Quote Originally Posted by grahamw48 View Post
Thoughtful times indeed Arthur.

I think of my dear departed father, who served in the RN from 1938 to 1968, as well as my maternal grandfather, who served for 35 years in the army during a period which included BOTH world wars.
I also think of my father's dad, who (I remember) still carried the awful aftermath of having been shot through the lower jaw while serving in the army during WW1.
Ah ... my father wanted to "do his bit" during WWII and, in 1941, volunteered for service with the Royal Navy. But, being an electrician by trade, and employed in munitions work with Barr & Stroud, Scientific Instrument Manufacturers (making periscopes, etc) was informed that his was a reserved occupation - as, indeed, had my maternal grandfather, a brass~finisher with Shanks' of Barrhead been told at the time of WWI, a quarter of a century earlier. There again, my paternal grandfather owned a joinery business in Kircudbrightshire, S.W. Scotland during the Great War and, at the age of forty + ... ... was considered too old for active service, anyway.