The Royal Regiment of Wales was formed by the amalgamation of the South Wales Borderers (24th of Foot) and the Welsh Regiment (41st of Foot) in 1969.

The South Wales Borderers were raised in 1689 as Dering's Regiment becoming the 24th of Foot in 1751.

Regimental Battle Honours,

VICTORIA CROSS AWARDS.

Twenty Two members of the Regiment have been awarded the Victoria Cross:

Five in the Andaman Islands, (1873 - 1874)  , Ten in the Zulu and Basuto War, Six during The First World War.

The Welsh Regiment

Raised in 1719 as Colonel Fielding's Regiment of invalids, changing in 1751 to the 41st Invalids and becoming the 2nd Battalion of the 24th of foot. and again becoming in 1758 the 69th Foot.

Battle Honours shown on Standards  (awards shown before 1881 are for the 69th)

The Welsh Regiment

Both battalions of this regiment were in one sense national before their union; the 1^st battalion having been the 41^st (the Welsh) Foot, the 2^nd ( the old 69^th South Lincolnshire) having originated as a 2^nd battalion of the South Wales Borderers.

           The 1^st battalion was raised in 1719 as a regiment of “Royal Invalids,” and was recruited from old soldiers, receiving the title of the “41^st Royal Invalids” in 1751, which was abbreviated to the “41^st” in 1787, when the old officers retired, and the regiment was filled up with fresh drafts.  The Hon.  Arthur Wellesley did duty for a while with the grenadier company about this time, and the title of “The Welsh” was added to the number in 1831, and the present territorial designation in1881.

           It saw no service until the outbreak of the great was, and in 1794 had sailed for the West Indies, where it did duty at the taking of Port-au-Prince and the defence of Fort Bizotten.  Its next campaign was that of Canada in 1812-14, when it was present at the battles of Detroit, Queenstown, Miami, and Niagara, losing many of its men as prisoners.  In 1825 it took part in the first Burmese War, for which it was granted the distinction of bearing “Ava” on its colours, in addition to those mentioned above in the Canadian campaign.  It did not take an active part in the first Afghan War, but formed part of General Nott’s command at kandahar in 1842, served with Pollock at “Cabool,” and shared in the recapture of Ghuznee and the taking of Istaliff.

           In the Crimean War it fought at Alma, Inkerman, and Sevastopol, bearing these names on the colours, and saw hard fighting at the Quarries and the assaults of the 18^th June and 8^thSeptember, 1855.  This campaign won the Victoria Cross for Major Hugh Rowlands and for Sergeant-Major Ambrose Madden for their gallant conduct at Inkerman.  It had for a short time only a 2^nd battalion.

           The 2^nd present battalion was raised as the 2^nd battalion of the 24^th Regiment, but had a separate existence after 1756.  Between 1761 and 1804 it saw service at Belle Isle and St. Lucia.  It sent detachments under Hood and Rodney, sharing in the sea-fight against the Comte de Grasse, under Howe, in the victory of the 1^st June; under Hotham in 1795; under Nelson at Cape St. Vincent in 1797, and numerous other naval actions.  The rest of the battalion had meanwhile been serving in the West Indies, where, at San Domingo, it lost 800 men in two years from disease, and where it saw fighting at the occupation of Surinam and the capture of some of the West Indian islands.  In 1805 it went to India, fought bravely in the defence of Velore, at the capture of Isle Rodriguez, Bourbon, and Mauritius, and in 1811 added “Java” to the battle-roll.

           A 2^nd battalion of the old 69^th was at Bergen-op-Zoom in 1813-14, and in the campaign of 1815 at Ligny, where it suffered severely and at Waterloo; after which it furnished the guard for the victorious general’s head-quarters.  It was disbanded at the peace.

           The regimental badges are the rose and thistle, springing from a single stem within the garter, which bears the words “Honi soit qui mal y pense” and the Price of Wales’ Plume.  The motto is “Gwell augau neu Chywilydd,” or “Death rather than dishonour.”

           The uniform is scarlet with white facings, though at first they were red in the case of the 1^st battalion, and Lincoln green in the 2^nd.  The Welsh Dragon appears on the collar and waist-belt.  The plume with a crowned laurel-wreath is on the buttons and the helmet-plate, with the motto, and also on the forage-cap; on the latter, too, is the motto, in gilt metal for the 1^st, gold embroidery for the 2^nd battalion.

           There is only one battalion of  Militia attached-the Royal Glamorgan.  The Volunteer battalions are the 1^st Pembrokeshire and the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd Glamorgan corps.

