A LIFETIME of camping was the attraction of Army life for Col Neil McIntosh, who retires today after 16 years as Green Howards regimental secretary, based in Richmond.

The dentist's son, who admits he enlisted to "get the hell out of" his native South Wales, accepted the prestigious post at the regiment's headquarters in the Green Howards museum on the spur of the moment.

"In 1982 I had come up for the funeral of the then regimental secretary and the colonel of the regiment asked me if I had considered becoming regimental secretary," he recalls. "I said I hadn't and he asked if I would. I said yes, never having given the idea a passing thought."

The post was expected to become vacant in 1987, but the incumbent opted for earlier retirement and Col McIntosh took over on March 3, 1986.

His main achievements since then have been massive redevelopment of the museum, a change of format, size and content for the Green Howards Gazette, of which he was editor, and replacement of the "stuffier" elements of regimental dinners.

"I removed the top table because I couldn't stand top-table syndrome," he says. "I also insisted on round tables, which make conversation far easier and has proved very popular indeed."

Col McIntosh surprised his family when he opted to join the Army after leaving Clifton College boarding school. His father had served in the Gordon Highlanders during the First World War, but there was no other military family history.

"One of the reasons I joined up was to get the hell out of South Wales, where we lived," he recalls. "But, as a young boy who had lived through the war, the idea of spending one's life camping, for want of a better word, had a tremendous appeal to someone like myself. I wasn't particularly a bookworm and was much happier out in the open air."

After attending the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, he was commissioned into the Green Howards on December 20, 1957, and his first posting was to Hong Kong.

After a year, he was sent to West Germany, but returned to England to become the final training subaltern at the Richmond depot from 1960 to 1961.

Col McIntosh then rejoined the 1st battalion and, in 1963, was posted to Libya, where he served as recce platoon commander for two years.

Then followed a year at Strensall, near York, with 11 Army Youth Team, where he became adjutant of the former 4/5th battalion at Scarborough, with Col Geoffrey Scrope as his commanding officer.

In 1967, he returned to the 1st battalion at Colchester, where he oversaw the change to an armoured infantry battalion.

He then became staff captain in Germany before being posted back to the battalion to command Support Company.

Two Northern Ireland tours followed before a further six months at Strensall in 1974 and a three-year posting to Allied Forces headquarters in Holland.

He again rejoined the 1st battalion in West Berlin as second in command, before a brief posting at Aldergrove and, in February 1979, a move to Taunton to command the new Junior Soldiers' battalion.

The three years until retirement, on February 29, 1986, were spent at NATO headquarters in Norway, where he had several private audiences with the late King Olav, who was colonel in chief of the regiment.

In 1978, Col McIntosh was awarded the MBE.

One of the attractions of the regimental secretarial post was not having to move house frequently.

"I was fed up of moving," he says. "For example, we had four different houses in a year from Easter 1978, including Holland, West Berlin, Belfast and Taunton.

"We hardly had time to unpack. In fact, in Northern Ireland we didn't unpack at all because our baggage got stuck in Berlin and arrived just as I was posted to Taunton."

Col McIntosh had some idea of what the job entailed and was keen to exercise his keen interest in history. He also relished the chance to edit the regimental Gazette.

"Five or six years into the job I was asked if I found it traumatic," he says. "I said no, not in the slightest, because, apart from not having to wear a ginger suit to work, I was still dealing with the same people I had been dealing with for the last 30 years. I have made some good friends all over the world."

He and his wife, Penny, who have two married daughters and four grandchildren, have no plans to move from their home in Hunton, between Bedale and Leyburn.

"I had often said to my wife, long before the question of regimental secretary came up, that I would like to retire to North Yorkshire," he says.

"When you add up all the pros and cons, North Yorkshire is a very nice place to live and work."

Retirement plans include keeping some links with the research side of the museum, as well as having the time to visit his grandchildren in the south of England more frequently, and having the luxury of more time to travel and garden.

"My wife, I am sure, has got enough jobs lined up for me to last years," he says.

"I also have seven years' worth of photographs in packets which need putting into albums.

"We also hope to travel and enjoy holidays without having to rush back to work."

The post of regimental secretary remains unfilled, as there was no interest in the position, and the duties will be divided.

A colleague at the museum, Maj Roger Chapman, takes over as curator and Gazette editor, while Maj Brian Metcalfe becomes officer in command of the regimental headquarters