1st London Welsh

[41st]

Gentlemen,

Does anyone have a shoulder title to the above that they could post please?

I have just bought part of what I think is a shoulder title to this RWF battalion but would like to compare it against something other than the b & w photo in Westlake.

Thanks in advance.

41st

[raesherwood]

Hi 41st,

Hope the attached helps.

[41st]

Diolch yn fawr.

Many thanks for posting that and what a superb example.

This is the bit I have picked up.

I've a particular interest in this unit (15th London Welsh RWF ) as I have a fondness for the work of Ellis Humphrey Evans.

Better known by his bardic name of Hedd Wyn (Shining Peace). He died on the 31st July 1917 and is buried in Artillery Wood just outside Ieper.

Six Weeks after he died he posthumously won Wales's most important poetry prize at the 1917 National Eisteddfod with a poem entitled Yr Arwr (The Hero).

When asked for the winner to reveal himself it was announced that he had died in France six weeks earlier.

The empty bard's chair was draped in black and the Archdruid pronounced "Yr wyl yn ei dagrau a'r Bardd yn ei fedd" (the festival in tears and the poet in his grave).

The description on his headstone reads Y PRIFARDD HEDD WYN (THE CHIEF BARD HEDD WYN).

[lettman]

There's a WW1 memoir published in 1974 called The Lousier War, by W.A. Tucker. At the outbreak of war he enlisted in the 10th London, but was quickly chucked out for being underage. In November 1914 he managed to enlist in the London Welsh, despite having 'no Welsh connections of any kind', but 'They accepted me in kindly and cultured fashion', he says. A few months later he transferred into the 38th (Welsh) Div Cyclist coy, which later became part of XIth Corps Cyclists. He was captured by the Germans in April 1918 and remained a POW for the rest of the war. A fascinating and lively read!

[Neil Pearce]

Nice one Raesherwood. Been looking for a while for one of those, and good to see "in the flesh". A scarce title indeed....

Cheers, Neil

[Toby Purcell]

Originally Posted by 41st

Diolch yn fawr.

Many thanks for posting that and what a superb example.

This is the bit I have picked up.

I've a particular interest in this unit (15th London Welsh RWF ) as I have a fondness for the work of Ellis Humphrey Evans.

Better known by his bardic name of Hedd Wyn (Shining Peace). He died on the 31st July 1917 and is buried in Artillery Wood just outside Ieper.

Six Weeks after he died he posthumously won Wales's most important poetry prize at the 1917 National Eisteddfod with a poem entitled Yr Arwr (The Hero).

When asked for the winner to reveal himself it was announced that he had died in France six weeks earlier.

The empty bard's chair was draped in black and the Archdruid pronounced "Yr wyl yn ei dagrau a'r Bardd yn ei fedd" (the festival in tears and the poet in his grave).

The description on his headstone reads Y PRIFARDD HEDD WYN (THE CHIEF BARD HEDD WYN).

Check out the diary of George Culpitt that has been made into a website by a relative. He served with the London Welsh throughout the war and survived:

www.culpitt-war-diary.org.uk/WARDIA.DOC

[41st]

Originally Posted by lettman

There's a WW1 memoir published in 1974 called The Lousier War, by W.A. Tucker. At the outbreak of war he enlisted in the 10th London, but was quickly chucked out for being underage. In November 1914 he managed to enlist in the London Welsh, despite having 'no Welsh connections of any kind', but 'They accepted me in kindly and cultured fashion', he says. A few months later he transferred into the 38th (Welsh) Div Cyclist coy, which later became part of XIth Corps Cyclists. He was captured by the Germans in April 1918 and remained a POW for the rest of the war. A fascinating and lively read!

Thanks for the heads up, I've not heard of that one before.
Another bit of reading to catch up with along with Toby's excellent recommendation.

[Toby Purcell]

Originally Posted by 41st

Thanks for the heads up, I've not heard of that one before.
Another bit of reading to catch up with along with Toby's excellent recommendation.

Sorry, I only gave the link to a word document. This is the full site:

http://www.culpitt-war-diary.org.uk/

[Toby Purcell]

And another famous member of the London Welsh:

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.

