This month saw the end of an era for a group of Korean war veterans whose association has been disbanded.

Members of the West Yorkshire branch of the British Korean War Veterans Association laid up their standard at Bradford’s City Hall, where it will stay on permanent display.

Membership has dwindled over the years, but thanks to veterans such as Geoff Dowling, future generations will be reminded of the conflict, in which around 100,000 British troops served and more than 2,000 lost their lives.

Geoff, of Daisy Hill, was 18 when he was sent to Korea in October, 1951. Like 60 per cent of British soldiers fighting there, he was on National Service.

“I left school at 14 and was an apprentice printer, I’d barely been anywhere. It was a chance for travel and adventure – and it was doing my bit,” he recalls.

Last summer, more than 60 years on, Geoff returned to South Korea where he was the only British ex-serviceman to receive a special award.

Geoff, 81, went there as a prize for writing about his experiences in Korea. While recovering from a stroke in 2009, he drew on his Army record and a diary he kept in Korea to write a 2,700-word booklet called National Service Or An Awfully Big Adventure. The Korean Veterans’ Association invited him to submit it for an award honouring veterans, and last summer he was presented with a trophy at the Korean Embassy in London. It was followed by a ten-day trip to Korea, accompanying the Korean Ambassador on visits to commemorative events, war memorials and battlefields.

Now Geoff’s essay has been published in a book, produced by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the conflict. Called The Korean War Veterans’ Enduring Legacy, it features memories of British Korean War veterans.

Geoff’s recollections begin on a frosty morning in January 1951 when he arrival at Saighton Camp, Chester, for training with the 1st Battalion Welch Regiment.

He writes of travelling on the troopship Empire Fowey bound for Korea, and the dangerous, often harrowing experiences that followed once he finally arrived. “With almost unbearable heat, mosquitoes and other insects a nuisance, skin infections rife, and the daily dose of salt and pauladrin tablets nauseous, life wasn’t very pleasant,” he recalls.

But for Geoff, it was also an adventure. “I’d only been to Blackpool before. Suddenly I was the other side of the world,” he says.

“I was granted leave in Japan, and ‘Cherry Blossom’ time in Tokyo was a wonderful experience. The early morning flight back to Korea was memorable for a sight of Fuju Yama with a backdrop of indescribable dawn – no wonder Japan is called the Land of the Rising Sun.”

Filled with anecdotes and photographs, Geoff’s essay leaves a legacy for future generations.

“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,” he says.