National Service Fifty Years Ago: Life of a Medical Conscript in West Africa

Between 1946 and 1962, following World War II (1939-45), for the first time in peace-time Britain, conscription was introduced as a partial solution to Churchill’s ‘cold war’ strategy. While the majority of conscripts served their two-years within the UK or Europe, a minority was sent to overseas locations, some to where actual fighting was taking place. The author of this book was based in Nigeria for most of his years of National Service, more specifically at Yaba, a suburb of Lagos. This narrative, which took place immediately after Nigerian independence from colonial rule, is Corps officer, serving in the Royal Nigerian Army in newly independent Nigeria. Apart from medical duties, he acquired a great deal of information on the Atlantic slave trade, much of which was centred on the Nigerian coast.