SKIPTON soldier Martin Williamson was among thousands of troops based in Iraq treated to an impromptu visit by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The former Aireville School pupil is a captain in the Adjutant General's Corps, attached to the joint helicopter force in Basra. The AGC is one of the largest units in the British Army and deals with personnel.

Based at Basra Airport, he and the other troops were given only half an hour's notice of Mr Blair's arrival on Sunday.

In the Prime Minister's second visit to the war-hit country he visited 600 representatives of the 10,000 British servicemen and women stationed in the south of the country.

He thanked troops, calling them "the new pioneers of soldiering" for their part in winning the conflict and told them that they now had to "win the peace".

Captain Williamson has been in the Gulf since the middle of November.

Before that he served in Germany and volunteered for an operational posting. Initially it looked as though he may be sent to Afghanistan.

In an e-mail he told the Herald that he would never forget his experience in Iraq.

"It is hard work and has been frustrating at times," he added. "However, it is extremely rewarding to see the improvements that are being made to the lives of people who have suffered so much for the last 30 years under the regime of Saddam Hussein."

Martin is due back home in April, giving him a few months' preparation time for his wedding on August 6 to fiance Caroline Harling.

The couple have spent most of their engagement apart with Captain Williamson going to Germany shortly after popping the question in June 2002.

However they have managed to forge ahead with the preparations despite being around 3,000 miles apart.

Miss Harling, a teacher at Christ Church School, said they had chosen the reception venue together.

"We have got all the major bits done. It's all the little bits that we are planning to do when he gets back such as table decorations and order of service. I e-mail him stuff and he looks at websites and makes a decision," she added.

He also gets a free 20-minute phone call a week. However Captain Williamson has to be careful about what he says for security reasons.

Miss Harling said: "He told me that they had caught Saddam but he wasn't allowed to say anything else."

She added that she felt reassured by the fact that she knew her fianc was stationed in a safe place.

"I was explaining to the children at school that the distance between Basra and Baghdad is equal to that between Scotland and London," she told the Herald.

Captain Williamson's mother, Muriel, said she had been impressed with the way the couple had planned their wedding.

"I have to say they are very organised. They have done a lot of the work and made a lot of the decisions. They did it early on," she said.

Her son was not given leave to come home for Christmas -instead it was a normal working day for him.

Mrs Williamson explained: "We were disappointed but it was something we were prepared for. When he joined the army we knew he had no choice about where he would be at Christmas."

Mrs Williamson and her husband, Gordon, have three other children, Rachel, Philip and Ruth.