[Toby Purcell]

Last survivor of a famous first world Christmas Truce
Bertie Felstead

In 1998, some 80 years after the armistice that ended the first world war, the French government, in a gracious and imaginative gesture, awarded the small band of British survivors the Legion d’Honneur. Among the recipients was Bertie Felstead, then a lively centenarian living in a Gloucestershire nursing home, and the last surviving participant in the famous Christmas truce of 1915, when British and German forces laid down their weapons and fraternised in no-man’s land.

By his own admission, Felstead, who has died aged 106, was an "average" man. Born in London, he was 20 when war broke in August 1914. He had no idea what horrors the next four years would bring, nor could he have foreseen the extent to which the enterprise on which he had embarked would change, irrevocably, the world into which he had been born.

Having no particular preference as to regiment, Felstead made his choice by walking through the first door he came to inside the London recruiting office. So he found himself in the 15th (London Welsh) Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers, which eventually numbered 42 battalions, mostly recruited from rural areas, and was to lose nearly 10,000 men in the conflict.

Felstead went to France in 1915, and, on Christmas Eve that year, found himself in a freezing trench near the village of Laventie in northern France.

Much has been written about Christmas Day 1914, and the unofficial truce that took place at various points along the frontline. During the course of the day, officers and men from both sides climbed out of their trenches and crossed into no-man’s land to exchange greetings. The writer Henry Williamson, then serving as a private in the London Rifle Brigade, recorded that gifts were passed across as well.

Many years later, talking about his own experience of a similar truce in 1915, Felstead recalled that the sound of German soldiers singing

Silent Night, barely 100 yards away, encouraged the British to respond with Good King Wenceslas. The following day, there was an impromptu kick-about with a football.

This seasonal fraternisation apparently went on for about half an hour, until brought to an abrupt end by a furious British officer, who ordered his men back to the trenches, telling them. in no uncertain terms, the brutal truth of their situation. namely that they were there "to kill the Hun, not make friends with him".

There were other spontaneous truces along the frontline, but, after 1915, they did not reoccur because, by the following Christmas, few British soldiers had the stomach for them. In the intervening period, the British army suffered its worst casualties in a single day, losing nearly 60,000 men on the opening day in Battle of the Somme on July 1 1916.

Felstead was seriously wounded during that battle, and was eventually shipped home to England. The following year, he was posted to Salonika, from where he was eventually invalided home with a serious bout of malaria. Demobilised in 1919, he went to work as a civilian at R.A.F Uxbridge, later moving to a job with the General Electric Company.

In an interview two years before his death, Felstead made a telling comment which explained why the military authorities reacted so strongly against friendly contact with the enemy. Recalling the carols, sung in the trenches on Christmas Eve, he said: "You couldn't hear each other sing like that without it affecting your feelings for the other side?"

[Fatherofthree]

[QUOTE=Toby Purcell;101209]Last survivor of a famous first world Christmas Truce

In the intervening period, the British army suffered its worst casualties in a single day, losing nearly 60,000 men on the opening day in Battle of the Somme on July 1 1916.

Great post.

Just had a large brandy in a silent toast and a quiet moment after reading this. A large percentage of a generation gone.

Thanks for posting.

Regards
Brian

[Toby Purcell]

[quote=Fatherofthree;101243]

Originally Posted by Toby Purcell

Last survivor of a famous first world Christmas Truce

In the intervening period, the British army suffered its worst casualties in a single day, losing nearly 60,000 men on the opening day in Battle of the Somme on July 1 1916.

Great post.

Just had a large brandy in a silent toast and a quiet moment after reading this. A large percentage of a generation gone.

Thanks for posting.

Regards
Brian

Check out the book "Up to Mametz" that was written by an officer of the 38th Welsh Division who was there.

[41st]

The 38th Div Memorial at Mametz looking towards the hammerhead.

[Fatherofthree]

Thanks for that Toby.

I shall get a copy, read it and learn.

Regards
brian

[john badge]

Thanks to all for some great stories, triggered by a simple shoulder title