Pre-War Cloth Shoulder Titles, Rank and Insignia photos.

[FROGSMILE]

The SWB museum at Brecon was always a good one where staff were willing to go the extra mile.  If that is still the same it might be worthwhile asking about the badge.  It is truly extraordinary, as I’ve never seen another regiment permit unofficial badges on the arm in that way.  Given its apparent rarity, it must have been a relatively short lived practice.

1 minute ago, FROGSMILE said:

 

Edited 20 August , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Toby Brayley]

A stunning Cabinet Card (and early birthday present) of an unknown Drummer of the South Wales Borderers taken in India c1900. The Dhobi-waller has obviously been working hard on his whites! The image is crystal clear, EGYPT can even be read on his pugaree badge.

 

 

[FROGSMILE]

What a beauty of a CDV, it's also striking that he has affected his bugle cords, which for the SWB were green as a non-Royal regiment, to be festooned more like cavalry cap-lines by securing them slightly higher up around his collar and then with a longer drop to the hip.  I've not seen that before, and I don't think that he would have got away with it in barracks, it's a decided bit of swank!  His drum badge and cuff badges are all typically fitted by hooks and eyes to facilitate laundering by the dhobi wallah.  It was quite common for non-Royal regiments to back their badges with cloth of facing colour, so the standard scarlet backed badges probably sit on green here matching with the bugle cord and giving a pleasing effect.

Thank you for posting.

 

Edited 3 September , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Jerry B]

6 hours ago, Toby Brayley said:

A stunning Cabinet Card (and early birthday present) of an unknown Drummer of the South Wales Borderers taken in India c1900. The Dhobi-waller has obviously been working hard on his whites! The image is crystal clear, EGYPT can even be read on his pugaree badge.

 

 

a stunning image,  there are a lot of high quality cdv for the SWB on ebay recently, but the seller is way too pricey for my budget, these last two you shared are among those he was selling

Edited 3 September , 2020 by Jerry B

[Toby Brayley]

16 hours ago, Jerry B said:

a stunning image,  there are a lot of high quality cdv for the SWB on ebay recently, but the seller is way too pricey for my budget, these last two you shared are among those he was selling

 

Hi Jerry yes I snapped up the majority of them, the others are now over priced! 

[Toby Brayley]

Royal Munster Fusiliers, Bandsmans and Drummer, India C1890s

 

On the subject of drummers chords. A recent addition and this one goes straight up into my favourites. Bandsman (left) and a Drummer of the Royal Munster Fusiliers taken in Calcutta c1890s. Some great detail here including two variants of the "Frock, Serge, Foreign Pattern".

The bandsman wears a bandsman variation with and enhanced cuff knot and the drummer has another unique drummers variation embellished with drummers lace.

 

At first I was convinced they were NF (as they came in a batch of NF cards). The facings threw me. Under further scrutiny from forum members Mueriscch and Graham Stewart they have now been confirmed as RMF. Aside from the Grenades on the FS Helmets, they have blue collars and the shoulder straps read MF, (not RMF) as per the 1894 Clothing Regulations.

 

[FROGSMILE]

Yes it’s a superb CDV Toby, given added interest by the RMF attribution.  I’ve seen drummers lace done like that before on foreign service frocks.  I believe that both subjects are Boy entrants.  It’s a quite early sight of the then new pattern of bandsman badge too.

 

Edited 4 September , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Jerry B]

On 04/09/2020 at 09:11, Toby Brayley said:

 

Hi Jerry yes I snapped up the majority of them, the others are now over priced! 

I assumed you must have had them, I saved the images for ebay for reference, though obviously not as good as hi res scans of the originals would be

[FROGSMILE]

The distinctly similar nose and mouth of the two RMF Boys suggests to me that they are brothers.  If so I think that it's quite probable that their father was also serving in the regiment.

Edited 3 August , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[Jerry B]

two for the 1st Welsh, both with cloth titles and Brodrick caps

[FROGSMILE]

16 minutes ago, Jerry B said:

two for the 1st Welsh, both with cloth titles and Brodrick caps

Great photos.  Toby will be pleased to see the Brodrick Caps.  In the B&W photo the sergeant has ordered “for inspection port arms”.  The bolts were then opened and each soldier placed his thumb in the breech in such a way as the daylight reflects off his thumbnail up the bore of the barrel and then by looking down from the muzzle end the sergeant inspects for cleanliness.

