Hedd Wyn

 Hedd Wyn killed, 1917

Pte Ellis Humphrey Evans was serving with the Regiment at Pilckem Ridge, Belgium. He was a shepherd and poet from Trawsfynydd, North Wales, whose pen name was Hedd Wyn. At the National Eisteddfod at Liverpool in 1917 there was a tense and dramatic silence which followed the summons of the Archdruid to Hedd Wyn to reveal his identity and take his victor’s place on the Bard’s Chair. The vast audience was stunned when it became known that he was dead.

Red Dragon Crater

#OTD 22nd June 1916

2 RWF at Red Dragon Crater

The battalion had just returned to the trenches in the Givenchy area of France.  Shortly after 1.30 am the largest German mine of the war was detonated under B Company, many of whose members were buried alive.  The blast was followed by an enemy raid which was repulsed in hand-to-hand fighting.  The company suffered about 100 casualties.  Some men lay out in the open, exposed to German fire, until after dark.  The crater measured 150 by 75 yards at the base; the lips were 40 feet high. RWF at Red Dragon Crater, 1916

The battalion had just returned to the trenches in the Givenchy area of France.  Shortly after 1.30 am the largest German mine of the war was detonated under B Company, many of whose members were buried alive.  The blast was followed by an enemy raid which was repulsed in hand-to-hand fighting.  The company suffered about 100 casualties.  Some men lay out in the open, exposed to German fire, until after dark.  The crater measured 150 by 75 yards at the base; the lips were 40 feet high.

Waterloo!

 

18TH JUNE 1815 – ON THIS DAY IN ROYAL WELCH HISTORY

Battle of Waterloo, Belgium, 1815

During the battle the RWF in Mitchell’s Brigade was moved into the first line which they

anchored on its right flank and covered Hougoumont. This was to the immediate right of the main line of attack of the French cavalry. It was during one of these attacks that the commanding officer, Colonel Sir Henry Ellis, was fatally wounded. The Regiment suffered much from the French guns and suffered 100 casualties. WATERLOO was granted as a battle honour.

One contemporary account of the battle records a meeting of the Duke of Wellington with the Regiment on the field.

“How cruelly the long strain told on the British squares is shown by one incident. Wellington had ridden up to the 23rd, and, peering through the smoke, saw what seemed to be a body of men a few score yards in advance. “What square is that?” He asked. It was a square of the dead. The 23rd had held that position until the ranks of the living were congested and embarrassed by the numbers of the slain. The colonel had drawn the survivors a little distance back to get clear standing-room, but the outline of a square, made up of the slain, still marked the original position of the regiment.”

17TH JUNE 1775 – 0N THIS DAY IN ROYAL WELCH HISTORY

 17TH JUNE 1775 – 0N THIS DAY IN ROYAL WELCH HISTORY

Battle of Bunker Hill, Massachusetts, North America, 1775

British forces were blockaded in Boston by the rebel militia, which greatly outnumbered the garrison.  The enemy also occupied the peninsula from where heavy guns on Bunker Hill, which commanded the harbour, could stop supplies and reinforcements reaching Boston.  A successful attack was launched on the hill by troops including the flank companies of the 23rd.  The Grenadier Company had only five unwounded out of 49 men.

#WordsforthefutureMW

 

1.    #WordsforthefutureMW

We now know that museum exhibits can be viewed in people’s homes, libraries and schools. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown, meant we had to develop and plan to put in place online digital offerings. We believe the digital exhibition is an opportunity for our museum to show our collections and communicate our research in new ways. A virtual gallery experience showing one of our paintings -  Colonel George Worden Baynton (1738–1806).

 #ArtiseverywhereMW #herebedragons

#CaptionthisMW CP S C Evans and Regimental goat (date unknown)

 

1#CaptionthisMW

6137 Cpl Stephen Charles Evans 1RWF. DoW 21st July 1915.

( We have his bronze memorial plaque, donated by his daughter, he was born at St Wooltons, Newport, Mons)