Unveiling of a new memorial in Portsmouth to commemorate the 2.2 million national servicemen who served in the British Armed forces between 1947 and 1963.This is a result of a large fundraising effort by Michael Homer, a Hampshire veteran and chairman of the National Service Veterans Alliance who served in the Royal Army Service Corps between 1958 and 1960. This fundraising included a plaque-a-thon by visiting towns by rail.
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00:00 great pleasure to be here today to unveil this plaque for National Service men. 2.2
00:08 million men did National Service and this is a remembrance to them. Dads and Grandads
00:15 that did National Service and it's a real pleasure and it is the first plaque of a military
00:22 importance town to be unveiled. I got another 60 plaques to distribute around the rest of the UK.
00:31 I love the job, I do, really do. So tell me has it been a bit of a journey trying to get
00:38 the plaque here? No, the journey as regards how I raised the money was I visited 50 county towns
00:46 in terms of military importance in less than 150 hours by train. I raised £7,500 and that purchased
00:56 all the plaques I need and now I've got to start distributing around the cities and asking Lord
01:02 Mayors would they like to uncover it and such and so forth. Okay so I'm in a wheelchair, don't stop
01:08 me doing things. You've done a great effort, how does it feel today? Absolutely great, I think
01:15 that's the best way I can describe it. And is Portsmouth the first one? Portsmouth is the first
01:20 one for this. At the present moment there's only seven plaques in the whole of the UK and we don't
01:26 know who put them there to be quite honest but we're putting all the rest of them there to
01:30 remember National Service men.