It's time for my annual GOOD MORNING charity fund raising and I shall for once be straying from my usual local focus.

This year I have chosen the Army Museums Ogilby Trust which enables me to combine my love of military history with my increasing desire to encourage the development of young people of all backgrounds and in this case whose interests might exceed those of many educators' increasingly corralled world views.

AMOT amongst other supports the work of smaller museums which commemorate the history of regiments, many of which have been disbanded or merged but whose names and deeds might otherwise be lost to posterity.

The Trust and I have agreed that we will with the help of the museums which care to participate be launching an essay competition for youngsters under sixteen, or eighteen if they are still at school, in which they should address the subject of either the history of the respective museum and regiment it commemorates or the service records of one of their parents, grand parents or great grandparents.

Each Museum can submit its own best essay and a board will then select the overall winners. The prizes will be a trip for the winners to visit with their respective family a museum of their choice, be that the National Army Museum in Chelsea, the wonderful Tank Museum in Bovington in Dorset, the National War Museum in Edinburgh, or maybe the exciting Chalke History Festival.

I'd be exaggerating were I to declared that we have all the details worked out as the prizes will need to be adapted to the winners' and their families' locations, interests and individual needs.

I would like to dedicate my charity appeal to the memory of my dear late friend Morris Sachs who died a year ago last April, who shared with me my passion for military history and who would with his customary generosity have been right behind me in my choice of this year's beneficiary