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1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers
1st Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers were in Malta when war broke out in August 1914. They returned to England, landing at Southampton on the 3rd of September 1914. They joined 22nd Brigade, 7th Division who were concentrating in the New Forest, Hampshire. The Division landed at Zeebrugge on the 7th of October 1914, to assist in the defence of Antwerp, they arrived too late prevent the fall of the city and took up defensive positions at important bridges and junctions to aid in the retreat of the Belgian army. The 7th Division then became the first British Troops to entrench in front of Ypres, suffering extremely heavy losses in the The First Battle of Ypres. By February 1915 the Division had been reinforced to fighting strength and they were in action at The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, The Battle of Aubers, The Battle of Festubert, The second action of Givenchy and The Battle of Loos. In 1916 They were in action during the Battles of the Somme, including the capture Mametz, The Battle of Bazentin, the attacks on High Wood, The Battle of Delville Wood, The Battle of Guillemont and the Operations on the Ancre. In 1917 They fought during The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line and the flanking operations round Bullecourt during The Arras Offensive, before moving to Flanders for the Third Battle of Ypres, seeing action in The Battle of Polygon Wood, The Battle of Broodseinde, The Battle of Poelcapelle and The Second Battle of Passchendaele. In late 1917 the 7th Division was selected to move to Italy. They took up position in the line along the River Piave,in late January 1918. The Division played a central role in crossing the Piave, in October and the Battle of Vittoria Veneto.
13th Sep 1914 Arrivals
19th Sep 1914 Arrivals
20th Sep 1914 22nd Infantry Brigade organising
20th Sep 1914 Mobilisation
4th Oct 1914 On the Move
4th Oct 1914 Orders Received
5th Oct 1914 On the Move
5th Oct 1914 On the Move
6th Oct 1914 On the Move
6th Oct 1914 On the Move
7th Oct 1914 On the Move
7th Oct 1914 In Billets
8th Oct 1914 On the March
8th Oct 1914 On the Move
9th Oct 1914 On the Move
9th Oct 1914 Anxiety
10th Oct 1914 Outposts
10th Oct 1914 Withdrawal
11th Oct 1914 Holding the Line
11th Oct 1914 Hostile Forces
11th Oct 1914 Orders
12th Oct 1914 On the March
12th Oct 1914 On the March
13th Oct 1914 On the March
13th Oct 1914 Enemy Closes
14th October 1914 Footsore
14th Oct 1914 On the March
14th Oct 1914 On the March 
15th Oct 1914 Patrols
15th Oct 1914 Hostile Column
16th Oct 1914 Into the Line
16th Oct 1914 Line Advanced
17th Oct 1914 Holding the Line
17th Oct 1914 Enemy Active
18th October 1914 Hard Fighting
18th Oct 1914 In Reserve
18th Oct 1914 Planning
19th Oct 1914 In Action
19th Oct 1914 Hard Fighting
20th October 1914 Entrenched
20th Oct 1914 In Action
20th Oct 1914 Defensive Line
21st October 1914 Under fire
21st Oct 1914 In Action
21st Oct 1914 Hard Fighting
22nd October 1914 Entrenched
22nd Oct 1914 New Line Occupied
22nd Oct 1914 Bombardment
23rd October 1914 Dead Buried
23rd Oct 1914 Heavy Shelling
23rd Oct 1914 Under Fire
24th Oct 1914 Hard Fighting
24th Oct 1914 Enemy Break Through
25th Oct 1914 In Reserve
25th Oct 1914 Enemy Break Through
26th Oct 1914 Pressure
26th Oct 1914 Forced Back
27th Oct 1914 Shelling
27th Oct 1914 Orders Received
28th Oct 1914 Reliefs
28th Oct 1914 Artillery Active
29th Oct 1914 Reliefs
29th Oct 1914 Hard Fighting
30th Oct 1914 Attack
30th Oct 1914 Hard Fighting
31st Oct 1914 Hard Fighting
31st Oct 1914 Hard Fighting
1st November 1914 22nd Infantry Brigade Reforms
2nd November 1914 Reorganisation
3rd November 1914 Battalions on the move
5th November 1914 Billets
7th November 1914 Attack Made
8th November 1914 Hard Fighting
9th November 1914 Move
11th November 1914 Inspection
30th Nov 1914 Admitted to Hospital
18th December 1914 In Action
5th February 1915 General Cappers football cup. 2nd Battalion Queens (Royal West Surrey Regiment) played a Football match versus Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Rue du Bataille. Result Welsh Fusiliers won 6-0. 2nd Battalion Queens (Royal West Surrey Regiment) are in in billets at La Toulette, transport inspected and a concert was held for the men at Fleurbaix. Officers 28 and men 874, 3 from hospital. 2nd Lieutenants AN Heller and WJ Dew both from the Queens joined the Battalion.
