A COLLECTION of documents and artefacts currently on show at the Green Howards Museum in Richmond held a special significance to one group of visitors.

The Green Howards spent 24 years serving in Sri Lanka at the turn of the 19th century and some of the trinkets brought back by soldiers are now on show at the regimental museum.

And a party of Sri Lankans are currently on an educational exchange programme organised by the Wensleydale Rotary Club - so a special visit was arranged to allow them an opportunity to relive a chapter in their nation's history.

The Green Howards' posting to the Indian Ocean meant they missed the Napoleonic Wars - but still lost more men and equipment than some of the regiments that served under Wellington.

One Green Howards unit was all but wiped out in an uprising in Kandy in what was then Ceylon. However, maps, diaries and china from the era still survive today, including an entree dish found at a market in Colombo in 1910 and later presented to the museum.

Curator Major Roger Chapman said: "Our Sri Lankan visitors were fascinated by our collection of information about the regiment's time in their country.

"We are grateful to the Rotary Club for asking us to show them round the museum."