IT was certainly a white Christmas for one soldier from Redditch.

Cpl Justin Morgan, 31, a former St Augustine's High School pupil, is serving with The Queen's Royal Hussars, as part of a six-month peacekeeping tour in Kosovo.

He has been working as part of Nato's peacekeeping force in Kosovo since October and it is his third operational tour in the Balkans.

As a multinational force, the job involves close co-operation with soldiers from Norway, Sweden, Finland, The Czech Republic and others.

Cpl Morgan, who will return to The Queen's Royal Hussar's base in Sennelager, Germany, in April, said winters in Kosovo could be extremely harsh and soldiers could find themselves working in conditions of up to minus 30 deg C.