Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone
Can anyone tell me about national sevice How long did you have to do? and what year did it end in also is there any records or such you can receive would be grateful for any help thing i put this subject on the wrong board before because didn't get a response - Carla

it was a 2 year term, i think national service ended about 1963/4? for the relavant info on service records try this site

http://www.veterans-uk.info/index.html

Roy

Thank you kindly sir Carla

Carla

National service started at the end of WW2 1945/6 and continued until 1959 ish.

When it first started you had to do 18 months service but it was changed in 1950 to 2 years service. I did 2 years 1952/4
Some of my year dates maybe a bit out

Service records are not online, these records are still held by the MOD and are only available to the actual person or NOK etc

This is the link to the application details etc.

http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/service_records.html



Hope this helps
George

My brother did an apprenticeship and would have done his National service about October/November 1962 at age 21 (it was normally age 18). However it had just finished so lucky him never got to do it.

My older brother (also an apprentice) started in 1956 to 1958 at the princely sum of 30 shillings (£1.50) a week.

Most people hated it.

Joan

You are correct many National servicemen fought and died in various conflicts, Korea was another

George

Sorry don't know much about it. But I do know that it could be deferred under certain cicumstances.
My uncle was doing an apprenticeship with Ferranti, and also attending university on day release....he was able to defer his National Service until he finished his apprenticeship.
This would have been around 1959/60.

K

my husband was called up right at the end - January 1957 - he saw active service in Malaya after starting off in Changi, Singapore - he volunteered to go to Malaya as the Suez crisis had just erupted and he said he didnlt want to die in the desert!!! He was discharged after two years in December 1958 - his had been deferred because he was an engineer and hadnlt completed his apprenticeship

"Full-time conscription in the United Kingdom was first introduced in 1916, and lasted from 1916 to 1919 and from 1939 to 1960. From 1948 it was generally known as National Service - during World Wars One and Two it was usually known as War Service or Military Service (though the act re-introducing it in 1939 was entitled the National Service (Armed Forces) Act)."


National Service formally ended on 31 December 1960, but those who had deferred service for reasons such as University studies or on compassionate or hardship grounds, still had to complete their National Service after this date. It had also previously been decided that only those born up to 1 September 1939 were to be called up. The last man called up for National Service, Private Fred Turner of the Army Catering Corps, was discharged on 7 May 1963. However, the last National Serviceman was Lieutenant Richard Vaughan of the Royal Army Pay Corps, who was discharged six days later on 13 May 1963. When National Service ended, many National Servicemen continued serving voluntarily. The British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy are now voluntary organizations. Occasionally, some individuals call for a return to compulsory conscription.

Some decent books on the subject - check out your local library