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My cousin was one of the last conscripts to be called up, he was consigned to a cavalry regiment, and he ended up in the British Army’s show jumping team. On balance he found his service beneficial to his own life – I understood this book, you should read it – Martin Frost.

Between 1948 and 1960 British armed forces were involved in six campaigns overseas – in Malaya, Korea, Kenya, Cyprus, Suez, and South Arabia. To provide the manpower for these operations, fixed-term universal male conscription was instituted in peacetime for the only time in the country’s history. Of the million and a half men called up on reaching the age of 18, about 125,000 – or one in twelve – served in an active theatre of operations. Approximately 400 conscripts were killed in action, whilst many more were lost in accidents. In this book 23 National Servicemen, each of whom served in at least one of the six campaigns, reminisce about their time in far-off places, facing largely invisible enemies, in pursuit of aims which remain obscure to this day. They recall the brutality, the hardship, the excitement, and the humour of an experience which for all of them appears to have been an important, if sometimes painful, part of the process of growing up. They also record, in many cases, the indifference – both personal and official – with which they were treated on their return home.

Review: This compilation of the experiences of ordinary men, who were given no choice of where they were to serve, or in which branch of the armed forces, knuckled down and fought alongside career servicemen and for two years risked their lives for a fraction of the pay of regular servicemen. These accounts should be a lesson to all young people that they are no different, and should duty call, albeit under sufferance, will most likely do the same. From my experience, having just completed a five-year apprentice ship in electrical engineering, which the army could have found useful, decided that I should make a career change and taught me the art of touch typing, which was typical Army thinking. However, when posted to Cyprus, I was clerk in the MT squadron spent many happy hours riding shotgun on the back of a 3 Ton truck, but there was still the typing when I got back.