• Regimental History

    23rd Regiment of Foot 



    16 Mar 1689 Lord Herbert's Regiment of Foot also known until 1751 by the names of other colonels
    1702
    The Welch Regiment of Fuzileersconverted to fusiliers for protection of artillery (variously spelled "Fuzileers" during 18th cent.)
    1713
    The Royal Regiment of Welch Fuzileers (royal accolade granted for service in war of the Spanish Succession)
    1714
    The Prince of Wales's Own Royal Regiment of Welch Fuzileers (named for the future King George II)
    Apr 1723
    The Royal Regiment of Welch Fuzileers
    1747
    Ranked as 23rd Foot
    01 Jul 1751
    23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Fuzileers)
    01 Jul 1881
    The Royal Welsh Fusiliers reorganised as the county regiment of Caernarvonshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Merionethshire and Anglesey, encompassing also its Militia and Volunteer infantry
    01 Jan 1920
    The Royal Welch Fusiliers (ancient spelling of "Welch" officially restored by Army Order 56 of 1920, but regiment had always unofficially retained that style)
    01 Mar 2006
    United with The Royal Regiment of Wales, to form The Royal Welsh

    The Royal Welch Fusiliers was a regiment of the British Army, part of the Prince of Wales' Division. It was founded in 1689 to oppose James II and the imminent war with France. The regiment was numbered as the 23rd Regiment of Foot, though it was one of the first regiments to be granted the honour of a fusilier title and so was known as The Welsh Regiment of Fusiliers from 1702.

    The "Royal" accolade was earned fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713. It is one of the oldest regiments in the regular army, hence the archaic spelling of the word Welch instead of Welsh. In the Boer War and throughout World War I, the army officially called the regiment "The Royal Welsh Fusiliers" but the archaic "Welch" was officially restored to the regiment's title in 1920 under Army Order No.56. During those decades, the regiment itself unofficially used the "Welch" form. As of 2004, it was one of five line infantry regiments never to have been amalgamated in their entire histories, the others being:
    • The Royal Scots
    • The Green Howards
    • The 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment
    • The King's Own Scottish Borderers
    The regiment was amalgamated with the Royal Regiment of Wales (RRW)on 1 March 2006 to become 1st Battalion, The Royal Welsh (RRW becoming the 2nd Bn). Soldiers of The Royal Welch Fusiliers were distinguishable by the unique feature of the "flash" consisting of five overlapping black silk ribbons (seven inches long for soldiers and nine inches long for officers) on the back of the uniform jacket at neck level. This is a legacy of the days when it Attachment 1694was normal for soldiers to wear pigtails. In 1808, this practice was discontinued, but the RWF were serving in America when the order to discontinue the use of the flash was issued. Upon their return they decided to retain the ribbons with which the pigtail was tied, and were granted this special concession by the King. The Army Council attempted to remove the flash during the First World War citing the grounds that it would help the Germans identify which unit was facing them. As Captain Robert Graves reported, "the regiment retorted by inquiring on what occasion since the retreat from Corunna, when the regiment was the last to leave Spain, with the keys of the town postern in the pocket of one of its officers, had any of His Majesty's enemies seen the back of a Royal Welch Fusilier?," and the matter remained "in abeyance throughout the war." As a fusilier regiment, the RWF wore a hackle, which consists of a plume of white feathers worn on headdress and mounted behind the cap-badge.
    History

    The light infantry and grenadier companies of the Fusiliers saw bloody action at the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Battle of Guilford Court House in the American Revolutionary War. The regiment participated in nearly every campaign from the Lexington & Concord to Yorktown. Many first hand accounts of the American Revolutionary War can be found in "the Diary of Lieutenant Frederick Mackenzie" or Serjeant Roger Lamb's "Original and Authentic Journal of Occurrences During the Late American War". The regiment also participated in the Napoleonic Wars - for example, at Waterloo, in the 4th Brigade under Lt-Col. Harry Mitchell, in the 4th British Infantry Division (see Order of Battle of the Waterloo Campaign.) Several battalions of the regiment saw notable service in France and Belgium during World War I, in particular the 1st, which became forever associated with the terribly destructive action at Mametz Wood in 1916, and the 2nd, which endured the horrors of the massacre in the mud of Passchendaele (Third Ypres) in 1917. In 1914 The Royal Welsh Fusiliers participated in the legendary Christmas Football Game with the Germans. During this war, several writers served with various battalions of the regiment in France, including the poets Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, David Jones and Hedd Wyn. Their memoirs, including Graves' Good-Bye to All That, have resulted in the activities of this regiment being vividly recorded for posterity.

    Ford Madox Ford wrote movingly of the Welsh soldiers he commanded in his four-volume novel Parade's End. Captain James C. Dunn, a medical officer attached to the regiment's 2nd Battalion during World War I, compiled a chronicle of that unit's experiences during its more than four years of service in France and Belgium. His epic, The War The Infantry Knew, has become a classic among military historians for its comprehensive treatment of all aspects of daily life and death in the trenches.

    The best known account by one of the Other Ranks is 'Old Soldiers Never Die' by Frank Richards DCM,MM. Fusilier Richards was a Reservist recalled to the colours at the outbreak of WW1, and served on the Western Front 1914-1918 (including being in the front line during the famous Christmas Truce of 1914). He also wrote about his pre-war service in a book called 'Old Soldier Sahib'. In more recent times, the Regiment has seen action in numerous postwar peacekeeping missions including Bosnia 1995, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010.

    As with the Royal Regiment of Wales, the regiment has traditionally had a goat mascot. The tradition dates from at least 1775, and possibly from the regiment's formation. The goat is given full honours of a corporal by all ranks and attended to by the Goat Major.

    The Royal Welsh Fusiliers Museum is located in Caernarfon, Wales, and the official headquarters are at Wrexham. In 2004, it was announced that, as part of the restructuring of the infantry, the Royal Welch Fusiliers would amalgamate with the Royal Regiment of Wales to form a new large regiment, the Royal Welsh. This merger took place on 1 March 2006, leaving only two Welsh foot regiments in the British Army: the Welsh Guards and the Royal Welsh. The Royal Welch Fusiliers is now the name of the first battalion of the new regiment, which still recruits from across Wales.
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