The society met in the Wollaston Room at Stourbridge Town Hall on March 20, 7.30pm.

President Keith Ferris welcomed members, visitors and Ed Shore, the speaker for the evening, whose talk was entitled “National Service”

It was apparent from the outset that Ed, a former social worker and keen fundraiser for Cancer Research, would prove to be an engaging speaker with many highly amusing and thought provoking recollections of his own national service.

These were interspersed with personal views about various wars throughout history right up until the present day.

Ed explained that National Service started in January 1916, because volunteers for the services were in short supply. the alternative to joining up was to become a Bevan Boy as many miners had previously volunteered, resulting in a shortage of miners.

Women were called up too and could be sent anywhere, they had no choice.

The realities of National Service were a shock for the many young men who had never been away from home before the war then found themselves sharing a Nissan hut with a total of 53 occupants. There were those who, prior to the war had been looking forward to demanding careers but they found themselves doing mundane tasks during national service.

Many felt their lives were pointless.

Keith gave a vote of thanks for a highly entertaining and informative talk.

There will not be a meeting in April as the society has a trip to the Museum of Jewellry Quarter in Birmingham.

The next meeting will be on May 15 at 7.30pm when the speaker will be Keith Cattell , with the subject, “Our Victorian architectural heritage”.