• Medals awarded to Siegfried Sassoon

• Private John Kneller – the only Crimean War veteran at Florence Nightingale’s burial.

• July 31st 2007 is the 90th Anniversary of the death of the poet Ellis Humphrey Evans, better known by his bardic name “Hedd Wyn”.

• Ar 31 Gorffennaf 2007 fe gofir am farwolaeth y bardd  Ellis Humphrey Evans, a adwaenir wrth ei enw barddol, “Hedd Wyn” 90 mlynedd yn ôl.

• The Royal Welch Fusiliers in the First Battle of the Somme, 1 July to 18 November 1916

• Y Ffiwsilwyr Brenhinol Cymreig ym Mrwydr Gyntaf y Somme, 1 Gorffennaf hyd 18 Tachwedd 1916

• Rats shot during the pulling down of an old dugout in Ploegsteert Wood, by David Jones - David M. Bownes

• Fusilier Dean, by Sir Kyffin Williams RA.- David M. Bownes

• The Admiral's Sword and the IMPERIAL EAGLE - Peter A. Crocker

• The de Walden 'Trench Knife' - Martin J. Milner

• Sassoon's Pistol - David M. Bownes

• The Keys of Corrunna - Peter A. Crocker

Rats shot during the pulling down of an old dugout in Ploegsteert Wood, by David Jones - David M. Bownes

This pencil sketch is from a series of drawings by David Jones which record his experiences as a private soldier during the First World War. It was drawn in November 1916 while he was serving as an observer with the 2nd Field Survey Company at Ploegsteert Wood. The subject matter is characteristically mundane, reflecting Jones's interest in the more everyday aspects of soldiering. Other illustrations, which filled his army note books, depict equipment, buildings and friends he served with.

David Jones enlisted with the 15th (1st London Welsh) Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers, in January 1915, aged 19. The battalion was initially raised from Welshmen living in London, where Jones was studying at the Camberwell School of Art. After training in north Wales and Winchester, Jones accompanied the battalion to France as part of the 38th (Welsh) Division. He saw action during the battle of Mametz Wood (July 1916), where he was wounded, and later at Bosinghe, Pilkem, Langemark and Passchendaele (1917). In February 1918, Jones was invalided home with Trench Fever and spent the rest of the war in Ireland.

After the war, his reputation as an artist and writer grew enormously. He became a leading member of the Eric Gill group of artists and a watercolourist of international fame. In 1937 he published In Parenthesis - an acknowledged literary masterpiece which charts his war-time journey from raw-recruit to seasoned soldier. He was also an accomplished engraver and left a legacy of highly individual lettering. He died in October 1974, and is buried in Ladywell Cemetery in south-east London.

Fusilier Dean, by Sir Kyffin Williams RA.
David M. Bownes

Painted at Wrexham Barracks in 1948, this superb portrait in oils depicts a Royal Welch fusilier wearing battledress and wartime equipment. The artist had been invited to stay at the barracks by Brigadier Skaife, the then Colonel of the Regiment, in order to paint some of the men. Despite having a number of fine solider models paraded for him to choose from, Kyffin later claimed that he invariably selected the most slovenly individuals in the Regiment, adding that Fusilier Dean "was immensely bored but obviously relished the fact the he had escaped from some horribly energetic duty".

 
Kyffin Williams himself served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers from 1936 to 1941. He subsequently studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and went on to become an internationally renowned artist and member of the Royal Academy. Several of his little known sketches of army life, together with three oil paintings of members of the Regiment, are on permanent display in the Museum.
  

The Admiral's Sword and the IMPERIAL EAGLE
Peter A. Crocker

This sword is the 1803 infantry officers' pattern etched for the Royal Welch Fusiliers (late 23rd Regiment of Foot) with a grenade, the Prince of Wales's feathers, and 'XXIII'. It was presented to the Regiment in1956 by Mrs Rosalie Cockburn in whose family it had been since 1809.

