10 Facts about National Service

National service UK. Find out more about my own experiences doing National Service UK 1950s. Check out my reflections on army officer training and selection in the 1950s, National Service style. https://www.amazon.co.uk/National-Ser... https://berwickcoates.co.uk/what-was-... https://www.amazon.co.uk/National-Ser... https://books.google.co.uk/books/abou... https://www.lovereading.co.uk/book/97... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sam-Brownes-... Ten facts about National Service UK 1950s 1. It was not all spit and polish and sergeants swearing. Many national servicemen, after training, were sent on active service. Nearly 400 died. 2. Many national servicemen found that they liked it, and at the end of their two years they signed on as regular soldiers. 3. Between 1948 and 1963, nearly two and a half million young men did National Service. 4. After their basic training, thousands of national servicemen were taught a trade – engineer, electrician, physical training instructor – and when their two years were over, they found they had a career for life. 5. Some recruits came from such deprived backgrounds that, when they were put in their barrack room, found that they could sleep in a bed, on their own, for the first time in their lives. 6. No matter how much an eager recruit may have fancied flying a Spitfire or a life on the ocean wave, barely more than 25% got into the RAF (and they certainly weren`t flying Spitfires), and a bare 2% made it into the Navy. 7. An average national serviceman`s weekly pay was about 16% of the average weekly wage of the time. 8. A lot of young men were selected for officer training, and some stayed on as regular officers. Two became field marshals. One of those became the professional head of the whole British Army. 9. At the end of National Service, there was no gratuity from the government, no commemorative medal, and no pension. 10. For fifteen years, from 1948 to 1963, 6,000 young men had to join the Armed Forces every fortnight. That`s 156,000 every year. The current total of all the regular Armed Forces, put together, is about 150,000. It would be impossible to ‘bring back National Service’ in the way we have always understood it. To learn more about National Service UK, 1950s, have a read of my two books on the subject.