George Walton and Reg Mickisch first met each other in 1949, in an underground London gay bar. Back then, George was a professional photographer and Reg was a shop window dresser. Together, they traveled for years through Europe, before settling in Darowen, rural Wales, in the early 1970s. There they ran a successful lodging in their house, called Rhiw Goch (The Red Hill, in Welsh).

George and Reg officially got married in February 2006. After 62 years together, Reg passed away in the summer of 2011, followed five weeks later by George – they were 84 and 94 year old, respectively.

George and Reg's life story was chronicled by Mike Parker in his book On the Red Hill (2019). The couple left Rhiw Goch to Parker and his husband.

It was only legalized in 8 US states (the 8th only a few months before), and wouldn’t be legalized nation-wide until 2015.

It was only legal in TEN COUNTRIES in 2011. We wouldn’t hit 20 countries until 2017. (Australia was 23rd)

As of today (April 14, 2026), I believe only 38 countries have fully legalized same-sex marriage. Out of somewhere around 200 countries in the world. That’s only ~19% of countries.