Veteran joins Princess Anne to honour end of National Service
A Fareham veteran joined Princess Anne at an event commemorating 60 years since National Service ended – and said he thinks it will never return.
ThePrincessRoyalthanked thetwomillionwhoservedand spoke to hundreds of former servicemenattheNationalMemorial Arboretum on Tuesday andsaid:‘Thisnationowesallof them a huge debt of gratitude.’
She also laid a wreath at the Armed Forces Memorial to commemorate the 395 National Servicemen killed on active duty from 1947-63. The event was the culmination of the national ‘Ask Dad’ and ‘Ask Grandad’ campaigns by the
Royal British Legion (RBL) to find the ‘unsung heroes’ of National Service.
Speaking at the service in Staffordshire, Princess Anne said: ‘Some thrived, others endured, but all were called upon togiveupsomeoftheirtimefor this country and they did just that. As the mists of the Second World War cleared and Britain tried to forge a new future,thesemenwerestationed across the globe and also here at home. Some saw active duty while others did not.
‘Buttheyunderstoodalltoo well the price of freedom and shouldered that burden on our behalf. All were prepared to step forward and serve our countrywhenweneededthem. We recognise that this nation owes all of them a huge debt of gratitude for that service. If I may, on behalf of the entire country, take this opportunity to thank them all.’
PeterBacklog,86,signedup for National Service aged 18 in 1955 and ‘really enjoyed it’, before joining the Royal Marines
Reserves, leaving as a major in 1983.
He said: ‘Once a Marine, always a Marine. I think it taught us to never give up, and that takesyourightthroughcivilian life. It also teaches you timing. Neverbelate,neverbeearly,soI annoymygrandchildrenbybeingfuriousifthey’remorethan fiveminuteslateorfiveminutes early.’
Duringhisservice,MrBacklog, who now lives in Fareham and who was featured in Tuesday’s News, fought in the Suez CrisisaspartofOperationMusketeer and received the Naval General Service Medal.
He said: ‘It became normal to do National Service. Nowadays, without National Service, would it come back? No. I don’t think the ‘snowflake’ generation would put up with it, and nor should they. What’s the point in training people to shoot people, unwillingly? It wouldn’t work.’