In January of that year the British attacked Martinique, a base for French activity in the West Indies. The naval blockade having failed, the naval and military commanders on the spot decided on an expedition to capture the island. 

The 1st Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers landed with the Fusilier Brigade on 30th January. At about the same time Captain George Cockburn RN put ashore a strong naval detachment which, with army help, established a battery of guns to bombard Fort Bourbon, the last French stronghold on the island.

On 1st February the French were driven from Morne Bruno to the heights of Sourier. The Royal Welch led, by the 'Grenadier' Company ascended the heights where the contest was "most obstinate, with the French repeatedly returning to the attack with drums beating. The Grenadiers, however, maintained their ground. The remainder of the battalion now came up and a sharp action took place which terminated in the retreat of the French " who were eventually forced back into Fort Bourbon.

The fort was subjected to a devastating bombardment by the artillery on the 2nd, including Cockburn's naval guns, and the garrison soon surrendered. 

£850 was voted to the wounded in Martinique by Lloyds of London, no less than £250 of which was allocated to the Grenadier Company of the Royal Welch.

Captain Cockburn, who signed the articles of capitulation, was awarded the rank of Major General of Marines, with no duties but £2,000 a year. Because of the close contact between Cockburn and the Royal Welch during the action he acquired a Royal Welch sword as a souvenir of a great occasion. By the time of his death in 1853 he was an Admiral of the Fleet and had inherited the family baronetcy.

The Royal Welch were awarded 'MARTINIQUE, 1809' as a Battle Honour which to this day is borne on the Regimental Colour. Furthermore, the Napoleonic Eagle standard-the French equivalent of British 'Colours'-of the 82nd Regiment of Infantry, which was captured at Martinique, was presented to the Regiment.

Both the Admiral's sword and the 'Eagle' standard may be seen displayed in the Museum. I am indebted to Major EL Kirby for his notes on the history of the sword.
 

The de Walden 'Trench Knife' 
Martin J. Milner

Lord Howard de Walden was second-in-command and commander of the 9th Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers between November 1916 and December 1917. He was a wealthy and philanthropic man, with interests in Welsh history, and had given substantial quantities of equipment to his previous regiment, the Westminster Dragoons. He was also a collector of arms and armour, and this had brought him into contact with Felix Joubert, a fellow collector and also a pre-eminent artist/craftsman/restorer. In 1916, Joubert patented a knife for trench fighting which had an 18" leaf shaped blade, nearly 3" wide at its maximum. The pommel was pointed so that it could, in theory, be used as a weapon. The guard was circular and could be folded flat against the blade when the knife was not in use, a feature that would have allowed the knife to be patented. As always, Lord Howard wished to equip his troops as well as possible, and so he had knives made for the 9th Battalion. Some of the surviving examples have Joubert's mark (an intertwined Jo) on them, and also Dros Urddas Cymru ('for the honour of Wales'). The Regimental Museum has one knife on display and a further 6 in the reserve collections.

It has often been claimed that the design of Joubert's knife is based on a specifically Welsh design used by Welsh archers at Crecy. This is, however, romantic nonsense, and there is no evidence to suggest that any specifically Welsh form of sword or dagger existed.

The Regimental Museum's collections include a manuscript account of WWI experiences by H Lloyd Williams of the 9th Battalion which mention the use of the knife in action. At the start of the battle of Messines, 1917, one company raided German trenches on the 5th June. The account includes the following:

"..and the Lewis gunners, furnished with the strange knives furnished by Lord Howard de Walden, the whole Company, in conjunction with the King's Liverpools on the left, climbed over the top, and dashed under the barrage into the enemy trenches."

Wilkinson Sword made one of these weapons in 1981 for the centenary of the Welsh Rugby Union. It was specially embossed with the names of each captain over the previous 100 years.
 

