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.