NATIONAL Servicemen from Worcestershire were among the British forces fighting the terrorists in Malaya at this time half-a-century ago.

The Berrow's Journal of 1951 carried a photograph and details of some of the local men serving in the Malayan jungles with D Company of the 1st Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment.

As part of the large force employed against the bandits, these National Servicemen from Worcestershire live in the humid jungles for a month at a time, searching for the Communist terrorists.

During the short time they have been in Malaya, they have killed eight bandits, captured numerous bandit camps and stores, and arrested many bandit agents operating in villages on the fringe of the jungle.

After a month in the jungle, the servicemen return for a fortnight's rest in their camp on a rubber estate where these jungle heroes refresh themselves, enjoying film shows and playing badminton and basket-ball on a court they have built.

However, a report on another page of the same Journal edition of 1951 brought tragic news from Malaya.

Mr and Mrs E.A. Rowley of Broadway Grove, Worcester have been officially notified that their youngest son, Sergeant John (Tony") Rowley of the 1st Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, was killed while serving in Malaya on February 22.

SERGEANT. Rowley, aged 22, leaves a widow and four-months-old baby. A Regular soldier, he had five years' service and went to the Far East last June. His father served with the Worcestershire Regiment for 21 years and was for a long period Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant.

The following week's Journal carried even more sorrowful new from Malaya .Five men of the 'Worcesters,' aged between 18 and 22, have been killed in an ambush by the bandits.

On a happier note, the Journal of 50 years ago gave good tidings about the fortunes of a leading county manufacturing firm.

L.G Harris and Company of Stoke Prior is challenging Germany's pre-war monopoly in paint-brush making machinery.

''It expects to double its foreign sales this year and has orders in hand from the USA, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Egypt and several European countries.

"The company is now one of Britain's biggest exporters of painting and decorating brushes and employs 500 people.

''The Harris factory is set in the heart of lovely Worcestershire countryside and its grounds are filled with nurseries of beech, sycamore, ash and chestnut trees.

''The saplings go to the firm's own woodlands and will one day become handles for 'Harris' brushes.

HOWEVER, success, also 50 years ago, was bringing problems for the Worcester Grammar School for Girls, which was clearly bursting at the seams. The Journal explained that the school in Barbourne had been built for 350 pupils but then had more than 550 on roll.

The Chairman of Governors, Alderman W.H. Norton told the annual prize-giving that, despite a national economy drive, the school was planning vital extensions later in 1951.

A century ago this week, Crowquill, in his Journal comment column, expressed concern that the honesty of a Worcester butcher was going without any reward or compensation.

Every credit should be handed to Mr Morris, butcher, of Worcester who, on killing a beast for sale, found the internal organs in a suspicious state and voluntarily submitted them to the Medical Officer of the Droitwich Board of Guardians who found them riddled with disease and destroyed the whole carcass.

Mr Morris might have sold the carcass to an unsuspecting public, with untold danger to health, and it is very regrettable that he gets no reward nor compensation for having done the right thing.