Other ranks’ cap badge Welsh Guards, c1990.
NAM. 1992-04-189Introduction
The Welsh Guards was the last of the British Army’s five Foot Guards regiments, coming into existence in February 1915 by order of the Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener, and by the King’s Royal Warrant. This was only a few months into the First World War and within a month of its creation the new unit had not only mounted guard at Buckingham Palace for the first time (on 1 March, St David’s Day), but had also sailed for France.
It saw its first action at Loos in September 1915 and took part in many other battles on the Western Front. Although it spent much of the inter-war period on ceremonial duties in London, the 1st Battalion spent a year as part of the Cairo Brigade in 1929, before being sent to Gibraltar just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Welsh Guards in a reserve trench at Guillemont on the Somme, c1916.
NAM. 2002-02-589-61982 saw the regiment in Bluff Cove in the Falklands, on board the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship ‘Sir Galahad’. The ship was attacked on 7 June and 32 of the 48 men killed in the ensuing fire were Welsh Guards. Others, such as Simon Weston, suffered horrendous burns. Even so, the unit went on to take part in the re-taking of the islands. Later deployments included West Berlin, Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Iraq and Afghanistan.
As well as its traditional ceremonial role, the regiment manned Green Goddess fire engines during the fire fighters’ strike in 2002-03. On 9 May 2010 a detachment of the Welsh Guards became the first British unit to march through Moscow at the parade marking the 65th anniversary of VE Day.
Key facts
Motto:
- 'Cymru am Byth' (meaning 'Wales Forever')
Nickname:
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