Edited 27 October , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Jerry B]

3 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

Great photos.  Toby will be pleased to see the Brodrick Caps.  In the B&W photo the sergeant has ordered “for inspection port arms”.  The bolts were then opened and each soldier placed his thumb in the breech in such a way as the daylight reflects up the bore of the barrel and then by looking down from the muzzle end the sergeant inspects for cleanliness.

 

 

I assume both are part of a series of the 1st Welsh in training, though obviously one is coloured and one as you mention is B&W.

[FROGSMILE]

19 minutes ago, Jerry B said:

 

 

I assume both are part of a series of the 1st Welsh in training, though obviously one is coloured and one as you mention is B&W.

Yes I would think so.  1st Battalion Welsh Regiment were stationed at Gravesend, Kent (‘Thames District’) after the Boer War, 1902-1905, which fits with the background to the photo.

Edited 27 October , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Muerrisch]

2nd RWF India 1907 , see caption.

CSgt is WH Stanway who rose to Bt. Lt Col in the Great War. A fine collection of Marksmen, bandsmen, a drummer, lots of GCB, some China campaign medals ..... enjoy!  Nice hackles in the Wolsleys.

A pity that Frank Richards is not in the group, he was certainly in the battalion.

Stanway commanded the mixed force to quell the Connaught Ranger post-war mutiny by virtue of his brevet.

[Dragoon]

Cracking!

FROGSMILE will love this one.

Thank you for sharing Toby.

 

Chris 

[FROGSMILE]

A superb photo and thank you for posting it.  For those interested in the esoteric, the two officers have ‘hackles’ in their Wolseley helmet, whereas the men have ‘plumes’ formed from horsehair.  It’s the same for the Grenadier Guards and was thus a practice followed by all fusilier regiments.  It’s very interesting to see such a good photo of Col Sgt Stanway, long a hero of mine.

Edited 3 November , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Muerrisch]

17 hours ago, Dragoon said:

Cracking!

FROGSMILE will love this one.

Thank you for sharing Toby.

 

Chris 

 

Toby?

[Muerrisch]

This from my article in Stand To!, without illustrations.

 

STANWAY the warrior.

 

William Stanway could have been forgiven a smile of satisfaction as he tied the laces of his highly polished black shoes and slipped on the jacket of the dark suit appropriate to the occasion: the jacket heavy with his decorations and medals earned under three sovereigns. Since retirement from the army, he had helped to run the Natal Park Hotel, a family business, and now he was to accompany, as host, the Royal Family and Field Marshal Smuts, guests at the hotel, on their visit to Bergville.

William was born in Manchester on 22^nd August 1881. His parents were John and Susan, and he had at least five siblings. Details of his early life are sketchy, but, by his own account on his Army Form B 199.A., he was educated at St Phillip’s High School and Manchester Technical College. He joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers on 13^th November 1899 at Wrexham, regimental number 6193, religion Church of England, and was promoted corporal in March 1900 at Plymouth, a remarkably rapid promotion, and one that was followed by being picked for membership of the Imperial Contingent to Australia 1901 with the Duke of York (later King George V). As Duke and Duchess of York, George and Mary carried out a wide variety of public duties. In 1900 and 1901 they toured the British Empire, visiting Australia, where the Duke opened the first session of the Australian Parliament upon the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia. Their tour continued to Canada and New Zealand.

From which duty Stanway reported to the 1^st Battalion of his regiment in South Africa, engaged in war against the Boers, and was made lance-sergeant and subsequently sergeant, again remarkably quickly. He arrived too late to gain the campaign medal clasps for the principal actions, but was awarded the customary ‘state’ clasps to the Queen’s South Africa medal.

