OLD soldiers and comrades of the King's Own Royal Regiment travelled to Lancaster to inspect the grand refurbishment of their regimental museum this week. After a year's hard work and a £120,000 investment, the museum in Lancaster's Market Square has been redesigned from top to toe. Some of the exhibits include the oldest surviving British Army uniform from 1760 and four Victoria Crosses won by ordinary men for their acts of extraordinary bravery.

There are also more saddening reminders of the jobs the Regiment has had to do, including a specially commissioned oil painting from Culloden and a message in the bottle from a battalion of men wiped out during the First World War.

The project has involved all the staff and volunteers at the City Museum and assistant keeper, Peter Donnelly said: "We have a regimental museum that the regiment, the city and our visitors can be extremely proud of."

"We wanted this to become a museum not just for the people who know about the army but also for visitors who have no clear idea of it - and particularly of their local Regiment. With this project we were looking to refocus from battles and generals to the people who served, the life they led and the job they did."

The King's Own Royal Regiment was raised in 1680 to help defend Tangier in North Africa, but was known as the 2nd Tangier Regiment. By 1715 it received the distinctive title 'The King's Own Regiment of Foot'. The Regiment moved into Bowerham Barracks in 1880 and amalgamated with the Border Regiment in 1959, forming the King's Own Royal Border Regiment.

The Regimental Museum first opened in 1929 and most of the items in the museum's collections have been gathered from old soldiers and their families.

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