A FORMER headmaster's passion for his county regiment has earned him renewed national acclaim.

Author Harry Moses, head teacher at Aycliffe Village Primary School for 21 years until 1993, has devoted much of his retirement to researching and writing the history of the former Durham Light Infantry (DLI).

His first work, the Faithful Sixth, featured the 6th Battalion, was published in 1995. It earned Harry a commendation in the Alan Ball Local History Awards, inaugurated 18 years ago to encourage and recognise local history publications by local authorities and libraries.

He has since switched his attentions to the DLI's 9th Battalion, which recruited predominantly in the Gateshead area and many of the surrounding former mining villages south of the Tyne and Derwent Valley.

Nicknamed the Gateshead Gurkhas, it is the only battalion to have three Victoria Cross winners in its ranks, Lt Roland Bradford and Pte Thomas Young, for brave actions during the First World War, plus Pte Adam Wakenshaw, for valour in the 1939-45 conflict.

Harry's recent production, The Gateshead Gurkhas, has gone one better than the first and won the 2002 Alan Ball Local History Award. Judges described it as: "A first-class and handsomely produced regimental history, enormously detailed and well researched."

The author, accompanied by his wife Audrey, was presented with his framed certificate, complete with a cover of the book, at a ceremony staged at the DLI Museum in Durham this week.

Harry, whose own national service was in post-war Hong Kong with the Royal Army Service Corps, said his writing has been a labour of love. "I've been interested in military history, since I was a kid.

"The books have come from a passion for my county regiment, having been born and bred in Durham. I have a lot of respect for their achievements."