RWF: Welch or Welsh?

[Guest Bert]

RWF badges seem to be controversial to say the least. DrB (See Welsh Dragon Badge).

Yes, Herr Doktor, they are indeed. For example, Robert Graves (the poet whom we all know saw service with the RWF), writes in chapter eleven of Good-bye to All That:

'As an additional favour it [the Army Council] consented to recognize another defiant Regimental peculiarity: the spelling of the word "Welch" with a c. The permission was published in a special Army Council instruction of 1919. The ignorant Daily Herald commented "'Strewth!" as though it were unimportant, but the spelling with a c was as important to us as the miniature cap-badge worn at the back of the cap was to the Gloucesters (a commemoration of the time when they fought back to back in Egypt). I have seen a young officer sent off Battalion Parade because his buttons read "Welsh" instead of "Welch". [My italics, added for emphasis.]

Thus, it is clear from Graves's account, that when he joined the Regiment during the Great War they were already wearing insignia with the 'Welch' spelling. So, what about the badges with the 'Welsh' spelling? And how to be sure that a badge with the 'Welch' spelling is in fact post-1920, and not a pre-1920 private purchase required by the Regiment (like the IXL shoulder-title that the 9th Lancers required recruits to purchase and wear)? I should be most interested in comments, suggestions, etc.

[Tim Birch]

Try the RWF's website at:

www.rwfnet.co.uk

Cheers

Tim

[DrB]

Hey, Bert....I will bet you that conundrum will never be solved!

Regards

DrB

[Muerrisch]

Firstly, a quote from my relevant passage in 'Duty Done':

A visitor to the old Western Front, pausing to look at headstones or memorials to the missing, might be sufficiently observant to notice that two spellings, Welch and Welsh, coexist. The old English spelling was Welch, but coexisted with Welsh, so that for example in 1727 there is the ‘King’s Own Royal Regiment of Welch Fusiliers’. Again, in 1768 the spelling was most commonly Welch, but by 1815, the year of Waterloo, Welsh was the preferred version and retained this official status until 1920. Thus, during the Great War and for a short time afterwards, all official publications such as the Army List, Orders of Battle and ODIGW together with SDIGW unequivocally used Welsh [and not just for RWF, but also the Welsh Regiment]. Regimental badges and Colours also bore this spelling.

None of which explains why two versions should be found on headstones. Members of the Regiment clung to the old Welch for all internal purposes, for correspondence and indeed for the official War Diary, so that there is little doubt that soldiers fought and in many cases died as Royal Welch Fusiliers and might well have wished to be commemorated as such. And so commemorated they were, in the first instance, an arrangement formalised by Army Order 56 of 1920 which approved the change to Welch for the Regiment and also the Welch Regiment. Reasonably enough the CWGC adopted this spelling and so the great majority of headstones etc bear a badge with Welch and the soldier’s regiment engraved in full in the same style. However, since 1985 the CWGC policy [and it is quoted here exactly] ‘has been that as headstones need replacement, they are replaced by ones bearing Welsh.’ The policy was adopted after the so-called miss-spelling was brought to their attention.

The Regiment is aware of this state of affairs. It seems less than satisfactory that for many years to come the two spellings will coexist, often on neighbouring graves. More importantly, it does those who died some small disservice.

A sense of humour is required of the historian, so that one notes with glee that the official letter from the War Office, dated 27 January 1920 and announcing the change to Welch to take effect 'at once' is addressed to the Colonel of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and that when the Major commanding the Depôt forwarded a copy of the letter to the Colonel in charge of Records, No 4 District, on 1 February 1920, he signed himself as Commanding Depôt Royal Welsh Fusiliers. An exchange to savour.

End of quote.

Regarding Robert Graves as an authority on officers' buttons of the regiment, I scarcely consider he was an authority on military matters, and he never let a good yarn be obscured by the facts. I think the virtuous custom of meticulous annual inspections would have winkled pre-1920 Welch buttons out.

And could I plead with Bert not to shout at us with bold font? We could all do fancy presentations, but the site has a nice, quiet, easy style that promotes rapid reading and understanding. Please.

[Guest Bert]

Very many thanks to langley Baston for his comments. I am sorry my use of bold font offends his sensibilities - this is not done as a way of 'shouting', but merely because my tired old eyes can't read the 'whispering' of those skinny typefaces.

[dorrie]

Review of a book Old soldiers Never Die states that the name changed from Welch to Welsh in 1881 and back again in 1920

Dorrie

[Guest Bert]

Thanks to Dorrie (and Tim Birch) for their comments. Yes, it was always my understanding that the spelling 'Welsh' was the official one from 1881 to 1920, and there certainly are plenty of badges, buttons, etc. with that spelling. But then we have the evidence of Robert Graves (who was, of course, gravely handicapped by not being Welsh), although I am reliably informed that we can discount him as untrustworthy, and the many collectors who have shown me Service Dress caps with badges that had the 'Welch' spelling, which, they assured me, came with the kit of a Great War casualty. But what do collectors know? They were probably rooked by some cunning fellow on eBay....

[Muerrisch]

[ my tired old eyes can't read the 'whispering' of those skinny typefaces.[/b]

but surely you don't have to read your own?

[Myrtle]

but surely you don't have to read your own?

If you touch type you do !

[Muerrisch]

A few snapshots, not all official, but all from contemporary source material.

Welsh 1723, Welch 1727, Welch 1751, Welch 1768, Welsh or Welch 1815, Welsh GO 41 and 70 of 1881 but more honoured in the breech than the observance, even by inspecting Generals in their formal reports. Welch January 1920. And Welsh on CWGC headstones from 1985.

I cannot help but think that 23rd Foot was easier.

[DrB]

Hear, hear, for the 23rd. At least no one, least of all the Joneses, got upset at that spelling!

DrB