           Like Royal Welsh Fusiliers, the two battalions of the Welsh Regiment have had goats as pets.  A recent friend of the 2^nd battalion, named “Taffy,” died at Cork.

           The 1^st battalion was originally known as the “41^st Invalids,” and, later on, as “Wardour’s Regiment.”  The 2^nd battalion was called the “Old Agamemnons” by Lord Nelson after the battle of Cape St. Vincent, when some of the men were serving as marines, and when a certain Private Matthew Stevens was the first man to board the Spanish man-of-war San Nicolas.

A Turn-Out of the Main Guard at the Gate of Plymouth Citadel. (1896)

  How Lieutenant C. A. Phillips, Of The ¼^th Battalion, Welsh Regiment, Won The Military Cross At Silva Bay, Gallipoli

    The first week of August 1915, witnessed the beginning of a great offensive movement by our troops in Gallipoli.  This movement involved four separate actions, the most important of which were the advance of the left of the Anzac Corps against the heights of Kija Chemen and the seaward ridges, and a new landing on a large scale at Suvla Bay.  If the Anafarta hills could be won, and the right of the new landing force linked up with the left of the Australasian, the British would hold the central crest of the spine of upland which runs through the western end of the Peninsula, and, with it, so commanding a position that, with any reasonable good fortune, the reduction of the European defences of the Narrows would only be a matter of time.  The force destined for Suvla Bay was for the most part the New Ninth corps, under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir F. W. Stopford.  It consisted of two divisions of the New Army-the 10^th (Irish), under Major-General Sir Bryan Mahon, less one brigade; the 11^th (Northern), under Major-General Hamersley; and two Territorial divisions, the 53^rd and 54^th.  The night of August 6^th-7^th was the time chosen for the landing, which was carried out with complete success, for during the day a pretence of disembarkation at Karachali, at the head of the Gulf of Saros, and attacks upon the Turkish positions at Cape Helles and Lone Pine had diverted the enemy’s attention to the extreme ends of their front, and they had no inkling of our plan.  By two o’clock in the afternoon of the 7^th, the 10^th and 11^th Divisions had disembarked, deployed into the plain and held a line east of the Salt Lake. 

            So far the operation had been conducted with perfect success, but it was necessary to push on resolutely if we were to benefit by the surprise.  And this, unfortunately, was not done, for though some further ground was won that night, little if any progress was made on the following day, which was spent in sporadic to advance, in which we lost heavily.  For this there were various causes.  In the first place, the mobility and invisibility of the enemy, cleverly concealed amid the scrub, had created the impression that we were confronted with a force many times greater than was actually the case.  In the second, the scene of combat presented extraordinary difficulties to a body of perfectly green troops, who had never been in action, and were fighting under a tropical heat and suffering torments from thirst.  And, finally there appears to have been a lamentable lack of purpose and resolution in their leadership.  By the 9^th, on which a gallant but unsuccessful attempt was made to carry the main Anfarta ridge, our chance had almost gone, for the Turkish defence was already thickening; by the morrow large reinforcements had reached the enemy, and it had vanished entirely.  On that day the 53^rd Territorial Division, under, was repulsed.  The next few days were devoted to consolidating our front, some ground being won on the 12^th by the 163^rd Brigade (from the 54^th Territorial Division), which had arrived on the previous day, on our left centre, in difficult and wooded country.  It was here that a very mysterious incident occurred.  Colonel Sir H. Beauchamp, of the 1/5^th Norfolk’s, with sixteen officers and two hundred and fifty men, who included part of a fine company enlisted from the King’s Sandringham estates, kept pushing on far in advance of the rest of the brigade, driving the enemy before him.  Nothing more was ever seen or heard of any of them.  “They charged into the forest and were lost to sight and sound,” wrote Sir Ian Hamilton; “not one of them ever came back!”  The work of consolidating our line was carried out under exceptional difficulties, for the nature of the soil did not permit of deep trenches dug, and the Turks, whose numbers were steadily rising, kept up a heavy and continuous artillery, machine gun and rifle fire from cleverly concealed positions amid the scrub and woods.  In the shallow trenches occupied by the 1/4^th Welsh, in the 53^rd Territorial Division, which faced a wood held in considerable force by the enemy, the men were obliged to keep so still that even the dead and wounded could not be moved.  For it was almost certain death to raise the head or any portion of the body above the parapet, and, on one occasion, a corporal who, in reaching out a hand for a cigarette, had exposed the top of his head was instantly shot through the brain.  In such circumstances, the gallant deed, which we shall now relate, was worthy of the highest admiration.  On the 14^th Lieutenant C. A. Philips, who was in charge of the machine gun section of the 1/4^th Welsh, perceived a wounded officer of the 1/7^th Essex, Captain Shenston, lying about seventy yards from the trench.  Despite the appalling risk they ran, he and Staff sergeant Grundy, of his battalion, immediately went to his assistance and succeeded in bringing him safely into the trench.  But these two brave Welshmen did not rest content with this single act of heroism, for in front of the trench lay others of their comrades, sore wounded and appealing piteously for water to slake their raging thirst.  So, scarcely had they found themselves in safety, when they jeopardized their lives again, and going forth, returned with another stricken man.  A third, and yet a fourth time, did lieutenant and sergeant run that terrible gauntlet of fire to succour the wounded, and on each occasion, marvelous to relate, they came through it unscathed, with the soldier whom they had gone to save.  This gallantry and self-sacrifice did not fail of recognition, for Lieutenant Phillips was promoted Captain “on the field” and subsequently awarded the Military Cross, while Staff Sergeant Grundy received the Distinguished Conduct Medal.  Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire' 

