Enter Drum and Colours

This book tells the story of one young man’s National Service in the 1950s and how he came to terms with two years compulsory soldiering and the experiences he endured or enjoyed.


After basic infantry training with The Green Howards in Yorkshire, he moved to Beaconsfield to take a senior NCO’s course and became a Sergeant Instructor in The Royal Army Educational Corps.


The action then moves abroad to Libya and Malta with leave spent in Tunisia, describing the men and women, military and civilian, met along the way who ranged from members of The Foreign Legion in Tunis to United Nations staff in Tripoli.


The story concludes with a description of TA service in The Royal Artillery and an unexpected offer from the SAS before he returned to full time civilian life.


"Alan Brewin’s story of his National Service days is a thoughtful, informed and sometimes humorous social document. Its significance, however, lies not only in the careful detailing of one young man’s experiences of Army life but also in the important observations of Libya in the mid-1950’s, observations that give this book an added historical importance."


Professor Carl Chinn MBE

Professor of Community History

University of Birmingham