Korean War veteran Geoff Dowling has returned to the South-East Asian country to receive a medal for his service there. He has also written a booklet containing his memories of the conflict. EMMA CLAYTON talked to him about his experiences

Geoff Dowling was an 18-year-old National Service conscript when he found himself on a troopship heading to Korea in October 1951.

Like most young men on board the Empire Fowey, Geoff had never set foot outside the UK before. Although aware of the war they were heading to, the men were bonded by a sense of adventure.

“We were eager to go,” says Geoff. “I was an apprentice printer, working on the Morecambe Visitor. I’d barely been anywhere. For those of us who’d left school at 14, it was a chance for travel and adventure – and it was doing our bit.

“My father served in the First World War and my brother in the Second World War. I felt I had to do my duty too.”

Sixty per cent of the British soldiers fighting in the Korean War were on National Service.

After joining 30 conscripts for military training on a frosty morning at Saighton Camp, Chester, in January 1951, Geoff was posted to the Welch Regiment and later sent to Korea.

More than 60 years later he has returned to Korea, where he was presented with a medal for his service there. The only British ex-serviceman to receive the award, he was made an ambassador representing veterans of the conflict. Geoff, 81, travelled to Korea as a prize for an award-winning booklet he wrote after reading a magazine article inviting old soldiers to apply for a copy of their service record.

“With memories vanishing into the sands of time, I sent off my application, expecting an A4 sheet with a number of dates on,” says Geoff. “Months later, I received a brown paper parcel containing 296 pages of my entire Army record.”

After suffering a stroke in 2009, Geoff was confined to his Daisy Hill home for a recovery period. He used the time to draw on his Army record, and a little diary he kept in Korea, to write a 2,700-word booklet called National Service Or An Awfully Big Adventure’.

Filled with colourful anecdotes and photographs of his time in Korea, and snaps of locals he encountered, it’s an enthralling account of life as a young serviceman a long way from home. He writes of his infantry training, ‘footslogging’ and digging trenches, and life on the front line.

“Those who served in Korea are over 80 now, there aren’t many of us left. I wanted to write down my memories for my grandchildren,” says Geoff.

Through the Korean Veterans’ Association, Geoff was invited to submit his booklet for an award honouring veterans, and in August he was presented with a trophy at the Korean Embassy in London. The ceremony was organised by UK Veterans and Families Health Appreciation, marking 60 years since the end of the Korean War.

Geoff was invited on a ten-day trip to South Korea, accompanying the Ambassador of Korea as a VIP guest at 60th anniversary commemorative celebrations. The trip included visits to the War Memorial Museum, war cemeteries and battle sites.

Staying at the luxury Lotte Hotel in Seoul was a world away from what Geoff had known 60 years previously. “We lived in basic barracks. I remember being on swill duty!” he recalls.

“Seoul is amazing, it’s totally different from when I was there before. It was a rural, barren landscape, now it’s a modern city.”

Back in 1951, Geoff underwent special training with the 1st Battalion Welch Regiment in preparation for Korea. Aboard the Empire Fowey, calling at Gibraltar and Malta and sailing down the Suez Canal and Red Sea, with military bands greeting the ship at ports of calls, he visited “places that had only been names in my stamp album”. Acclimatisation route marches took place at Aden, Colombo, Singapore and Hong Kong, where the Welch Regiment mascot, Taffy the goat, collapsed and was carried back to the ship. “After a few days he recovered and the whole battalion heaved a sigh of relief, as some superstitious Welshmen feared it was a bad omen,” recalls Geoff.

The ship docked at Pusan Harbour on November 10 and the men were sent north of Seoul. Winter was setting in and within days snow started to fall.

New Year’s Eve 1951 is a night Geoff has never forgotten. Sent into no-man’s land with a four-man patrol, he became caught in the light of flares, resulting in mortar bombs dropping just a few feet away. “I thought I’d had it but fortunately not many exploded. Either somebody up there likes me or the Chinese munitions quality control system leaves a lot to be desired,” says Geoff. “It was one of several near-misses while I was out there.”

Some of his comrades weren’t so lucky. Some were killed and others captured and sent to prisoner-of-war camps. While in Korea this summer, he visited a war memorial at Incheon bearing the names of friends who lost their lives.

“It was war, we accepted that. It was what we’d trained for,” says Geoff. “Life wasn’t pleasant – the heat was almost unbearable, we were plagued with mosquitoes, skin infections were rife, the winters were bitterly cold and we were caught up in a bloody conflict – but we had a great camaraderie.

“I’d gone there with two of my old schoolfriends. We’d attended the same school and Cubs, played in the same football team and joined up together.

“We saw places we’d never normally have seen. In spring I was granted leave in Japan. ‘Cherry blossom’ time in Tokyo was a wonderful experience when my only previous holiday had been Blackpool!”

By the end of the summer of 1953, servicemen were being posted back to the UK. As winter approached, Geoff’s battalion left the front line. He was discharged in February 1953 and went on to join the Territorial Army.

He was reminded of the gratitude of the South Korean people during his return visit. “We attended a ceremony in memory of the Incheon landings – a big victory in the conflict – and as we walked in children gave us each a posy of flowers. There’s a great sense of gratitude for what we did,” he says.

Geoff was presented with a certificate bearing the words, ‘Thank you United Kingdom for 60 years of Commitment, 60 years of Friendship. The peace, prosperity and liberties that we cherish today are built on your selfless sacrifice.’ “It was wonderful being back there sharing memories. The veterans were mostly American GIs and just five of us were from the UK,” says Geoff.

After the war he finished his printing apprenticeship and moved to Bradford in 1954. He was a lecturer in print and typography and general studies at Bradford College for 33 years.

In July, members of the West Yorkshire branch of the Korean Veterans’ Association attended a poignant ceremony at City Hall marking the conflict’s 60th anniversary. Geoff, who has five children and 12 grandchildren, hopes younger generations will remember the war.

“It has become a forgotten war,” he says. “It was mostly ordinary lads like me serving out there. Many platoons were led by National Service officers. After the war, Brigadier Kendrew of the Commonwealth Division paid tribute to the National Servicemen making up 60 per cent of battalions. He said: ‘These young men, mostly 19 years old, adapted themselves to the art and hell of war and played a full part in writing their regiments’ histories’.

”The interviewing officer told me on my enlistment that I could go far in the Army – I reckon he got it right.”