1st March 1915 Relocation and back into Action
8th Mar 1915 Orders
10th March 1915 In Action
11th March 1915 In Action
30th Jun 1915 Recce
21st Sep 1915 Orders
7th Oct 1915 Reliefs
16th Oct 1915 The Derby Scheme
1st Dec 1915 Derby Scheme Armlets
11th Sep 1915 Last day of Derby Scheme Recruitment
10th Jan 1916 Group System Reopens
9th February 1916 Call Ups
3rd Jul 1916 Stratigic Wood
5th Jul 1916 Attack Made
5th Jul 1916 Attack Made
26th August 1916
26th Feb 1917 Advance Made
26th Oct 1917 Attack Made
28th Oct 1917 Reliefs
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
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These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have served with1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers during the Great War 1914-1918. - Barter VC, MC. Frederick. Capt.
- Bould George. Pte. (d.3rd Sep 1916)
- Brown Thomas. Pte. (d.23rd Aug 1915)
- Cranmer Charles Thomas. L/Cpl. (d.31st Oct 1918)
- Davies Richard John. Sgt. (d.28th Aug 1916)
- Dean John Charles. A/Sgt. (d.3rd Nov 1918)
- Dean John Charles. A/Sgt. (d.3rd Nov 1918)
- Dundon Christopher Joseph. Pte. (d.25th Sep 1915)
- Ellis Evan. Pte. (d.3rd Sept 1916)
- Evans Stanley. Lance Corporal (d.1st October 1917)
- Evans Thomas. L/Cpl. (d.9th Jul 1916)
- Hughes Horatio Clement. Second Lieutenant (d.18th Sep 1918)
- Hughes John. Pte (d.3rd Sept 1916)
- Hughes John Richard. Pte (d.20th July 1917)
- Hughes William Owen. L/Cpl. (d.16th May 1915)
- Hughes William Owen. Pte. (d.2nd October 1917)
- Humphreys Charles Henry. Pte. (d.19th May 1915)
- Jones David Chambers. Pte. (d.14th Sep 1917)
- Jones Elias. Pte. (d.23rd Aug 1915)
- Lakey William John. Cpl. (d.3rd Sept 1916)
- Lucas Percy. Pte. (d.26th February 1915)
- Lynch Charles. Cpl.
- Matthews Jack. Pte. (d.16th May 1915)
- Monks James. Pte. (d.16th May 1915)
- Palmer Richard. Cpl. (d.14th Jul 1916)
- Parry John. Pte. (d.16th May 1915)
- Richards Wilfred Arthur. 2nd Lt.
- Roberts Thomas John. L/Cpl. (d.9th December 1916)
- Roberts William Owen. Sgt. (d.15th Nov 1918)
- Roberts William Owen. Sgt. (d.15th Nov 1918)
- Spiller Cecil. Pte (d.26 October 1917)
- Williams David. Pte. (d.24th May 1915)
- Williams John. Pte. (d.3rd May 1918)
- Williams Percy T.. Cpl. (d.12th of October 1917)
- Williams Richard. Pte. (d.16th May 1915)
- Williams William Conway. Pte. (d.28th November 1914)
- Woodford John. Pte. (d.30th October 1914)
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please Add a Name to this List
Records of 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers from other sources.
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Pte. George Bould 1st Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.3rd Sep 1916) George Bould was wounded at the Battle of Loos on 25th of September 1915, receiving a shrapnel wound to the 2nd & 3rd fingers of the left hand.
He was admitted to 6th Field Ambulance, then back to the UK on the 2nd if October 1915 for recuperation.
He rejoined the battalion on 30th of June 1916.
George was killed in action on the 3rd September 1916, whilst taking part in an attack on the village to Ginchy.
His body was never found and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing. He was aged 18 years.