On returning to England in 1902 he soon acquired The Mounted Infantry Certificate at Salisbury, assessed ‘VG’, and passed the NCO School Aldershot as a qualified instructor. Before very long, he was sent to India to join 2^nd RWF at Agra in November 1903, thus beginning a 13 year association with that battalion. He was promoted to colour sergeant c. 1905, a phenomenal rise in six years. William married Emily Mary in India on 8^th March 1906, and they had three girls born to them whilst on the Indian sub-continent, and a boy during the Great War. In 1908 he gained a ‘Distinguished’ at the School of Musketry, Maymyo, Burma, for Rifle and Machine gun, and was a very good combat shot, as ‘The War the Infantry Knew’ (TWTIK) subsequently recounted: ‘Stanway was giving occasional but deadly aid to the snipers. Once he snapped an officer where the German parapet was low. Another day he got a pheasant for the pot. He had a disconcerting habit at one time of keeping his revolver on the table when playing cards, to shoot rats as they ran along the cornice beam of the dug-out’. Figure 1. shows him in India, with marksman badge (his left cuff) and the badge denoting that he was the colour sergeant of the best shooting company.

When the regular infantry adopted the 4-company organisation in 1913, the four most senior colour sergeants in a battalion became the company sergeant majors, and, such was the rapidity of his rise, he was one such. Nevertheless, prospects of even further promotion were not good: there could only be one regimental sergeant major at a time, and only one regimental quartermaster sergeant, and, as both the incumbents had benefited similarly by an enlightened ‘fast track’ promotions policy in the battalion, they each had several years to run. If he had nursed any ambitions of an officer’s commission, his marriage (and now his age) disqualified him, even though he was greatly respected and admired. The one possible way ahead was to obtain a quartermaster’s commission, but even here he was likely to be thwarted because Quartermaster and Honorary Lieutenant H Yates had only been promoted in 1912 and was himself comparatively young.

War in August 1914 brought new stresses and new opportunities, and he received an early and favourable mention in TWTIK by Captain Geiger, captain of A Company, on 26^th August during The Retreat ‘ ….Captain Samson, my excellent Sergeant-Major Stanway and I held a council of war, and decided it was better the men abandoned their packs by order than throw them away themselves, as some others had done’. On 30^th October news came that the RSM, the RQMS and Stanway had been commissioned as 2^nd Lieutenants, an exceptional measure prompted by severe losses among the officers by death, wounds and extra-regimental duties. These appear to have been regular commissions, rather than the customary temporary ones resorted to later in the war. The RSM saw this change as retrograde, and compared his new status to that of a ‘bum wart’, but Stanway seems to have relished the opportunity and made the most spectacular and sustained progress of the three. He went to C Company.

William Stanway featured frequently in TWTIK and contributed to it, but was not publicly acknowledged as a contributor by Dunn; surely an accidental omission. Pte. Frank Richards DCM MM of the same company admired him greatly, saying that (with Sergeant Walter Fox) he was the best non-commissioned officer he ever soldiered with. Again with Fox, Stanway was praised by Richards as one of the two sergeant majors ‘who never pinched our rum’! The compiler and part-author of TWTIK heaped further praise: ‘Stanway has been given command of a battalion of Cheshires: an achievement for one who was only Company Sergeant Major only twenty months ago’ (TWTIK 2^nd July 1916). His promotions were rapid: Temporary Lieutenant on 9^th February 1915, Lieutenant on 21^st May 1915, Temporary Captain on 8^th August 1915, and substantive Lieutenant on the Regimental List in November 1915. TWTIK observed that his Military Cross was gazetted on 14^th January 1916. Stanway’s first Distinguished Service Order (LG 22^nd July 1916) was awarded for his leading part in saving the situation when the Red Dragon mine was exploded under the battalion on 22^nd June 1916.

‘For conspicuous gallantry and ability when the enemy exploded a large mine which wrecked some 75 yards of our trench, and attacked in force after bombing the spot heavily, several officers being incapacitated. Captain Stanway, who commanded the next company, at once took charge, and after the enemy had been driven off with great skill and coolness, occupied the lip of the crater and organised defence’.

He was gazetted Acting Lieutenant Colonel on 4^th July 1916, having been a Temporary Major and Second in Command of his battalion at times from December 1915, and temporarily commanding the unit from February to May 1916. He was given command of 1/6^th Cheshires on 4^th July 1916. Whilst Stanway was with the Cheshires, Edmund Blunden crossed his path (serving in the same brigade) and Blunden’s Undertones of War noted Stanway’s ‘indicatory stick, (him) speaking calmly of the night’s shelling, the hard work necessary to keep the trenches open and the enemy’s advantage of observation’. Figure 2. shows Stanway complete with indicatory stick.

