WARTIME memories came flooding back, as a former soldier in The Green Howards was transported back to his days as a boy soldier.

Maj Jack Riordan was the third generation of his family to serve as a regimental sergeant major and to be awarded the MBE.

And the latest exhibition at the regimental museum in Richmond, North Yorkshire, called Behind Barbed Wire, brought his early Army days back to life.

Major Riordan, who lives in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was only 14 when he joined The Green Howards in 1944. He was given the task, by Band Sergeant "Chirby" Woodall, of helping to put together parcels for POWs in Austria, Germany, Italy and Czechoslovakia.

Mr Woodall, who later became Mayor of Richmond, was instrumental in setting up a fund in the town that raised thousands of pounds to pay for extra items to go with the standard Red Cross parcels, including cigarettes, woollen socks, gloves and chocolate.

Part of Maj Riordan's job was to break up the slabs of chocolate with a hammer, so that it could be put in the parcels, which were then wrapped in calico before being sent abroad.

Maj Riordan lived in the regimental sergeant major's house, in Richmond, from 1932 to 1934, when his father, Tom, was RSM - a position also held by Jack's grandfather, also called Tom.

Maj Riordan also served as RSM before being commissioned as an officer and all three members of the family were awarded the MBE for their service with The Green Howards.

"Sixty years ago I was hard at work sending out these parcels, knowing they were going to help men who had been taken prisoner by the enemy," he said.

"This exhibition brings it all back to me."

Behind Barbed Wire tells the story of some of the 2,600 Green Howards who were captured by the Germans and Italians.