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2nd Lt. Wilfred Arthur Richards 28th (1st Artists Rifles) Btn. London Regiment On 31st August 1914, my father Wilfred Richards, who'd been born in South Glamorgan but was now working in London, presented himself at Dukes Road in Euston to sign up to four years’ service in the Territorial Force. He was joining the 28th Battalion of the London Regiment (Artists Rifles) as Private No. 1855. He was 21 years and 8 months old. His profession was recorded as Clerk with Wilson and Sons, and he lived in Hendon. His previous military experience was that he had belonged to the Llandovery School Corps. He had never been rejected as unfit for the Military and he listed himself as ‘Church of England’.
His battalion left for France on 31 December 1914, and he arrived at St. Omer some days later where others from the Artists Rifles joined them in motor omnibuses. He transferred to the 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in June
The rest of his war story is one of luck. He served on the front with the 1st RWF from June to September 1915, just after the Battalion had suffered severe losses at the Battle of Festubert, and then he was invalided home on the eve of the Battle of Loos. He spent the rest of the war doing light duties at home and finished the war with the 7th York and Lancs Regiment as Captain. He had long recurrences of fever throughout the war.
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Cpl. Percy T. Williams 1st Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.12th of October 1917) Percy Williams served with the 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers in WW1. He died 12th of October 1917 and is buried Godewaersvelde British Cemetery
in France. Son of Mr. W. Williams of 6 Somerset St., Pontnewydd, Newport, he was awarded the 1914-15 Star.
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Pte. William Owen Hughes 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.2nd October 1917) William Hughes, aged 26 years and 5 months, was enlisted into the 1/6th (Territorial) Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Caernarfon on the 16th of October 1914.
On the 3rd of July 1915 William was diagnosed as suffering with appendicitis and admitted into the Divisional Reception Hospital in Bedford, seven days later he was transferred to the 1st Southern General Hospital in the Selly Oak suburb of Birmingham.
On the 19th of July 1915, whilst William was still convalescing from his operation, the 1/6th Battalion became part of the 158th Brigade, 53rd (Welsh) Division and sailed from Devonport for Gallipoli without him. Following his discharge from hospital on the 2nd of September 1915, William was transferred to the 2/6th (Territorial) Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, who had moved from Northampton to Bedford in July 1915.
At some point in 1916 William was then posted from Bedford to an Agricultural Company based at the RWF Depot in Wrexham (possibly to help with the harvest); during this time his Regimental service number was changed from 2395 to 265802. William remained at the RWF Depot for the rest of 1916 until warned early in 1917 that he was to be posted once again.
On the 1st May 1917 William embarked for France to join the 1st Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (part of the 7th Division). On the 30th September the Battalion relieved the 56th Australian Infantry Battalion, who occupied Jetty Trench to the east of the northern part of Polygon Wood.
At 5.15am on the morning of the 1st October 1917, the Germans launched a counter attack consisting of 3 Battalions and 3 Sturm-truppe of the 46th Reserve Battalion. The attack fell on the area of Polygon Wood covered by the 1st Battalion RWF and the 8th Battalion the Leicestershire Regiment.
The Regimental diary of the 1st Battalion RWF states that a message had been received from B Company, reporting that by 7.20am all was clear apart from heavy sniping. Sadly, it was probably during this action that William was shot, the round entered his back and penetrated through his chest. This may have occurred as elements of the RWF advanced forward to finish off the attack, only to have isolated pockets of the enemy pop from shell holes and snipe at them from behind. William would have first been taken to a field dressing station just behind the front line where morphine would have been administered and his wound dressed, from there he was evacuated to No. 3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station at Poperinge where he finally succumbed to his wounds on the 2nd of October 1917.
There was some confusion following his death regarding his identity, the telegram that the War Office received from No. 3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station informing them of his death, gave his Regimental Number as 68366. This highlighted the fact that a mistake had been made during Williams's time at the RWF Depot in Wrexham in 1916. This mistake had been noticed quickly at the time and he was then allocated his correct number of 265802.
William Owen Hughes obituary was published in the November 1917 issue of the Llandudno and District Advertiser, :The deceased was the first of the Llanrhos young men to join up, and is, we understand, the first to fall". There was a poem quite possibly written by one of the family also in the article: "We do not know what pains he bore; we did not see him die, all we know is that he has gone, and never said good-bye".
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Pte. Christopher Joseph Dundon 1st Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.25th Sep 1915) Christopher Dundon served with the 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers.