How Sergeant William Fuller Of The Welsh Regiment, Won The Victoria Cross At The Battle Of The Aisne

     On Sunday, September 13^th 1914, the greater part of the British Expeditionary Force crossed the Aisne, and by the evening the men had dug themselves in well up on the farther slopes; and early next morning, while our engineers were busily strengthening the new bridges and repairing some of the old, which the Germans had partially destroyed, so as to enable them to bear the weight of heavy traffic, a general advance was begun along the whole western section of the Allied front. On the part of the British, the real offensive was entrusted to the First Corps, under Sir Douglas Haig, which had bivouacked on the northern bank of the river between Chavonne and Moulins.  Its objective was the Chemin des Dames, or Ladies Road, four miles to the north, the possession of which would give us command of the southern part of the Craonne Palteau from Soissons to Berry-au-Bac.  The 2^nd Brigade, supported by the 25^th Artillery Brigade, was to push forward fro Moulins on the extreme right, and seize a spur east of the hamlet of Troyon, just south of the Ladies Road, while the remaining two brigades of the 1^st Division advanced up the Vendresse Valley.  The 6^th Brigade, in the 2^nd Division, was to occupy the Ladies Road south of Courtacon, while the rest of the division advanced up the Braye glen, and the 4^th (Guards) Brigade, on its left, supported by the 36^th Artillery Brigade, took the heights east of Ostel. The movement began just before dawn, and the Northampton’s captured the spur east of Troyon at the point of the bayonet.  But a desperate resistance was encountered at Troyon itself, where there was a sugar factory held in strong force by the enemy, and it was not until midday that it was carried by the North Lancashires, when the 1^st and 2^nd Brigades were drawn up on the line just south of the Ladies Road.  The 3^rd Brigade continued the line west of Vendresse and linked up with the 2^nd Division, which had met with such fierce opposition that its right was hung up south of Braye, while its left was still some way from the Ostel ridge.

            About four o’clock in the afternoon a general advance of the First corps was ordered, and by nightfall, though we had not succeeded in occupying the Ladies Road, we had, in the words of Viscount French, “gained positions which alone have enabled me to maintain my position for more than three weeks of very severe fighting on the north bank of the river.”  But this success was not won without heavy losses, especially among the commissioned ranks of the First Corps, the colonels of four of its twelve battalions-those of the Black Watch, Royal Sussex, North Lancashire and West Surreys-being all killed. The 3^rd Brigade, in capturing the village of Chivy, had a particularly severe task, the enemy being in immensely superior force and very strongly posted.  As the Welsh, in the centre, advancing by sections, neared the crest of the hill behind which lay the village, Captain Mark Haggard, a nephew of Sir Rider Haggard, ordered his men to lie down, and advanced alone to reconnoitre the German position.  Then he turned and shouted.  “Five bayonets, boys,” and the Welshmen, rising to their feet, dashed forward, to be met by a withering machine gun and rifle fire.  Calling on his men to follow him, Captain Haggard, who carried, like them, rifle and bayonet, rushed forward to capture a Maxim gun, which was doing considerably damage.  But just before he reached it, he was struck by several bullets and fell to the ground mortally wounded.  “Near me,” writes a private of the Welsh, whom had he been stuck down almost at the same moment, “was laying our brave Captain, mortally wounded.  As the shells burst over us, he would occasionally open his eyes between the spasms of pain and call out weakly, “stick it, Welsh!” Seeing Captain Haggard fall, Sergeant William Fuller ran forward under tremendous fire, and, lifting him up, carried him back about one hundred yards, until he gained the shelter of a ridge, where he laid him down and dressed his wounds.  Captain Haggard begged the sergeant to fetch his rifle, which he had dropped where he fell, so that the Germans should not get possession of it; and this fuller succeeded in doing without getting hit.  He then, with the assistance of a private named Snooks and Lieutenant Melvin, the officer in charge of the machine gun section of the Welsh, carried Captain Haggard to a barn adjoining a farmhouse some distance to the rear, which was being used as a dressing station.  Here he did what he could to relieve his sufferings, until the evening, when the unfortunate officer expired, his last words being, “Stick it, Welsh!”  He was buried close to the farmhouse where he died.

