‘I’m an 89-year-old who did National Service – it modified how I noticed the world’

A grandfather-of-nine has said carrying out two years of national service gave him a different outlook on life.

If the Conservative Party wins the general election on July 4, Rishi Sunak has pledged to bring back national service, with 18-year-olds being given the choice of a military placement or civil role. But his plan descended into chaos when it emerged one in five armed forces members would be aged 18 if it goes ahead, swelling numbers from 30,000 to 160,000 and raising questions about effectiveness and safety. Kier Starmer has mocked the plan, dubbing it a ‘teenage Dad’s Army’.

The £2.5bn proposed programme would see young people given a choice between a full-time placement in the armed forces for 12 months or spending one weekend a month for a year “volunteering,” in their community.

Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker has distanced himself from the plan, while Anne-Marie Trevelyan refused to rule out fines for parents if 18-year-olds fail to do National Service. Meanwhile young people have responded to the concept online by posting savage memes about ‘Nashy Serve’, with many jibing that they’d refuse to show up.

While Doug Hockaday, 89, wasn’t keen on being called up to serve back in 1953, he told Yahoo News ‘after the first year I loved it’. “At first you look forward to being demobbed and then the day it comes you’re in tears because of all the mates you had,” he said. “They really were mates – overall they were the best mates I ever had.”

Doug, from Northwood, North West London, said national service gave him a valuable understanding of all kinds of other people. “You got a totally different outlook from what you went in with and you came to rely on the people you thought you’d never rely on,” he said. “It changed my life because I learned to look at people differently and realise that they were a lot better than some of the people who would have been my heroes as I was growing up.”

The 89-year-old worked as a radar operator during his National Service and was mainly posted in England, apart from three weeks in Germany. The role then involved a short course and the rest of his training was on the job.

However, Doug’s experience will likely do little to save Sunak’s plan, as Labour’s Shadow Paymaster General Jonathan Ashworth said: “The Tory campaign is in absolute chaos, with more positions on their flagship policy than the Kama Sutra. Now, Tory MPs are arguing among themselves about whether they are going to arrest parents, whether it will apply to Northern Ireland and how much it will cost.”