A former teenage "tearaway" who swapped stacking supermarket shelves for a job tackling weapon and oil smugglers is finishing his first tour of Iraq.

Eighteen-year-old soldier Thomas Robertshaw is looking forward to seeing family and friends after a six-month spell taking on insurgents around Basra.

Private Robertshaw's job carrying out security patrols and capturing rebels suspected of attacks is a far cry from his days working in Saltaire Co-op soon after leaving Beckfoot School in Bingley.

"I just came out of the Co-op one day and thought, I've had enough of stacking shelves. I wanted a bit more," he said.

"I'm only 18 and my friends back home are just finishing school and I'm here doing this scary job. It makes you grow up a bit faster. Out here all you've got is each other. It's just different. You're living with guys like this for six months, and you've got to get along."

Just before heading to Iraq, he admitted having been a real tearaway at school.

"I hung around with the wrong people and I would have stayed where I was if it wasn't for the Army."

Pte Robertshaw has been part of the 100-strong Arnhem Company since it arrived in Iraq in October - just a month after his 18th birthday.

His regiment, the 1st Battalion, the King's Own Royal Border Regiment (KORBR), has a nomadic existence in south eastern Iraq, carrying out operations across Basra Province and sometimes Maysan Province.

These can be security patrols, tackling weapon and oil smugglers, and detention operations where Pte Robertshaw and his comrades raid the homes of people suspected of insurgent attacks.

Recruiting office staff were surprised when the Shipley teenager said he wanted to join the KORBR, which is normally based in North Luffenham, in Rutland.

"I had my heart set on it. Halfway through my training I had a chance to join a Yorkshire regiment but stayed with the King's Own because I found out they were coming to Iraq."

Close family friend Pte Aaron Pickering, also from Shipley, was already in the regiment.

He has been touched by the local Iraqis, who have been far friendlier than he expected.

"It makes you wonder and appreciate what you've got at home to go on patrol and see people living in mud huts.

"I gave a little girl, no older than five or six, a bottle of drink and she started crying she was so pleased and surprised."

He has even learnt some of the language, something his school teachers might be surprised to hear.

"I speak so-so Arabic. They quite appreciate that. I was no good at languages at school but the difference now is I do it off my own back. I want to learn it."

And he admitted the Iraq tour has been an experience in more ways than one.

"It's the first time I'd been abroad apart from France for a school trip, in fact the first time on a plane coming here.

"It's scary - but not as scary as going into a house where there might be insurgents."

He is now looking forward to returning home, as he plans to switch to a locally-based regiment, the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire.

"I've had a great time with these lads. It's been a great laugh and we'll stay in touch. I've made some great friends over here."