Chapter 1
The 24th Battalion of the Welsh Regiment was officially formed in Egypt on 2 February 1917 from two dismounted Yeomanry Regiments: the Pembroke Yeomanry and the Glamorgan Yeomanry, which had both previously seen service with the 4th Dismounted Brigade of the South Wales Mounted Division. Both of these Regiments had a long and interesting history prior to the outbreak of the Great War, and were formed on a similar basis to the ‘Pals’ Battalions of that war. The Yeomanry Regiments were locally raised, and comprised troops of men from different parts of their respective counties, many of whom had enlisted together, thus forming an unbreakable bond of friendship and comradeship that was to stand them in good stead throughout the coming trials.
The two constituent parts of the 24th Battalion, the Welsh Regiment were:
The Pembroke Yeomanry (Castlemartin)
The Pembroke Yeomanry was raised in 1794 by Lord Milford as part of the national response to the threat to the country following the French Revolution. In 1797 the Republican Légion Noire landed off Carreg Wastad Point near Fishguard, only to surrender to a much smaller force hastily assembled under Lord Cawdor, which included his own Castlemartin Troop of the Pembroke Yeomanry. Two of the French frigates involved were captured, one of which was subsequently re-commissioned as HMS Fisgard. In 1853 Queen Victoria bestowed the battle honour ‘Fishguard’ upon the Pembroke Yeomanry. The unit became the first volunteer unit to receive a battle honour and remains the only one still serving in the British army to bear the name of an engagement on British soil.
From 1839 to 1843 the Pembroke Yeomanry took part with Regular forces in controlling the unrest that began with the Rebecca Riots.
During the first Boer War the Pembroke Yeomanry provided the 30th Company of the Denbighshire Hussars, 9th (Welsh) Battalion of Imperial Yeomanry, landing in South Africa in 1890 to fight as mounted infantry. A second company of the Pembroke Yeomanry replaced them in 1901, and they both saw considerable action during the two Boer Wars.
The Glamorgan Yeomanry
The Glamorgan Yeomanry formed in 1794, when Britain was faced by a French nation which had recently executed its King, and possessed a revolutionary army numbering half a million men. The Prime Minister proposed that the English counties form a force of volunteer yeoman cavalry that could be called on by the King to defend the country against invasion or by the Lord Lieutenant to subdue any civil disorder within the country.
The Glamorgan Yeomanry provided troops for the 4th Company, 1st Battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry force, and arrived in South Africa between February and April 1900, to take part in the Second Boer War, fighting alongside their Pembrokeshire counterparts.
In 1908 the Territorial Force was brought into being, and the various Yeomanry regiments became a part of this force, attending camps every year where the part time soldiers would assemble and train. For the men of the mainly rural county of Pembrokeshire, this annual camp became their only chance of a holiday, getting them away from the boring routine of work on the farm, and allowing them a chance to earn some much needed extra pay. Likewise, for the men of the industrial county of Glamorgan it was a good chance for some time away from the coal mines and the copper, iron and tinplate works where many of them toiled.
At the outbreak of war, on 4 August 1914, the Yeomanry were at such a camp. Their intended role during war was to act as guard units within Britain. The Yeomanry were not intended, nor were they signed up, to serve overseas, and the Pembroke and Glamorgan Yeomanry Regiments found themselves being mobilised for this purpose of home defence, for now at least.
The Pembroke Yeomanry formed three battalions during the war:
1/1st Pembroke Yeomanry.
Formed on 4 August 1914 at Tenby, as part of the South Wales Mounted Brigade. On 12 August 1914 the Brigade concentrated at Hereford, and then at the end of August moved to the Thetford area, joining the 1st Mounted Division. They then moved to Aylsham and were stationed at Haveringham and Heydon in Norfolk. During October 1915 the Battalion moved to Cromer. It was here, in November 1915, that the Pembroke Yeomanry was dismounted. In March 1916 the 1st Mounted Division sailed for Egypt, and, on 20 March 1916, the South Wales Mounted Brigade became absorbed into the 4th Dismounted Brigade.
2/1st Pembroke Yeomanry.