            Captain Mark Haggard, whose bravery on the occasion cost him his life, was the third son of Bayell Michael Haggard, of Kirby Cain, Norfolk, and was born 1876.  On the outbreak of the Boer War he joined the City of London Imperial Volunteers, and went with them to South Africa, and in 1900 received a commission in the Welsh.  He became captain in 1911.  He was immensely popular in his regiment.  “We were prepared to follow him anywhere,” writes a private of his company. After Captain Haggard’s death, Sergeant Fuller attended to two officers of the South Wales Borderers, Lieutenant the Hon. Fitzroy Somerset and Lieutenant Richards, who were both lying wounded in the same barn, until the ambulance came to remove them.  The barn was during this time exposed to very heavy shellfire, and the following day, after all our wounded officers and men had been got away, was blown to pieces by German guns.  He had also under his charge about sixty women and children of the neighbourhood, who had taken refuge in the cellar of an adjoining house, and whose wants he supplied, until wagons were sent to fetch them away.  This house and, in fact, all the neighbouring buildings were subsequently levelled to the ground by the enemy’s shellfire. Sergeant Fuller, who for his splendid gallantry was awarded the Victoria Cross, escaped unhurt on September 14^th.  About six weeks later (October 29^th), during the desperate fighting near Gheluvelt, he was severely wounded by a piece of shrapnel, while dressing the wounds of a comrade named Private Tagge, who had been hit in both legs during the counter attack by which we recovered most of the trenches from which our 1^st Division had been driven earlier in the day.  The shrapnel entered the right side, travelled nearly twelve inches up under his shoulder blade, and rested on the right lung.  Sergeant Fuller was sent home to Wales, and was operated on at Swansea Hospital, where the shrapnel was extracted.  On his recovery, he was employed for some months on recruiting duties in Wales, in which he was most successful. Sergeant Fuller is thirty-two years of age, and was born in Carnarvonshire, but his family has for many years resided at Swansea.  Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'    

How Second Lieutenant Edward William Bryan, 1^st Battalion, Welsh

Regiment, Won The Military Cross

How a great breech was made in our horseshoe line round Ypres, a breach which all the gallantry of the Canadians was unable to restore, how the whole position was prejudiced, and how, on the night of May 3^rd, the Imperial forces effected a wonderful withdrawal to another semicircular line only three miles from Ypres, is one of the epics of the Great War. The position was particularly critical when the enemy turned his attention to consummating his success by cutting off that semicircle and capturing the thousands of troops within it. A struggle, as desperate as any British troops have ever fought, began on May 7^th and lasted for nearly three weeks. On that day the German shelling reached a pitch of intensity which beggars description, and no regiment suffered a more galling experience than the 1^st Welsh (posted southeast of St. Julien). There had been no time to prepare a proper position. The trenches were hastily dug, rough ditches, the parapets consisting of rude breastworks of earth, sandbags, hurdles, and whatever else was handy. In such circumstances real leadership, the art of directing, controlling and inspiring courage and confidence, was the only guarantee of success, and it was for the display of these qualities that Second Lieutenant Bryan, of the 1^st Welsh, was fitly rewarded with the Military Cross. He had the advantage over many of his brother officers of having risen from the ranks. He knew his men, their strength and weakness, what they could and could not do, because he had been one of them. He could lead because he had earned how to follow. In return, Second Lieutenant Bryan’s men knew him, knew that he would never ask them to do what he was not prepared to do himself.