He was made a substantive regular Captain (RWF) 30^th December 1916 and earned a bar to his DSO (MC recommended, DSO substituted) with the 1/6^th Cheshires, LG 26^th January 1917:

‘For conspicuous gallantry in action. He handled his battalion in the attack with great courage and ability. He captured the position, inflicting much loss on the enemy and took a large number of prisoners.’

His descendents have in their possession a German medal, said to have been pressed on him by a grateful German officer, brought in wounded by him. Stanway commanded his Cheshires battalion until April 1918, and acquired the soubriquet of ‘Black Jack’ because of his ‘5 o’clock shadow’. The informal history of that unit says of him that he ‘showed no sign of the previous battalion commander’s contempt for the men under his command’ and that the tempo of action under Stanway increased. The Army List of September 1918 has him as a substantive South Wales Borderers Captain, with seniority 30^th December 1916, and with a Brevet of Major dated 1^st January 1918, employed with 1/6^th Cheshires. There is no indication in his personal career notes whether this transfer of regiments was voluntary or indeed unwelcome, but when he posed for a formal portrait in later life in full regimentals, it was as a Royal Welch Fusilier (Figure 3). A gunshot wound in the leg, and a gassing, both in 1917, were his only combat wounds, but in April 1918 he was given a well-deserved break and sent to command the 51^st Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment at Worksop, before returning to the Cheshires at the end of the war.

He reported to the 2^nd battalion of his new regiment at Oswestry, and went with them as a Captain, brevet Lieutenant Colonel (dated June 1919)  to Jhansi, India. Whilst in command of Sabathu station, he played a key role in the suppression of the infamous mutiny of the Connaught Rangers, being ordered (presumably by virtue of his brevet) to command a strong detachment comprising a company of SWB, a company of Seaforth Highlanders and a company of the Machine Gun Corps that marched to Jullundur, arrested the mutineers and garrisoned the station. Stanway’s post-war career was in India, where he was Adjutant Indian Defence Force 1921 to 1929, Commandant Nucleus Depôt Railway Reserve Regiment from 1929 to 1933, and Director of Military Prisons and Detention Barracks India from 1933. He was awarded the OBE in 1931 for his work for ex-servicemen, and the King’s Silver Jubilee medal in June 1935.

William Henry Stanway retired on 13^th August 1936 after nearly 37 years service, went to live with family members in South Africa, and acted as a recruiting officer during the Second World War. He was awarded the South Africa Medal for War Services (1945) for his voluntary unpaid work. He died in Bergville, Natal, in 1961, having performed one last duty for his Monarch, King George VI (son of the Duke of York whom he served in 1901). He was an official host, with Field Marshal Jan Smuts, for the visit of King George VI, his Queen, and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in 1947. The hotel and the national park adopted the prefix ‘Royal’ as an appropriate reminder of the visit. Figure 4. shows him shepherding the Royal party.

 

Sadly, the hotel is now said to be a looted and unkempt shell of its former glory, but nothing can detract from the career, service and reputation of its one-time resident, William Stanway the warrior.

 

I am indebted to Colonel Stanway’s grandson, Adrian Devine, for much of the material for this essay.

 

 

References

 

Babbington A                              The Devil to Pay, Leo Cooper, London 1991

Blunden  E                                   Undertones of War, Richard Cobden-Sanderson, London, 1928 and many subsequent editions

By authority                                Army List, The, Monthly.

Dudley Ward CH                       Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, Volume III, 1914-18, France and Flanders, Foster Groom & Co, 1928 (reprinted 1995)

Dunn JC                                       War the Infantry Knew, The. Sphere Books Ltd, 1989 (the most recent and probably most accessible version)

Kelsall D                                      Stockport Lads Together, Stockport MBC Leisure Services Division, 1989.

Langley D E                                Duty Done: 2nd Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers in the Great War, RWF Museum, 2002.

Richards F, annotated Krijnen and Langley

                                    Old Soldiers Never Die, published Krijnen and Langley, 2004.

Richards F, annotated Krijnen and Langley

                                    Old Soldier Sahib, published Krijnen and Langley, 2005

The National Archive                2^nd RWF War Diary WO 95/1365

Tyler, John                                   Military Biographies of 1914-1920 Officers of the RWF, together with Other Ranks decorated, unpublished

 

[FROGSMILE]

A super rundown of, and tribute to, Stanway’s military career.  Such men are rare.

