National Service Call UP Papers 1952

I'm not sure if anyone is interested to see these, some of my late father's National Service, Army, call up papers from 1952 which landed on the doormat when he was 18 years old, during the Korean war. Presumably there was also a form that had to be filled in and handed/sent in.

The 2 pages of notes are on both sides of the papers but just look what happened if you tried to get out of National Service by making a false statement, 3 months in prison and or a £50 fine.

I assume that my father was driven to the medical by car as my family owned a car, hence the travel permit is unused.

The result of the medical was the highest level of disability due to injuries received in WW2 and unfit for any military service. This didn't automatically mean exemption from National Service, just that he was told to return in 6 months for a second medical which had the same results and the army were satisfied that they didn't require the services of my father.

If my father had just ignored the call up papers below he would have been arrested by the police and sent to prison. When he responded to them he was fully expecting to join the army and serve his country in Korea.

My grandmother wouldn't give me my Grandfather's WW2 medical "unfit for service" paperwork, and it was over 20 years after he passed away...

I will have to find out where it went.

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Originally Posted by Flying10uk

I'm not sure if anyone is interested to see these,

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Yep.
Thanks for sharing.

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Originally Posted by Lee Enfield

My grandmother wouldn't give me my Grandfather's WW2 medical "unfit for service" paperwork, and it was over 20 years after he passed away...

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I would imagine that she finds it upsetting.

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Originally Posted by Lee Enfield

My grandmother wouldn't give me my Grandfather's WW2 medical

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my grandmother was the youngest of 6 kids and had 5 much older brothers. One of her brothers was not able to be drafted for medical reasons. I vaguely recall the story she told me when I was pretty young that he lived in self-isolated self-inflicted shame until he died young from colon cancer. People took being declared "unfit" to share the burden of their country very seriously by her generation. I'm perplexed at the contrast between grandma's generation, and the rampant draft dodgers amongst their offspring during Vietnam.
I haven't seen anyone write about it, but I saw first hand shortly after Sept. 11, 2001 that the problem still persisted. There were many active duty persons who just up and quit and went home at the news there was a fight coming or we were deploying...they only signed up for the college money. Is it that these things happened more rarely during WW2? Or that it's hushed and forgotten because it doesn't meet the mantra of "the greatest generation"? I think the former is true and not the latter. The willingness of SO MANY to sacrifice SO MUCH is part of the historical record, and in stark contrast to the reality of the present, where SO FEW are willing to serve at all, let alone sacrifice anything, and especially so amongst our so called "elite" citizenry.
That's my rant for the day anyway. Thanks for sharing your documents.

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Originally Posted by Flying10uk

If my father had just ignored the call up papers below he would have been arrested by the police and sent to prison.

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Would the same thing have happened if he refused vaccination? Kidding....mostly :)

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Originally Posted by ssgross

...I'm perplexed at the contrast between grandma's generation, and the rampant draft dodgers amongst their offspring during Vietnam.
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This is around the time our country went from "we" to "me", everything has gone downhill since...

Russ

Most of it has to do with the decades of brainwashing in the colleges

There was never any question of my father not responding to his "call up papers" and he was fully expecting to be accepted by the army. However it is quite understandable why the army didn't want a soldier with serious blast damage to both ears, was deaf as a consequence, and suffered what today is called PTSD, resulting in recurring nightmares and waking up screaming among the symptoms. There was never any sense of shame of not being accepted for National Service.

When the Civil Defence was reformed in the 1950's/60's to deal with the after affects of Nuclear war my father volunteered as a Civil Defence Ambulance Driver. I still have various bits of literature of the post war Civil Defence and it appears very much a case of a "cut and paste" the WW2 Civil Defence into the 1950's/60's and I rather think that it was more a case of a public relations exercise than any hope of being able to deal with the after effects of Nuclear war.

In the approximately three and a half years that the United States was involved combatively in WWII about 70,000 men applied for conscientious objector status. Almost certainly many more than that actually fled the country or maneuvered themselves into positions of safety. In the three year Korean conflict there were allegedly around 80,000 cases of draft evasion. In the ten years we were seriously involved in Vietnam an estimated 125,000 people fled to Canada to avoid the draft. Percentage wise not a remarkable difference in numbers. I think people are people regardless of the time period, at least that is what the numbers seem to indicate. History from every country, in every conflict and in every age shows similar results. Another seemingly common human trait is the denigrating of more current generations and deifying the older ones. By the by, I avoided the draft in 1967 by joining the Army. Tom

Got out of national service camps by joining permanent force. Never regretted my 30 years service.

With UK National Service you could "Defer" your "Call-UP" for certain reasons and under certain conditions. I'll see if I can reproduce the rules which are included in the notes in a larger scale pic another day. It was quite common to "Defer" Nation Service while studying at college etc and then do National Service or in my uncle's case, after "Deferring" and spending 4 years studying at college, National Service had ended.

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Originally Posted by oldpaul

By the by, I avoided the draft in 1967 by joining the Army. Tom

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Good one...out of the frying pan...

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Originally Posted by Daan Kemp

Never regretted my 30 years service.

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Me neither, even the broken pieces are acceptable because of it. Ours has been volunteer since WW2.

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

Good one...out of the frying pan..

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gave me a good chuckle too:) thanks. My dad dodged the vietnam draft by with a voluntary vacation to MCRD San Diego. I don't hold it against him, but I learned the hard way that Parris Island is the more prestigious vacation spot lol...those girls sunbathing on the beach at Hilton head that could just be seen just across the channel from our favorite swamp to march in made all the difference lol.

Those who had secured a U.K. university place (a much smaller section of the population in those days) could opt to defer their National Service until after they had graduated - although many preferred to do it first and 'get it out of the way'. Medical students had an indefinite deferment which amounted to exemption. There was much less 'dodging the column' in the National Service era anyway - partly because there was no major war on for most of it, partly because there was still a cultural expectation that you would do it, most of their parents had had to do their bit in WW2 and didn't see why you shouldn't have to go as well. The draft ended before that Sixties counter culture got going.

My late father had a lifelong dislike for Colin Cowdrey, perceiving him to have got out of National Service by playing cricket. He wasn't the only one who took that view.