TOPIC:

Thank you, Smethwick. Named photos like this one are so rare but so valuable.

And every picture tells a story – actually this one leads to 28 stories. Amongst their number is a man who put Rudyard Kipling right about Welshmen, one who helped put Sitting Bull in his place and one who in the 1930’s became the leading sportswriter on the Daily Express.

Here is the last in 1938 and you can see the likeness to third from the right on the front row of the photo.



The 3rd GRV somehow avoided being renamed the 4th Volunteer Battalion in 1881, probably due to the influence of its officers at the time. In the photograph can be found the son of a former Mayor of Swansea, the son of the Borough Surveyor, the son of Swansea’s Chief Librarian and the adopted son of a Newspaper Proprietor who also served on every local good-doing committee going.

The local papers carried more than one full page spread about the 1st VSC – including a potted version of the company war diary. This is how the Battle of Diamond Hill was treated:

June 11 – Left camp at 6.45, the Volunteer Company being at the rear of the right half battalion of the Welsh and proceeded towards Bronkhorstspruit. Volunteers under fire for the first time. No casualties.

June 12 - Battle resumed, the Volunteers taking their place in the firing line.

Currently suffering from information overload but hopefully in a few weeks time I will be able to post a coherent story (in several parts) under the heading “The 3rd Glamorgan Rifle Volunteers at War”.

The 1908 Haldane reforms finally managed to do away with the name and they became the 6th (Territorial) Battalion of the Welsh Regiment.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (6) Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Belfast, South Africa 1901 (8495 Pte. D. Davies, Welsh Regt.)

D. Davies attested for the Welsh Regiment and served with the 1st Battalion in South Africa during the Boer War. He was discharged, time expired, on 2 May 1901.

Hammer GBP 220.

Picture courtesy of Spink

QSA (2) Transvaal, South Africa 1902 (3757 Pte T. Hill. Welsh Regt)

Served in the 1st Battalion, Welsh Regiment.

Picture courtesy of Dominic Winter

QSA (7) Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast, South Africa 1901 (5286 Pte I. Jones. Welsh Regt)

Isaac Jones was born in Mold, Flintshire. He served with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry before being attested to the Welsh Regiment in 1897. He received a gunshot wound to the head on 6 May 1901, leaving him totally incapacitated; Jones was discharged in 1903, having served 5 years 249 days with the Colours.

Gammer GBP 320.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (7) Relief of Kimberley, Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast, South Africa 1901, unofficial rivets between sixth and seventh clasps (4116 Pte. W. Shewbridge, Welsh Regt.)

William Shewbridge, a native of Aberystwyth, Wales, attested for the Welsh Regiment and served with the 1st Battalion in South Africa during the Boer War.