Edited 4 November , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Dragoon]

4 hours ago, Muerrisch said:

 

Toby?

Appolies Muerrisch!

Got my members mixed up!

Long day yesterday.

Thank you for sharing Muerrisch.

 

Chris

[Pat Atkins]

Thanks very much for sharing this, Muerrisch, fascinating stuff - I've had to re-imagine him somewhat, as I had previously no idea he was from Manchester! Didn't know (or hadn't registered) that Blunden had met him, either. It's interesting that his contemporaries rated him as highly as the Army obviously did, and reading Frank Richards' memoirs or The War The Infantry Knew one always wanted to know more about him. What a soldier; I'm really struck that he was a Corporal 4 months after enlistment in 1899, which surely suggests extraordinary character.

 

Cheers, Pat

[FROGSMILE]

47 minutes ago, Pat Atkins said:

 

Cheers, Pat

I’d been thinking the same thing Pat.  At first I wondered whether he had perhaps some Militia service, but as I know that Muerrisch would have discovered and mentioned it if he had, l came to the conclusion that it was just his education (very superior for a ranker of that time) along with a willingness and ability to learn quickly probably picked up during basic training that earmarked him for early advancement.  It would have been interesting to know more detail about that time in his life, but it has probably been lost in time now.

Edited 5 November , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Muerrisch]

The regiment had a good record of accelerating promotion and getting those bets right.

RSM Murphy was jumped from colour sergeant, for example, in piping times of peace. QM Yates was also accelerated. VW Ward made corporal within a year. All these were well before the war. They proved to be the backbone in 1914 and 1915. Another strength was the appointment of outstanding adjutants once war and promotions had whittled away the regular army incumbents.

Perhaps we should not be surprised: it is reasonably well documented that RWF were offered conversion to rename as Welsh Guards, but considered themselves a cut above the Brigade status.

 

Herewith Victor Ward:

 

Victor Ward, soldier, artist and collector.

 

Gone for a soldier

According to his daughter Cynthia, Victor left home in a hurry at the age of 18 years to avoid becoming a lithographer and illustrator, his father’s ambition for him. In order to be as far from his home in Blackpool as possible he chose a regiment with both regular battalions serving overseas (such a disposition of battalions, although not unique, was unusual in that it defeated the principles of the Cardwell reforms of 1881, whereby one battalion was to be retained at home in rotation to act as a training and draft-providing body for the overseas battalion, held at War Establishment). The Royal Welch Fusiliers (officially ‘Welsh’ at that time) suited his purpose, and he enlisted in Blackpool on 14^th July 1899 for seven years of colour service and five on the reserve.

 

The honourable schoolboy

His documents show that he was born on 24th February 1881 in Oldham to Peter Edward Ward and Esther. Grandfather Ward was a farmer ‘of 48 acres’ in 1871 (census) and father Ward was a ‘master painter’ (1881). In 1891 his father was staying with a widowed sister of independent means, keeping a domestic servant, and there is a clear indication that the Wards were, if not prosperous, at least not poor. They were a Roman Catholic family, a faith in which Victor lived and was buried. The family moved to Blackpool, and it was there, at The Grammar School, Adelaide Street, that he was educated. As school leaving for the majority was at 12 years, and he left at 17 ½, it is highly likely that the school was a fee-paying establishment. His school final report of 12^th October 1898 by headmaster Sankey is a glowing one ‘…. truthful, honest and honourable.’, and all the signs are that he was industrious and talented.  Figure 1. shows Victor at about this time.

 

He was indeed a good artist and cartoonist, and the army’s gain was certainly lithography’s loss. He sketched and painted in watercolours throughout his life, but above all he was a keen observer of the world around him and collected a substantial portfolio of postcards, photographs and illustrations during his foreign service. Interestingly, very little was collected or preserved from his Great War period, a great but understandable pity.

 

 

Signalling instructor

The normal progression for a young soldier after recruitment and attestation was kitting out and basic training at the home Depôt, Wrexham, followed by a period with the ‘details’ of one regular battalion or another. Victor was given regimental number 6047 and his height measured (5ft 7 ½ inches), medically examined and noted as having a fresh complexion with brown hair and eyes. The regiment recognised his potential very quickly. Victor passed the Army 2^nd Class Certificate of Education on 24^th August 1899, then passed as an assistant instructor in signalling 29^th September 1900 at Aldershot having been given early promotion to corporal on 14^th March, although at that time only a second class shot with the rifle.