The Battalion formed in 1914 and in early 1915 was stationed at Carmarthen in the 2/1st South Wales Mounted Brigade, before moving first to Llandeilo and then Dorchester. In September 1915 the Brigade moved to Yoxford, joining the 1st Mounted Division. In 1916 the Brigade became the 4th Mounted Brigade. In July 1916 it became a cyclist unit in the 2nd Cyclist Brigade, 1st Cyclist Division. During November 1916 the Division was broken up and it merged with the 2/1st Glamorgan Yeomanry to form the 2nd (Pembroke and Glamorgan) Yeomanry its Cyclist Regiment, in the 1st Cyclist Brigade. During March 1917 the Battalion resumed identity, and moved to Aldeburgh and then in July 1917 to Benacre. By the end of the year the Battalion was at Lowestoft, where it remained in the 1st Cyclist Brigade, seeing action during the German naval raid on Lowestoft.
3/1st Pembroke Yeomanry.
The Battalion formed in 1915 at Carmarthen, before moving to Brecon. In the summer of 1915 it became affiliated to a reserve cavalry regiment in Ireland. During the summer of 1916 the Battalion dismounted and became attached to the 3rd Line units of the Welsh Division, based at Park Hall Camp, Oswestry. Early in 1917 the Battalion disbanded, with its personnel moving to the 2nd Line unit and the 4th (Reserve) Battalion Welsh Regiment at Milford Haven.
The Glamorgan Yeomanry also formed three battalions during the war:
1/1st Glamorgan Yeomanry.
The Battalion formed on 4 August 1914 at Bridgend, attached to the South Wales Mounted Brigade. On 12 August 1914 it moved with the brigade to Hereford, and at the end of August to Thetford, joining the 1st Mounted Division, before moving again to Aylsham. During October 1915 it moved to Cromer, where in November 1915 the Battalion became dismounted. In March 1916 the Battalion moved to Egypt and, on 20 March 1916, the South Wales Mounted Brigade was absorbed into the 4th Dismounted Brigade.
2/1st Glamorgan Yeomanry.
The Battalion formed in 1914 and in January 1915 joined the 2/1st South Wales Mounted Brigade. In July 1915 it moved to the Dorchester area, then in September 1915 to East Suffolk, joining the 1st Mounted Division. During March 1916 the brigade became the 4th Mounted Brigade. During July 1916 the 1st Mounted Division became the 1st Cyclist Division and the unit became a cyclist unit in the 2nd Cyclist Brigade of the Division at Yoxford. In November 1916 the Division was broken up and the Battalion merged with the 2/1st Pembroke Yeomanry to form the 2nd (Pembroke & Glamorgan Yeomanry) Cyclist Battalion in the 1st Cyclist Brigade. In March 1917 the Battalion resumed its identity, now based at Leiston. By July 1917 they were at Benacre. By the end of 1917 the Battalion had moved to Worlingham, near Beccles, where it remained, in the 1st Cyclist Brigade, until the end of the war.
3/1st Glamorgan Yeomanry.
The Battalion was formed in 1915 and in the summer was attached to a reserve cavalry Regiment at the Curragh. During the summer of 1916 it dismounted and was attached to the 3rd Line Groups of the Welsh Division. Early in 1917 the unit was disbanded, with the personnel going to the 2nd Line unit and to the 4th (Reserve) Battalion, Welsh Regiment, at Milford Haven.
As can be seen, the two front line Battalions of the Pembroke and Glamorgan Yeomanry Regiments were in Egypt by the end of March 1916, where they took up positions on the Suez Canal Defences. They merged on 2 February 1917, forming the 24th (Pembroke and Glamorgan Yeomanry) Battalion, the Welsh Regiment.
Upon its formation, the new Battalion was attached to 231 Brigade, 74th (Yeomanry) Division. This Division was to gain much credit for itself during General Allenby’s campaign against the Turkish Forces in Palestine in 1917, before being hurriedly recalled to the Western Front in May 1918, after the German Offensives on the Somme and on the Lys had seriously threatened the front of the British Expeditionary Force.
The 74th (Yeomanry) Division arrived at Marseilles on 7 May, and thereafter fought through until the Armistice on 11 November 1918, when they stopped their great advance at the Belgian town of Ath.
This book will, hopefully, rekindle the memory of this gallant battalion of the Welsh Regiment, which was never to be re-formed again.