Rachel Webster served all over the world with the RMP (Royal Military Police), including deployments in Northern Ireland during The Conflicts and in Afghanistan during the 2001 allied invasion. After completing an apprenticeship in welding she wanted to join the Royal Engineers, but she was laughed out of the recruiting office for being a “girl”. After some consideration, she decided to join the RMP instead. She completed her basic training with the WRAC (Women's Royal Army Corps), and did further training with the RMP before being deployed to Germany. In her interview she discusses the challenges of being a female within the military and the challenges of trying to keep up with the frontline military units she was supporting. She talks about her experience of integrating herself into a very male dominated space, and how she became someone who the men could confide in during difficult times. Rachel talks about being deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo with the Green Howards, remembering it as her toughest deployment. The atrocities she witnessed over there are something that she has never forgotten, needing counselling when she returned home to help her emotionally come to terms about what she witnessed over there. One of her proudest moments was deploying to Iraq in 2003, where she helped build a local girls' school, impressing the Iraqi men with her welding skills and forming strong relationships with the locals. After being put up for commission, she supported 1st Battalion, The Rifles in Afghanistan as a regimental admin officer, the highlight of her career. After 24 years, she left the military for a new challenge.

George Hodkinson left school with little education but secured work as an apprentice boilermaker before National Service caught up with him. To his father’s fury, he persuaded his grandmother to sign his papers and soon found himself in uniform with the East Surrey Regiment, before transferring to the Royal Fusiliers. After training at Brentwood, he sailed east to a conflict few knew much about — the Korean War.

As a radio operator on the 38th Parallel, George served alongside Officer Hoare, sharing both the routine of trench life and the sudden dangers of combat. During Operation Pimlico in November 1952, those dangers became starkly real. When Hoare was killed, George was forced to take charge, recalling the desperate fighting in vivid detail before being knocked unconscious and captured.

What followed was a gruelling 300-mile trek to Camp 2A in North Korea, where he endured captivity until his release in the Little Switch of 1953. His interview recalls not only hardship but also kindness, resilience, and the unforgettable moment of returning home to embrace his mother.

George Hodkinson passed away on 11 January 2024.

Stephen Weall served as a regular officer in the Royal Marines, retiring with the rank of Captain after a career that spanned active service, training, and senior logistical roles. His military life began in 1962, following an unplanned but decisive shift away from the Army and into the Royal Marines, where demanding training gave him both focus and a lasting sense of purpose. Stephen’s first operational deployment was to Aden, a place he recalls initially as relatively calm, before tensions escalated into what became known as the Aden Emergency. As a young troop commander with 45 Commando, he experienced the realities of counter-insurgency operations in some of the harshest terrain of the Radfan Mountains. Life there was basic and exposed: long patrols at altitude, minimal equipment, unreliable radios, and complete reliance on helicopters for water and resupply. Stephen describes this period as “old-fashioned soldiering,” drawing parallels with Victorian frontier warfare, where small units operated independently against lightly armed but resilient tribal fighters. He later took part in operations beyond Aden, including the intervention in East Africa following the mutiny of the Tanganyika Rifles, before returning to the Radfan as the campaign intensified. Despite moments of contact with the enemy, Stephen’s reflections are restrained and thoughtful, focusing less on combat and more on responsibility, leadership, and the realities of command under pressure. Stephen returned to Aden again in 1967, this time as a motor transport officer, during the British withdrawal. It is this period that provokes some of his strongest reflections. He recalls the unease of dismantling a long-standing presence, and the moral discomfort of seeing local employees paid off and left vulnerable as Britain departed. Looking back, Stephen regards Aden as a “forgotten war” — one that lacks clear victory or resolution, but which nonetheless mattered deeply to those who served. For him, its significance lies not in strategy or outcome, but in the professionalism, endurance, and mutual care shown by ordinary servicemen operating in difficult and often thankless circumstances.