Captain Alexander Allan completed what he calls a “relatively quiet” tour of duty in Helmand province, Afghanistan, last October: “It was the tour before [Prince] Harry's lot went out.”

Nonetheless, his unit, the 1st Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, suffered five dead and 32 severely injured.

During the tour Captain Allan, 28, took photographs with his digital SLR camera, some of which have been assembled for an exhibition later this month, the proceeds from which will go to a charity that helps injured men from the Grenadier Guards and the families of those killed.

The pictures give a day-to-day soldier's-eye view of what it means to be involved in Britain's seven-year-long, continuing operations in Afghanistan.

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• Pictures: Afghanistan - a soldier's view

Here, Captain Allan describes the circumstances in which some of his pictures were taken, from gruelling “contacts” with Taleban fighters to R&R in a water tank belonging to a friendly farmer.

“Taking photographs was a bit of a hobby. It was almost therapeutic,” he says. “Taking this self-portrait (above) and pictures like it helped to pass the hours when we had some downtime. I also wanted to try to capture the beauty of the country: some of the landscape is incredible - it feels like a travesty to be fighting in it.”

Captain Allan joined the Army after graduating from Exeter University in 2002, and his commission with the Grenadier Guards ends this month. “What I saw is only a tiny snapshot of what our soldiers face in Afghanistan every day - often in circumstances many times more challenging,” says. “It has been an honour to work in the Grenadier Guards.”

Armed with Afghans: Photographs from Afghanistan (sponsored by Olympus) runs from March 26 to 30 at The Pensioners' Museum in the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London. Entrance is £5. For more information on the exhibition and how to donate to the Colonel's Fund, see www.grenade.org.uk/colonelsfund.asp