The Royal Regiment of Wales shown in military art prints during the Defence of Rorke's Drift and the First World War. Art prints published by Cranston Fine Arts.  

[ Lt Bromhead VC ] [ Private Hook VC ] [ Corporal Allan  VC ] [ Battle of Isandlwana ] [ Pte Robert Jones VC ] [ Pte William Jones VC ] [ Rorkes Drift ]

The Royal Regiment of Wales was formed by the amalgamation of the South Wales Borderers (24th of Foot) and the Welch 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. 

This, after the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, is the first in seniority of the Welsh regiment, and was raised in Ireland as far back as 1689, and is reported to have seen some service in the Irish campaigns of 1690-91, and in the Netherlands about 1695-97.    Marlborough was at one time its colonel, and it served in his campaign from  1701 until about 1709-10, sharing in the glories of Schellenberg, Blenheim, Neer, Hespen, Malplaquet, Menin, Lille, Douay, ect.  Between 1719 and 1756 it saw servive at vigo and Carthagena, at Cuba (when it had been reduced from 1,000 to but 219 strong), and Jamaica; and finally shared in the glorious defence of Minorca in 1756, when “four regiments and one company of artillery maintained the fort against such numbers of the enemy by sea and land for such a length of time as can perhaps be scarcely paralleled in history.”     After this it returned home, but two years later was doing duty at St. Malo; and then formed part of the army of the Marquis of Granby, and was present at Corbach, Warburg, Kiek-Denkern, and Wilhelmsthal.  In 1776 it was despatched to the reinforcement of Burgoyne in Canada, and served through that disastrous campaign until Saratoga, after which it surrendered, and remained prisioner of war until 1784.  It is somewhat singular that so little mention is made of these continued and important services, ranging sa they do over more than one hundred years.  The only names on its colours before that of “Egypt” with the Sphinx, for the share it took in siege of Alexandria in 1801, are those of Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet  Following the history of the 1^st battalion, we find it taking part in the capture of the Cape of Good Hope in 1806; joining in a fierce sea-fight with a French squadron in the Mozambique Channel when on its way to India in 1810, and when, notwithstanding the bravery of the defence, two of the ships were captured, and the officers and men were taken prisoners to Mauritius; in Nepaul, an 1814, when the prisoners had been released and the regiment re-formed in Bengal; and then in Canada in 1837-38.  But perhaps the most serious period in its existence was that passed in the second Sikh War in 1848-49, under Lord Gough.  It was in the actions of Sadoolapore, Chillianwallah, Goojerat, Remnuggur, and the passage of the Chenab.  At Chillianwallah it lost 23 officers and 527 men killed and wounded, together with the colours, though one was afterwards found wrapped round the body of the ensign, who carried it till he fell.  The 13^th of January is an unhappy date in the regimental history, since exactly thirty years later the old 24^th again suffered a loss in men and colours, even more severe than in 1849; for at Isandhlwanna five complete companies of the 1^st battalion, and about one of the 2^nd, were slain, and the colours carried from the field by Melville and Coghill, at the colonel’s calm direction, to be found in the river close to which their gallant defenders died to save them.  The bravery of Colonel Pennycuick and his son at Chillianwallah found a noble parallel both in this battle, where Colonel Pulleine died, and in the brilliant defence of Rorke’s Drift by Chard, of the engineers, and Bromhead’s detachment of the 24^th.  During the Mutiny the battalion did good service in the Punjab; and in 1877-8 took part in the Galeka War; after which it fought, as already described, in the first stages of Zulu War of 1879.   The 2^nd battalion has had several existences, so to speak.  The first one was raised in Derby, Nottingham, and Manchester in 1756; but the very same year it was made independent as the 69^th Foot.  The next lived from 1803 to 1805, and earned for the regiment the distinguished battle-roll of the “Peninsula,” where it fought at Talavera, Fuentes d’Onor, Salamanca, Vittoria, Burgos, St. Sebastin, the Pyrenees,  the Nivelle, Orthes, and Toulouse.  The third and last was added in 1858 at Dover, and its first active service of importance was the campaign in Zululand.  To both battalions belongs the honour, therefore, of having added to the battle-roll “South Africa, 1877-9.”  The last name there is “Burma, 1885-87.”  The first in the list of Victoria Crosses won by officers of the 24^th is singular, for the decoration was not granted for war services.  Dr. C. M. Douglas and Privates Murphy, Cooper, Bell, and Griffiths were all decorated for “the very gallant and daring manner in which, on the 7^th May, 1867, they risked their lives in manning a boat, and proceeded through a dangerous surf to the rescue of some of their comrades, who formed part of an expedition which had been sent to the Island of Little Andaman.”   The fight at Bechquah, in Ashantee, gained the cross for E.F Lord Giffard; the Zulu War one for Lieutenant G. Bromhead for bravery at Rorke’s Drift, as also on the same occasion for Privates Williams, Hook, W. Jones, R. Jones, F. Hitch, and Corporal Allen; in the same campaign Lieutenant E. S. Browne received the reward for gallantry at the Inhlobane Hill; and Lieutenants Melville and Coghill would both have had it had the lived.  In memory of these brave men and Private Williams, a silver wreath, replacing that of immortelles given Her Majesty, decorates the colours of the South Wales Borderers.          The old regimental number of the regiment first appears in 1751; and this was altered to the “2^nd Warwickshire” about 1782, its present territorial title being given in 1881.  The Militia battalions are the “Royal South Wales Borderers” and the “Royal Montgomery.”  The Volunteer battalions attached are the 1^st Brecknock (scarlet with white facings), the 1^st Monmouth (green with black), and the 2^nd and 3^rd Monmouth 9also scarlet and white).  The buttons, waist-plate, and the helmet-plate bear the Welsh dragon and laurel-wreath; the collar has the Sphinx over “Egypt.”    The former nickname was “Howard’s Greens,” after its colonel and its facings between 1717 and 1737.     The depot was at Brecon.         

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 Welch 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)