In such circumstances prodigies are performed. Indeed, there was need of prodigies on May 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th, to keep the Germans out of Ypres! All that day of May 7^th Lieutenant Bryan’s company occupied their trenches with ever dwindling numbers, and watching their rude shelter disappear piecemeal like a sand castle before the advancing tide. Just in front of them was the British firing line, with the famous moat girdled farm, "shell Trap Farm," as it came to be called, to the left. The shells fell like hail over the whole area, the German supply of ammunition seeming inexhaustible. "Shell Trap Farm" became isolated as the garrison of the advanced trench dwindled to a mere handful, which hung on gallantly to the wreck of their position. At dusk that evening the shelling momentarily ceased, and the Germans swarmed forward and broke through away on the right. With the exception of a portion of the advanced trench immediately ahead of the second Lieutenant Bryan’s company, they occupied the front line, and wheeled round to take his trench in the rear. The situation was critical but he told his men to keep up rapid fire, which checked the Germans and compelled them, to dig in anticipation of a counter attack.

When night fell, the order was given to make a new trench at right angles to the old one. The shelling having been resumed, the operation was full of peril, but inspired by Second Lieutenant Bryan’s example, the men set to work with a will and by daylight next morning as tolerable a shelter had been made as circumstances permitted. All through those hours of darkness Lieutenant Bryan directed the work, giving an encouraging word here, a helping hand there, and keeping his men active and cheerful. The next day, May 8^th, the German artillery redoubled its activity. Resolved to blast their way through all opposition, the Germans massed a huge number of guns of all calibres on a narrow front and fired incessantly. One shell to a square foot was a modest estimate for the number that fell in the British lines that day. Lieutenant Bryan’s trench suffered particularly heavily because it was specially exposed. But as the ranks of its gallant defenders thinned until there was an ugly gap between each survivor and his neighbour, Second Lieutenant Bryan rose to the full height of the occasion. Time after time he was within an ace of destruction as he went up and down the trench, keeping the men’s hearts up. Many a poor desperate fellow, maddened at the incessant shelling and the sickening slaughter going on around him and enraged at his impotence to "get a bit of his own back," recovered his wits and his courage when the tall figure in the muddy, tattered uniform and an old trench cap passed him with a word of good cheer.

But there was even more hazardous work for Second Lieutenant Bryan and his men that day. Across the road to the right was another regiment in serious difficulties and attempting by a bombing attack to eject the enemy from their positions. The supply of bombs ran short and the situation was critical. Without a moment’s hesitation Lieutenant Bryan organized and led parties to carry bombs and grenades across the shell and bullet swept road to their comrades in peril. Even a wrecked shelter is better than no shelter at all, and it speaks volumes for Lieutenant Bryan and his men that they left their battered defences on their self imposed errand. By the time their task was finished there dwindling numbers had been reduced to a remnant. This gallant remnant, with their leader, endured the enemy’s maximum artillery ferocity all that afternoon. Their trench was obliterated and the survivors stood in holes, and sheltered as best they could behind the mounds of earth and debris thrown up by the shells. Particularly lucky shots fell near the emplacements of two machine guns, which simply disappeared. The living, the dead and the wounded were buried alive. Most of them never moved again. A few very few managed to crawl out or were dug out by their comrades.

And through this living death Lieutenant Bryan maintained his imperturbable calm, the life and soul of the little band, which had once been his company. But human nature, even superhuman nature, has its limits, and the relieving regiment, which came up that evening, must have seemed like a troop of angels to him. Even then he would not go, for the thought that he would take back his company (or what was left of it) without the two machine guns was intolerable to so good a soldier as he. He had every right to leave that stricken spot with his men, who were already filing down the battered communication trenches, but he meant to recover his guns first. Accordingly he set to work with a party to dig in the unrecognisable mounds, which had once had machine gun emplacements. The enemy soon guessed their intentions and devoted enormous efforts to extirpate them. But the enemy’s exhibition of "hate" only braced the energies of Lieutenant Bryan, and after digging in one case to a depth of no less than twelve feet, the two machine guns were eventually recovered and carried off in triumph. British soldiers still speak in horror of May 8^th at Ypres, but in one case at least the memory is tempered by the knowledge of work well done and not unrecognised. Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'    

AMBROSE MADDEN  (Sergeant Major)  41^st Regiment The Welsh Regiment            During the battle of Inkerman, Madden led a party of his battalion and captured a Russian officer and fourteen soldiers, three of whom he personally accounted for. 

The Black Tulip by Philip West (B)