National Service changed my life

IT was February 6th 1952, and I was standing on Crewe railway station, waiting with a crowd of lads to join the RAF to go to our National Service reception units.

On a bill board was the news that King George VI had died. I had joined up under one monarch and would serve another. I remember a remark made by one of lads, “What King is that, then?”

I think this shows the amount of interest in the media in those days. Either that, or he was pretty thick. But, he was joining the ‘cream’.

The next two years changed my life completely. Mainly for the good! I will never forget the date.

Dave Read Wells, Somerset