THE Green Howards have welcomed a new recruit to their ranks - all the way from Canada.

Sarah Taylor, 25, is now hard at work in the regimental museum in Richmond, North Yorkshire, as its newly-appointed collections and audience development officer.

And already she is getting to grips with the regiment's important and extensive photographic collection.

Ms Taylor comes from mid-Canada and studied archaeology at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, before moving to England to take a Master's degree in museum studies at the University of Leicester.

Before the end of her course she applied for the Heritage Lottery-funded full-time post at the museum.

The Green Howards photographic collection dates back to the mid-19th century, and includes early Daguerreotypes and photographs of the Crimean War, taken by Roger Fenton.

They include images of the Green Howards officers who fought at the Battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854, one of the regiment's major battle honours.

Ms Taylor is supervising volunteers who are cataloguing the collection, and also has plans to recruit interested groups who can give advice on how they would like to see the museum develop.

Curator Major Roger Chapman said: "Sarah is a great asset to the museum, and we are very pleased to have her with us.

"Our collection of photographs deserves to be better known, and with Sarah's help in developing new audiences, we hope to share them, and the rest of our displays, as widely as possible."