Looking for army pal

When I was called up for National Service on October 4, 1951, I was sent to barracks in Aldershot – the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

There was a lad from Sunderland, Newcastle, and a lad from Hebburn called Jimmy. We had a unit photo taken with all the lads from various parts of the UK, which I had for scores of years but now part of the photo is torn and lost.

I have been trying to get in touch with some of the lads I recognised.

I would like to contact Jimmy, a cheerful lad, who I got on with very well. I recall in those early days in the army when the first to get a wash and shave got the hot water, which me and Jimmy succeeded in doing.

After two weeks we were moved to Blackdown, about a mile away. The unit was after doing some tests and we were to be shipped off to Egypt but after a medical I was deemed unfit to go to a foreign country due to a strawberry birth mark on my upper left leg.

I was the only one left behind and it broke my heart.

When a lad from Sunderland called Alex wrote to me, he said I was the luckiest person in the world staying in England.

It’s a long shot but I hope someone or Jimmy himself reads this and gets in touch.

I ended up at Chilwell barracks near Nottingham, where I joined the battalion band as a bugler. We paraded on Nottingham Castle ground on Coronation Day in June 1953. Les May, email: lsmy59@aol.com