 

 

He appears to have been allowed what would now be called ‘embarkation leave’ before going to China as part of a draft, because the group portrait at Figure 2. was taken in Blackpool, and shows him with two fellow corporals, and interestingly, illustrates three orders of dress. The portrait has been clumsily hand-coloured. Victor is wearing the best scarlet tunic, closely tailored, lined, piped and decorated. In addition to corporal’s chevrons, he displays the assistant instructor in signalling crossed flags. His standing companion wears what was known as the blue patrol jacket, sanctioned for walking out and, in this era, provided at his own expense by the soldier. On the right sits a soldier with the least formal jacket, the ‘frock’. This loosely cut scarlet garment was unlined, of cheaper material and comparatively unadorned. It was made in a seven- and a five-buttoned variety, this being the former. When worn without a white belt, it looks decidedly inferior.

 

China and India

Ward’s Soldier’s Small Book shows that he left for Hong Kong with a draft for 2^nd Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers on 5^th January 1901 and therefore missed the actions of his battalion (and the campaign medal) in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion. He went with the unit to North China in November, and to India a year later, having passed his examination for sergeant in Peking. His collection of ephemera from this period includes several gory photographs of executions with the sword (RWF non commissioned officers watching with interest!) and of the fall of the Rebellion. Reading between the lines, Victor struggled to achieve Marksman status, although after 1904 he never fell below First Class Shot, a year in which he passed the Army First Class Certificate of Education, a necessary prerequisite for commissioning if he had a mind to it. He was promoted to sergeant on 4^th February 1904, and also became a member of the regimental lodge of Freemasons, a life-long interest. Around this time he would have taken the decision to extend his service, an option available at the Commanding Officer’s discretion. The photograph at Figure 3 was taken in India c. 1907, by which time his moustache had been cultivated. His ephemera and postcards from India and Burmah suggest that he availed himself of every opportunity to get out and about and discover the countryside and its people. 

 

War, wounds, a DCM and commission

As the battalion returned Home in the spring of 1914, he had achieved a further promotion to colour sergeant, but infantry battalions were in the process of changing from an eight-company organisation to a four, and, being one of the junior colour sergeants, he became a company quartermaster sergeant, and in that appointment he went to war. He was in B Company, was wounded in November 1914 and rejoined the battalion via 3^rd RWF in August 1915. As his records (reference at the National Archive P 55868) have not been released we do not have much detail of his early war service, and he first emerges in the written record in the battalion war diary on St George’s Day 1917 on the Hindenburg Line, for which he received a Mention in Despatches for distinguished conduct as a company sergeant major. By October he was at Third Ypres as an Acting CSM (still B Company) and received a Distinguished Conduct Medal for the Polygon Wood action of 26^th /27^th September. It was gazetted on 6^th February 1918:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He took command of his company when all officers were casualties. Later in the day, when the supply of ammunition in the front line gave out, by his personal example and influence he held his position until the arrival of a fresh supply. His courage and example were undoubtedly responsible for maintaining the front line position’.

 

He was commissioned as a regular 2^nd Lieutenant into the Regiment on 14^th March 1918 and continued with the battalion, the war diary making note of the event. Other mentions of him in the diary show that he was called forward from ‘Battle Surplus’ and two days later was wounded (left leg above the knee) on 29^th August in the ‘Advance to Victory’.  The Daily Mail noted the wounding on 17^th September. After the war, Ward was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in April 1919, and served as a Lieutenant with 3^rd RWF and 2^nd RWF in Ireland, marrying his wife Amelia Mary in 1920 (Figure 4). The 2^nd RWF officers presented him with a handsome silver salver with their facsimile signatures. Among them were those of his wartime companions Walwyn, Garnett, de Miremont, Roberts-Morgan and Jagger. In this period he executed some accomplished cartoons of fellow officers, much in the style of ‘Spy’, and maintained a busy sketchbook.

