My National Service was 1951–1953. A craftsman in the R.E.M.E., and attached to the 2/2nd King Edward VII Own Gurkha Rifles (Sirmoor Rifles), during the Malaysian Emergency. An exciting journal of events, and experiences, during that period. The initial training, the outward adventure to Singapore, on the 'Empress of Australia'. Living with the fearless Gurkhas, their religious Hindu festival of Dussehera, the Gurkha knife, the kukri, their food, their laughter and their friendship. The return to the UK on the 'Empire Windrush', which was bringing back troops, including wounded, back from the Korean War, and finally my time with the County of London Yeomanry, with tanks on the Castlemartin Tank Range, and Salisbury Plain, and even tanks of the German Panzer division, on the streets of South Wales, later on!