Sassoon's Pistol
David M. Bownes

The service issue revolvers of the First World War were large and clumsy, intended for use in the confines of trench or bunker - or as a last resort. Not surprisingly, wealthy officers sometimes purchased smaller, handier, examples for themselves, with semi-automatic pistols being especially popular.

One such officer was renowned poet and author Siegfried Sassoon. As he confides in Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (1930):

"..I was weary of my Colt revolver, with which I knew I couldn't hit anything, although I had blazed it off a few times in the dark when I was pretending to be important in No-Man's Land. The only object I could be sure of hitting was myself."

But it wasn't simply the inaccuracy of the revolver as an offensive weapon which troubled Sassoon. Like many others, he was appalled by the prospect of a slow death "lying out in a shell-hole with something more serious than a Blighty wound". In such circumstances, he reasoned, it would be necessary to end it all quickly, while "to blow one's brains out with that clumsy Colt was unthinkable". With this grim prospect in mind, Sassoon purchased a 7.62mm Browning semi-automatic from the London branch of the Army and Navy Stores in March 1916, on his way back from leave to France.

Rumours of a massive summer offensive also prompted Sassoon's purchase, and as he left the idyllic Kent of his childhood he wondered whether he would ever return again.

Over the next two and half years Sassoon served variously with the 1st and 2nd Battalions, Royal Welch Fusiliers, in France and Flanders and with the 25th Battalion in Palestine and France.
When out on patrol in No Man's Land, Sassoon wrote that he would clutch the Browning pistol in his breeches pocket for reassurance, no doubt helping to give an outward appearance of calm.

Although twice wounded (once in the head) Sassoon never needed to use the pistol for the desperate purpose he had intended. After the war he gave it to a fellow officer, who later emigrated to Australia. After many years, the pistol returned to Wales and can be seen today on display in the Regimental Museum, clearly engraved 'S. Sassoon 1 RWF'.

THE KEYS OF CORUNNA 
Peter A. Crocker

In 1808 the war with Napoleonic France was reaching its peak. The 2nd Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers sailed from Falmouth in Cornwall with 671 officers and men, forty-eight wives and twenty children for Corunna in Spain, which they reached on 13th October. They were to reinforce the army of Sir John Moore and to assist in driving the French out of Spain.

Just before Christmas, Moore learnt that he was about to be trapped by Napoleon, with an army twice as strong, Moore decided to retreat over the mountains to Corunna. It was a desperate march through thick snow with a shortage of food and boots. The men, still accompanied by the wives and children, were generally bare-footed. Their sufferings were made worse by a violent storm during the night of 8th January. Discipline in the army broke down and there was much pillage and drunkenness. It is a great credit to the 2nd Battalion that by the time they reached Corunna on the 11th only seventy-eight men had been lost.

The battle of Corunna began at 2 p.m. on the 16th. Just as the French advance had been checked Moore was fatally wounded. At 10 p.m. the troops began to embark and by the following morning only the two brigades which had covered the embarkation remained on shore. They embarked on the night of the 17th/18th and the 2nd Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers was the last to leave this portion of Spanish soil.

The following account was written some years later by Miss Fletcher, a descendent of one of the officers present on that day:

"The rear-guard was commanded by Captain Thomas Lloyd Fletcher, of  the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He, with his corporal, were the last to leave the town. On their way to embark, and as they passed through the gates, Captain Fletcher turned and locked them. The key not turning easily, they thrust in a bayonet, and between them managed it. Captain Fletcher brought away the keys, and they are now in the possession of his son ....
The keys are held together by a ring, from which is suspended a steel plate, with the inscription 'Postigo de Puerta de Abajo' ('Postern of lower gate'). One key still shows the wrench of the bayonet."

Thomas Fletcher transferred to the 4th Ceylon Rifles in 1810. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1846 and lived at Maesgwaelog, Overton, and Gwern Haulod, Ellesmer, where he brought up his five sons and seven daughters. He died in 1850.

The keys were presented to the Museum by H Lloyd Fletcher in 1955.