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Sgt. Richard John Davies 1st Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.28th Aug 1916) Richard Davies was my father's eldest brother. In the census of 1901 he was eleven years old and was some 27 years old when he died.
Taking his date of death as the main clue, then the 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers were part of 22nd Brigade, 7th Division during the attacks on Delville Wood during the Somme Battles, and to quote "An attack on the evening of 28th of August 1916, by a battalion on the right flank and a battalion of the 7th Division to the right, from the east end of the wood, against Ale Alley to the junction with Beer Trench failed."
Of the 5,500 allied soldiers interred at Delville Wood Cemetery some 3,500 were unidentified and hopefully he rests there. His name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
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Pte. James Monks 1st Battalion Welch Fusiliers (d.16th May 1915) My grandfather, James Monks was lost in France do not know his story, I have spent many years trying to find out what battle he died in and how he died.
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Cpl. Charles Lynch 1st Btn. Royal Welch Fusiliers My great uncle, Charles Lynch, was a professional soldier who had served with 1st Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in India and Burma prior to the Great War.
He was taken prisoner at Ypres on 30th of October 1914, and spent most the remainder of the war in Camp 1 of the P.O.W. camp at Munster in Westphalia, being eventually repatriated to England in March 1918. I am not sure why he was repatriated before the war's end, but suspect that it may have been for health reasons, and am currently searching records on the internet in an attempt to obtain more information. From family verbal history, I gather that he died of cancer in about 1920, at approximately 39 years of age.
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Pte. Charles Henry Humphreys 1st Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers (d.19th May 1915) Charles Humphreys died from wounds sustained in the Battle of Festubert. He is buried in the nearby Chocques Cemetery, a small cemetery attached to a casualty clearing station. In the battle, he was with the 1st Battalion, having been posted to it from the 3rd Battalion on 1st of November 1915. He was one of five brothers, my uncles (not great uncles), who fought in WWI.
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Sgt. William Owen Roberts 1st Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.15th Nov 1918) Serjeant Roberts was the Son of Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, of 88, Henllan St., Denbigh; husband of Marie Roberts, of 5, Ringsend Rd., Dublin. Born in Wales. Served in the South African War. (In the same grave is also buried Mrs. Paulina Catherina French.). His brother Edward Roberts also fell.
He was 39 when he died and is buried in The Hague Roman Catholic Cemetery in the Netherlands.
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Pte. John Woodford 1st Btn. Royal Welch Fusiliers (d.30th October 1914) John Woodford was my Great Uncle and I researched his service when tracing my ancestry.
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Pte. John Williams 1st Btn. Royal Welch Fusiliers (d.3rd May 1918) John Williams is buried at Granezza British Cemetery in Italy. He was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Williams, 16 Camden Grove, Hulme, Manchester.
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L/Cpl. Thomas John Roberts 1st Bn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.9th December 1916) Thomas John Roberts joined up under age.
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Pte. Percy Lucas 1st Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.26th February 1915) All I know about my great uncle Percy Lucas is that he was taken prisoner at Ypres and died as a prisoner of war and he was buried in Berlin.
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Pte. David Williams 1st Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.24th May 1915) David was the son of Margaret and the late John Williams, 3 Glasfryn Terrace, Henllan Street, Denbigh; and husband of Margaret Williams, Factory Place, Denbigh.
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Pte. Richard Williams 1st Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.16th May 1915) Richard was the husband of Margaret Williams, 10 Luke Street, St Asaph.
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Pte. John Parry 1st Btn. Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.16th May 1915) John Parry was the husband of Elizabeth Jane Parry (née Bassett).
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Pte. Elias Jones 1st Btn Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.23rd Aug 1915) Elias Jones was the son of the late William and Jane Jones of 42 Henllan Street, Denbigh; husband of Elizabeth E Jones of 76 Henllan Street, Denbigh.
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Pte. David Chambers Jones 1st Btn Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.14th Sep 1917) David Chambers Jones was the son of Mr and Mrs E Chambers Jones of Denbigh.
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L/Cpl. William Owen Hughes 1st Btn Royal Welsh Fusiliers (d.16th May 1915) William Owen Hughes was the son of William and Maria Hughes of Love Lane House, Denbigh; husband of Sarah Jane (née Williams) Hughes of Love Lane, Denbigh and father of Mary Elluned Hughes.
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