23rd Regiment of Foot

Known as The Welsh Regiment of Fusiliers or The Royal Welch Fusiliers

Chronology

• 1689 formed as Lord Herbert's Regiment of Foot
• 1702 known as The Welsh Regiment of Fusiliers
• 1713 became Royal Welsh Regiment of Fusiliers
• 1714 became the The Prince of Wales's Own Royal Regiment of Welch Fuzileers
• 1723 became The Royal Regiment of Welch Fuzileers
• 1747 ranked as 23rd Regiment of Foot
• 1751 became 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Fuzileers)
• 1881 became The Royal Welsh Fusiliers
• 1920 became The Royal Welch Fusiliers (ancient spelling of "Welch" officially restored, but regiment had always unofficially retained that style)
• 2006 amalgamated with the Royal Regiment of Wales (RRW) to become 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh

British Library holdings

• Historical Record of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, late the Twenty-third Regiment, or, Royal Welsh Fusiliers (The Prince of Wales’s Own Royal Regiment of Welsh Fuzeliers) : Containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1689, and of its subsequent services to 1889; in continuation of the compilation published in 1850 by Rowland Broughton Mainwaring published 1889
• Regimental Records Of The Royal Welch Fusiliers

Volume I 1689-1815 by A. D. L. Cary and Stouppe McCance published 1921

Volume II by A. D. L. Cary and Stouppe McCance published 1923. The history of the regiment during the near hundred years separating Waterloo from the outbreak of the Great War, 1816-1914. The regiment saw action in the Indian Mutiny, Burmese War of 1885-87; the Black Mountain Expedition, 1891.

Volume III 1914-1918, France and Flanders by Major C. Dudley Ward 1928. This history ends 11 November 1918.

The three volumes are part of UIN: BLL01001097310 . Volume IV is available online, refer below.

There were additional volumes, which however currently (2019/04) do not appear in the British Library catalogue. It is not known whether these are new publications or reprints. Volume V, 1918-1945. Part One, November 1918-May 1940 by Jonathon Riley, Peter Crocker and Richard Sinnett. "The first part of RR Volume V describes the later history of the war-raised units of the Regiment during the Great War and the reduction of the Regiment thereafter. It then details the campaigns and stations of the Regiment from 1919 to 1939 including service in Ireland, India, the North-West Frontier, Cyprus, Sudan, Shanghai, Gibraltar and Hong Kong" ; Volume V, 1918-1945. Part Two, June 1940-December 1945 by Jonathon Riley, Peter Crocker and Richard Sinnett.

Volume VI, 1945-1969 by by J P Riley 2001. UIN: BLL01006676782

Volume VII, 1969-2000 by J P Riley 2001. UIN: BLL01009481243

Recommended Reading

• Old Soldier Sahib by Frank Richards published 1936. The life of a soldier in the first decade of the twentieth century, before the Great War, mainly in India and Burma. He was in the 2nd Battalion. A review is on Military reading list. There is a further 2005 edition, annotated by Krijnen and Langley, with many footnotes and illustrations. "Each page is annotated to give information on Frank Richards’s friends, his officers, the places where he served in India and Burma, dates, events and the language, for example".

External Links

• Royal Welch Fusiliers Wikipedia
• History of the Royal Welsh theroyalwelsh.org
• The Royal Welch Forum
• The Royal Welch Fusiliers British Armed Forces & National Service. Includes deployments from 1881
• The Royal Welch Fusiliers including deployments: 1st Battalion, 2nd Battalion. Regiments.org, an archived site.
• The Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum
• Wrexham County Borough Museum & Archives holds some/all? regimental archives including Enlistment books (Army Book 358) from 1920.
• The Regimental Museum of The Royal Welsh (Brecon). Covers 23rd, (but does not hold any regimental archives), 24th, 41st and 69th Regiments of Foot.
• Firing Line: Cardiff Castle Museum of the Welsh Soldier covers 1st Dragoon Guards, 2nd Dragoon Guards or The Queen’s Bays, 23rd, 24th, 41st and 69th Regiments of Foot.
• Medals of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers northeastmedals.co.uk

Historical books online

• Historical Record of the Twenty-Third Regiment, or, The Royal Welsh Fusiliers: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1689 and of its subsequent services to 1850 by Richard Cannon 1850 Archive.org
• Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (23rd Foot). Volume IV 1915-1918 Turkey-Bulgaria-Austria by Major C H Dudley Ward 1929 Archive.org.
• Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves. New edition revised, November 1957, 2nd edition March 1958. First published 1929. Archive.org. (Catalogued with a different author). An autobiography, including his First World War experiences on the Western Front. Graves was in the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a Special Reserves Officer. Robert Graves Wikipedia.

Graves also wrote the historical novels Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth by Robert Graves Second edition 1945, first published 1940 and Proceed, Sergeant Lamb by Robert Graves, first published 1941 Archive.org. Historical novels about Sergeant Roger Lamb of the Twenty-Third, in the American War 1775-83, based on Lamb's Journal and Memoir.