Green Howards show even soldiers need to take a break from fighting

Photographs found in the regimental archives and recently catalogued by staff at the Green Howards Museum in Richmond shows there was time to relax in between fighting and fatigues.

Lynda Powell, Director and Curator, said: "These fascinating photographs help us to remember that soldiers have always made the most of their free time, and that they can snatch a moment of relaxation even in the middle of war."

One features officers of the Regiment – and a dog – enjoying a picnic during a cricket match at Limmasol in Cyprus in 1888. Earthenware flasks may contain the local wine, and there is bottled British beer, too.

Forty years on, the Green Howards were in Egypt in 1929. Inspired by the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, they arranged themselves into a gigantic symbol of the Green Howards – the XIX standing for the 19th Regiment of Foot.

The last photographs shows a group of men from the 4th Battalion The Green Howards in North Africa in May 1942.

A few days later the Desert Fox launched an attack, and many of men were captured and spent the rest of the war as POWs.