In peace and war, and whether conscripts or volunteers, the soldiers from Wolverhampton area have always done their bit.
They have fought in the world wars and their duties have taken them to far-flung hotspots. Many served in the local regiment, the South Staffords, a unit which, like most of those who wore its badge, has passed into history, though proud memories endure.
Today we take foreign travel for granted, but for many soldiers of yesteryear their spell in the Army saw them travel abroad for the first time in a great adventure, although in wartime or times of strife what greeted them was no bed of roses, and the novelty would pall in any event after years away from their loved ones. Other aspects like the discipline, and especially the camaraderie, would shape many a young life.
Soldiers of Wolverhampton, we salute you.
Step back to 1983 and explore Wolverhampton life through these archive pictures.
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9. Mortar life
As war clouds gathered, these soldiers of the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment were getting to grips with "modern infantry equipment" at Mytchett, Aldershot. Here they are becoming familiar with a 3ins mortar. The date was January 1938. | Express & Star archive
10. Happy homecoming
A group of men of the 1st Battalion the South Staffordshire Regiment photographed after they had disembarked from the Empress of Scotland on their return to Britain from India in February 1948. The battalion had been overseas since a year before the war broke out. | Express & Star archive
11. Inside the orderly room
"Orders is Orders - and this a scene in a Company orderly room where the orders are made out," reads the original January 1941 caption to this photo which accompanied an Express & Star article by "Our Special Correspondent" who visited soldiers of the South Staffs in their winter quarters "somewhere in the north of England." The location was not given due to wartime censorship. | Express & Star archive
12. No detail escapes the Sergeant
An Army marches on its stomach, and here we see the unheralded work of the potato-peelers. But the Sergeant cook isn't happy with their handiwork - they have left an eye on one of the spuds. This was another picture carried with a January 1941 article by the Express & Star's "special correspondent" who who visited soldiers of the South Staffordshire Regiment at their winter quarters in the north of England, and while there visited the cookhouse. | Express & Star archive