 

Compulsory retirement

He retired as an Acting Captain on 2^nd June 1922, and his Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Minshull-Ford, in providing a reference for future employment, said he was ‘a pleasing personality, and a favourite with all ranks’. In common with many another officer after the outbreak of peace, Ward was not at all happy to be compulsorily retired. From the army’s viewpoint, it did not need substantial numbers of comparatively old lieutenants and captains, however gallant and experienced, and so they went, protesting. He applied, with glowing references and scant success, for many posts, including that of quartermaster of the 4^th Battalion, but was still unemployed and corresponding with a cordial but not particularly useful Minshull-Ford as late as1927.

 

Ward corresponded with Dr Dunn when the latter was writing his epic The War the Infantry Knew and is acknowledged as a contributor. Figure 5. was taken at about this time. His decorations and medals comprised the DCM, 1914 Star with Clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal (with oak leaf for Mention in Despatches), and Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. Victor Wallace Ward died ‘fortified by the rites of Holy Church’ on 18^th December 1960 and was interred at St Peter and Paul’s, Crosby, Liverpool.

 

I am very grateful to Graham Knight for making the Victor Ward Collection available, and for information from the late Cynthia Ward and the late Dr. Keith Doney.

 

References

 

By authority                                Army List, The, Monthly.

By authority                                Soldier’s Small Book of Victor Wallace Ward.

Dudley Ward CH                       Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, Volume III, 1914-18, France and Flanders, Foster Groom & Co, 1928 (reprinted 1995)

Dunn JC                                       War the Infantry Knew, The. Sphere Books Ltd, 1989 (the most recent and probably most accessible version)

Langley D E                                Duty Done: 2nd Battalion The Royal Welch Fusiliers in the Great War, RWF Museum, 2002.

Richards F, annotated by Krijnen and Langley

                                    Old Soldiers Never Die, published Krijnen and Langley, 2004.

Richards F, annotated by Krijnen and Langley

                                    Old Soldier Sahib, published Krijnen and Langley, 2005

The National Archive                2^nd RWF War Diary WO 95/1365

 

Tyler, John                                   Military Biographies of Officers of the RWF 1914-1920, together with his Other Ranks RWF decorated 1914-1919, both as yet unpublished

 

 

 

David Langley

© 2007

[FROGSMILE]

On 13/01/2018 at 21:03, Muerrisch said:

The uniform shown is not Boer War period, but later, even if only a little later. There is nothing to suggest that could not be as late as August 1914 except the headdress.

 

I don't think the star on his right cuff is the 5 point distance judging star. It baffles me because it seems to have 4 points and  I don't know why it is there.

 

The question about the purpose of the 4-pointed star when worn by non-Territorial Force soldiers has arisen a few times in this thread, whereupon we speculated it must be distance judging, due perhaps to a shortage of the correct, 5-pointed star, but in carrying out research on other matters I've stumbled upon the answer.  It was in fact a badge introduced in July 1901 as a badge to mark and encourage members of the Militia to re-enlist (if having left) or reengage (if coming to the end of their engagement).  Worked in white thread on scarlet cloth for line infantry, but appropriate colours for other arms, it was specified that the badge should be positioned on the right cuff.  Its introduction seems to have been related to the need to encourage the retention of auxiliaries during the 2nd Boer War.

 

N.B.  If your (Langley and Edwards) excellent and seminal book is ever revised it would be an important addition I think.

 

 

Edited 6 November , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Muerrisch]

Militia who served the appropriate term Embodied in the Boer War were granted, and were paid for, Good Conduct badges [in practice, usually only one]. These were to be worn as by Regulars on the left cuff, thereby displacing Militia re-engagement and re-enlistment identical chevrons.

 

The RACD ledger full version, dated 3 June 1901, "in place of the stripes which are worn at present for re-engagement badges, a four pointed worsted star, small, will be worn for each re enlistment or re-engagement on the right arm just above the cuff."

 

The BLOG by Brayley and Muerrisch contained a typo as below, which will be amended in due course.

 

The Militia.

Many militiamen served in the Boer War, and Militia Regulations 1904, paragraph 456 et seq awarded GCBs and pay to continue for those qualified after their return to peacetime soldiering. Usually only one badge could have been earned in the time available. The regulations are mute on the subject of the identical re-enlistment badges, creating a problem that was resolved in theory by an RACD entry of 3^rd June 1907 which specified a small four-point star on the right cuff for each re-enlistment. Events overtook the badge when the Militia ceased to exist as such in April 1908. Unsurprisingly we have no photographs confirming the badge entering service. This badge later soldiered on for the Officer Cadet Force from 1908