National Service

by Michael Blackstein Arps

This is an account of my two years of National Service as a photographer in the RAF. It begins with a brief outline of my life before commencing my service in September 1955: From my birth at the London Hospital on 6th March 1936 to my first 7 years at a Childrens Home, to evacuation to Wellington in Somerset, to return to live with my parents above their grocery shop in Stratford, London. Education at primary school and then at Stratford Grammar School. My early interest in photography, and then two years at the Regent Street Polytechnic (now Westminster University) and on to National Service. The unusual aspect of this book is the fact that I always made sure that I had my camera with me. So there are photographs from the time I started Basic Training, right up until my demob in September 1957.