The Unlikely Corporal: Austin Macauley

1953 to 1955... I'm in the army now!

Two years of peaceful life in Scotland are about to be exchanged for two years of National Service in the King's Own Scottish Borderers.

I had never played with toy soldiers as a boy, but with thousands of others aged 18, I am to become a fighting soldier through 12 weeks of infantry training.

Faced with dying for one's country is no joke to citizen soldiers. Safety, serving with a typewriter in the army orderly room rather than with a rifle against the enemy, is a windfall.

Stripes earned in battle are valued more than those earned through administrative know-how while the rifle is locked up.

A wife or sweetheart wondering why her fit and healthy partner is at home when his country demands even more fighting soldiers can be heartbreaking.