Our memento of day Owen bagged crocs

One day Owen bagged two crocodiles, and a local craftsman quickly turned the skins into a handbag which now, 90 years later, is still being used by the wife of his son, Vincent Richards, from Romsey.

"The bag is as good today as when it was first made 90 years ago,'' said Vincent.

"The craftsmanship is superb and the leather first class.

"I can remember the bag was a present to my mother, Frances, and still recall her using it.'' According to Vincent, who carefully looks after his father's scrapbooks and photograph albums from the First World War, within the ranks of the former battalion were mainly clerks, shopkeepers and tradesmen's sons.

He said: "While the battalion was in this country, whenever they moved it was always on bicycles, but once they went overseas they were usually transported by local trains.'' Owen, who lived in Lordswood, was aged 20 when he joined up as a Territorial soldier in 1896 and stayed on with the battalion when the First World War began.

After a period on the sweltering North West Frontier the Hampshire troops were then ordered to the freezing conditions of Siberia in Russia.

Pub landlord Vincent said: "They were taken by ship to Russia and during the voyage they received the rather tongue-in-cheek orders from their commanding officer, who said You are to proceed to Vladivostok, make your way across Siberia, turn the Germans out of the country, put a stop to the Russian revolution and await further orders'.'' When Owen Richards left the Army he became the pub landlord of the former Olde Shippe Inn that stood in Commercial Road until it was bombed during the Second World War.

Owen and his family then moved to Nomansland in the New Forest, where they took over The Lamb public house, before moving on to the Fleming Arms in Romsey, which once stood on the corner of the road where Vincent and his wife Rosemary now live.