This year’s Remembrance Day is a particularly special one for Okehampton resident John Mills as he remembers 70 years since he started his National Service.

Mr Mills was called up to the army in the early 1950s for his National Service, a form of peacetime conscription following the end of the Second World War.

But Mr Mills’s connection with the armed forces started as a boy when he lived on a farm situated next to the RAF base where the Red Arrows were founded.

On a particularly memorable occasion during the Second World War, he said, he and a friend sat on a fence watching a Canadian pilot prepare to take off when the pilot suddenly missed the runway and nearly crashed into the fence where he sat.

After his own army training, Mr Mills was sent to Germany to join the Duke of Cornwall’s regiment.

‘When I went it was the Queen’s coronation,’ he said. ‘So we all got the day off!’

Mr Mills remained in Germany until the regiment was called back to Plymouth and were told they were being posted to the West Indies, where Mr Mills finished his National Service.

His memories from his time in the army range from playing cricket and completing fun activities, organised by his captain, to living through a severe hurricane in Jamaica, which shook two of his comrades who went to help with the clear up operation.

As his National Service drew to a close, Mr Mills debated whether to remain in the army but it was his wife who ultimately made the decision. ‘I would probably have stayed in the army,’ said Mr Mills. ‘But my wife said she wouldn’t marry me if I did.’