London. Randall was the youngest of six children and the character we came to know emerged early. A snappy dresser, he embraced the fashions of the 1950’s and loved to dance the Jive. His dancing caused problems on the top deck of the school bus when he broke a window and was thrown off. Randall’s lateness became legendary at Henlow where ringers began to think that Clifton Road was on a different time zone to the rest of the village, so it came as no surprise that he often missed the school bus. He became expert at thumbing lifts and on one occasion was dropped off at school in a Rolls Royce, just as his friends were getting off the bus he had missed. He was in a school pantomime playing Widow Twanky, a part he played many times with the Henlow Drama Group.
On leaving school he joined Hepworths, working up from shop boy to manager, learning about tailoring, fashion whilst studying hairdressing at night school. These were all skills he used later to make costumes for his pantomime dames. He married Jackie in 1963 and in 1967 Karen was born, followed by Little Randall in 1968. He left Hepworths to join his brother-in-law’s fencing firm and spent many years fitting motorway crash barriers up and down the country. A change of office brought Randall back to Bedfordshire and the family settled in Henlow in 1978.
Little Randall was the first to learn to ring, but Randall himself was soon drumming the tenor with such a steady rhythm that Henlow won the District Striking Competition 17 times and the County Final 4 times. He was less successful at setting his bell and a tenor solo was always accompanied by gales of laughter. Randall loved the annual Henlow Outing and he rang from Canterbury to Carlisle and Penzance to Berwick. In the early days most people camped and on one evening Randall was laughing so much that a man came across from a nearby caravan to complain as he’d been trying to get his children to sleep for hours. Likewise after ringing on a Tuesday, people at nearby tables in the 5 Bells would move to the other side of the pub to get away from the laughter. As mentioned earlier Randall dressed very smartly but when his trousers fell down whilst ringing we learnt that the colour co-ordination didn’t extend to his underpants!
Randall rang 7 peals and 105 quarters, all on the Henlow tenor, and he will be sorely missed by all who knew him. May he Rest In Peace.
Philip Jewell
St. Mary’s Henlow