The Forgotten Service...still forgotten.

[j.sabourn]

#49... Keith no doubt you have got your information from some official source which is probably correct . However I was always under the impression it was 2 years national service and 6 years in the MN. I was registered as exempt from NS and had the green paper to show if was ever accosted as a draft dodger. Think I still have somewhere. JS.

[Captain Kong]

National Service used to be 18 months then they increased it to Two Years.
If in the Merchant Navy or the Coal Mines you had to stay in until after 26 years of age.
My brother got married at 20 when he was a sea so he went ashore, and had to go down the coal mines so he didn't have to do the National Service./
My mate Fred, ex Galley Boy and Cunard Winger was called up for National Service during the 1955 Seamens Strike, [ that broke the Strike when these call up papers started to arrive, ] so he joined the Regular Army on a three year contract and got better Pay and more leave than a National Serviceman.

[j.sabourn]

If serving your time at a trade could defer it until you finished your apprenticeship then most came out at 22 or near enough. Was told at the time that if wanted to. Go in the RN had to sign on for 3 years. Had to register before 18 think I was registered about 1954. Haven’t found my registration card as of yet. If went in the MN came out at about 26. The French must have had natonal service for much longer because when my son was about 16 in about 1982 his pal who had a French father and an English mother had to register in France for same. He couldn’t even speak French. He refused to register and was told he would be arrested if ever set foot in France. JS

[Keith at Tregenna]

National Service ended gradually from 1957. It was decided that those born on or after 1 October 1939 would not be required, but conscription continued for those born earlier whose call-up had been delayed for any reason. In November 1960 the last men entered service, as call-ups formally ended on 31 December 1960, and the last National Servicemen left the armed forces in May 1963.

Further reading, for info only: https://api.parliament.uk/historic-h...ice-exemptions

[robpage]

As a lot of those guys spent 2 years shuffling around Catterick Camp doing drills I wonder what was easier 2 years national service or 6 years in the North Atlantic on a cargo boat

[happy daze john in oz]

As a lot of those guys spent 2 years shuffling around Catterick Camp doing drills I wonder what was easier 2 years national service or 6 years in the North Atlantic on a cargo boat

Even six months on a tramp ship in the middle of no where would be better than square bashing.

[Doc Vernon]

I got an Exemption from National Service in South Africa ta that time ,one reason was that I was Working to support my Mother who was alone after a Breakup with Dad,he just vanished until I found him 2 years after,thats another Story LOL
Secondly was that also at the time I managed to get Employment on the UCL line .as I have previously talked about,that was sufficient for an Exemption with the SA Government.
As for Squarebashing ,well John you know about me in the RAF and the 8 Weeks I spent at Bridgnorth in the Bleedin dead of Winter too,and the Squarebashing was hard mate! But I did survive like all the rest and in all we all I think had a great time, getting the Trophy at the end that was the Cream on the Cake!
Then on to Compton Basset for Wireless Operators Course a great time there had by us all.
Lastly to Innsworth awaiting Shipment to Aden, and there ends my short story LOL

[Red Lead Ted]

Lads its with a heavy heart I post and remind all of the Demise of the M.V. Harmattan deliberately struck by a missile from an Indian gunboat, Pakistan 1971 Which I witnessed as they where at war with India I cant even find the tale in the archives. Forgotten Merchant Seaman who paid the ultimate. Maybe I should put it in a book before that incident is lost in the annals of time. The only two British Merchant ships in the Bay of Bengal December 1971 I was aboard the Eucadia, R.I.P All those who lost there lives aboard the Harmattan Terry.

[Denis O'Shea]

Rob I was called up for NS January 1953 at the ripe old age of 18 and sent to Catterick camp for basic training. I was not allowed to shuffle anywhere at that place in fact we were chased all over that ruddy barrack square, after one month of so called infantry training I went to Richmond camp for trade training to become a Radio Operator for four months the first two weeks was spent helping local farmers to dig sheep out of the snow on the moors, after training I got ten days embarkation leave before they shipped me out to the Suez canal zone where I spent 18 months at Kabret point on the bitter lakes. I arrived home in Jan 55 and was demobbed the next day. But it was that experience which set me on course to join the MN. Rgds Den

[robpage]

the Trade training was a brilliant idea , and the discipline , including the old , you lads were all due for a weekend pass , 'till your mate ere upset me now you aint' going nowhere , and by Monday another dissenter was back in line . I have met a few national servicemen who trained and gained and a few who counted the days , I would bring it in today for five years for a lot of the guys without direction , but human rights would temper it all today