[West Ender]

My eldest brother did NS in the army - Pay Corps (he was a trainee cotton manager when he went it). My 2nd brother, big and strapping 6' tall, failed the medical because he'd had osteomylitis in his leg. He was very, very disappointed. I knew many lads who were called up for NS. They didn't want to go, their jobs, education etc. were disrupted (though deferment was possible), but they all came out with a sort of pride in what they'd done and many of them still feel proud. We needed just as many academics/tradesmen in the 40s and 50s, it just took a more roundabout route.

The article says NS went on until 1963 but that doesn't equate with the fact that my husband, born in 1941, was too young for the last intake. He joined the RAF in 1958, for 6 years, but he wouldn't have been called up.

I think NS has 1 advantage over all and that's discipline. It's sadly lacking in Society now and if it took NS to turn the tide and reintroduce discipline and self-respect, not to say respect for the rest of humanity, bring it on. The only losers would be the mothers who worried over their precious boys instead of thinking of how fit they were becoming.