Fallen Officers of the Great War   |   South Wales Borderers

Project Home Page                                             South Wales Borderers Officers Regimental Rolls of Honour                                            Contact Site Author/Webmaster

Roll of Honour of Officers of The South Wales Borderers

Who Died in the Great War
SWB capbadge
Copyright and source:  British Military Badges		 Formation and Early Years of the South Wales Borderers

The South Wales Borderers was formed on 1st July 1881, as part of the Childers Reforms, which saw the two separate Battalions of the 24th (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot become the regular 1st and 2nd Battalions of the retitled Regiment, with the Regimental Depot based at The Barracks, Brecon. 

The 1881 reforms also redesignated the Militia and Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVC) within the Regimental District as numbered Battalions of the Regiment - the 3rd (Militia) Battalion was formed from the Royal South Wales Borderers Militia and the 4th (Militia) Battalion from the Royal Montgomeryshire Rifles.  The four (later five) Rifle Volunteer Corps, the 1st Brecknockshire RVC, 1st Monmouthshire RVC, 2nd Monmouthshire RVC, 3rd Monmouthshire RVC and 1st Montgomeryshire RVC were retitled as 4th to 8th Volunteer Battalions respectively.

The 1908 Haldane Reforms reorganised the Regimental Militia and Volunteer Battalions, with the 3rd Militia Battalion forming the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion.   The 4th (Militia) Battalion was transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers with the Montgomeryshire Volunteer Battalion.   The three Monmouthshire Volunteer Battalions were reorganised as the newly formed Monmouthshire Regiment of the Territorial Force (TF).   The 4th Volunteer Battalion became the 1st Brecknockshire Battalion of the Regimental Territorial Force (TF).   After the Declaration of War on 4th August 1914 and up to 1st July 1918, the South Wales Borderers had formed, disbanded, reorganised or reconstituted 20 Regular, Territorial Force, Service, Reserve, Graduated and Young Soldier Battalions.

A detailed history of the South Wales Borderers can be viewed here.

Regimental Details of the South Wales Borderers

(As Published in the Army List of August 1918)

 

Aim of the Website/Project

The aim of this part of the website is simple.   It is to collate into one place an accurate record of the service and death of the 307 officers of the South Wales Borderers who died in the Great War and to make a permanent record of their sacrifice.   These officers served and died for their country on land, sea and in the air and are listed here in a Regimental Roll of Honour.

  

Accuracy and Research

The author has taken every reasonable care to ensure that the information on this website is as accurate as possible.   Please contact the author should errors or omissions be discovered by visitors to the site in order that corrective action can be taken.   Contact details are shown below.   Research is continuing for further information which will be posted on the site as soon as it is checked and verified.

 

First World War Casualties

The formal dates of the First World War as recognised by the UK Government are between 4th August 1914 and 31st August 1921 inclusive, and any member of the UK and Commonwealth/Empire Armed Services who died in this period, or as a result of their service during this period, are officially registered and commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) either by an approved headstone on the grave or if this is not possible or practical, the name being inscribed on a relevant Memorial to the Missing.  

 

The South Wales Borderers (SWB) in the Great War

During the Great War the South Wales Borderers was organised into Regular, Territorial Force, Service, Reserve, Graduated and Young Soldier Battalions as described here.   A total of 20 Battalions were raised during the course of the war but only 11 saw active service.   These fighting Battalions saw combat in China, France and Flanders, Gallipoli, Salonika, Aden, Mesopotamia and Kurdistan,   and earned a total of 64 Battle Honours during the war - a list of these Battle Honours can be found here.

  

Facts and Figures

A total of 307 officers of the SWB lost their lives in the Great War and a detailed analysis of these casualties can be viewed here.   All are buried or commemorated on Memorials To The Missing throughout the world as official war casualties (less 2Lt H W Richards who died in 1920 and is buried in Wales, and Capt F R Pembridge who died in the USA in 1921, who are not commemorated by the CWGC).

 

167 officers are buried or commemorated in France, 42 in Belgium and 28 officers are buried or commemorated in Gallipoli. 18 officers are buried or commemorated in Mesopotamia (now Iraq).   Other burials or commemorations are in Bulgaria, Cameroon, Egypt, Germany, India, British East Africa (now Kenya), Malta, Palestine, Salonika, UK and USA.   1 officer was lost at sea.

48 officers of the Regiment were detached to other Services, Headquarters, Units and fighting Battalions of other Regiments when they were killed or died and a list of these officers can be viewed here.

 

A total of 38 officers of other Corps and Regiments lost their lives in the Great War whilst serving with fighting Battalions of the SWB.   A list of their names and details of their death can be viewed here.

 

Project Development

In addition to the basic sources of information outlined on the main Project Home Page, an enormous amount regarding the SWB is available through the following organisations and publications:

  • Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)

  • Officers Died in the Great War (ODGW)

  • "The History of the South Wales Borderers 1914 - 1918" by C T Atkinson  (Naval and Military Press Ltd)

  • "The Welsh At War" by Steven John  (Pen and Sword Books Ltd)

  •  The Regimental Museum of the Royal Welsh (Brecon)

  •  General Register Office (GRO) Index To War Deaths 1914 - 1921, Army Officers

  •  Army Lists (1914 - 1921) (from the National Library of Scotland)

  •  Bond of Sacrifice (Volumes 1 and 2)

  •  De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour 1914 - 1918

  •  War Office personal files held in Catalogues WO339 and WO374 at The National Archives

  •  Medal Index Cards held in Catalogue WO 372 at The National Archives

  •  Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914 - 1918 held in Catalogue WO 329 at The National Archives

  •  Battalion War Diaries and Histories held in Catalogue WO95 at the National Archives

  •  British First World War Trench Maps, 1915 - 1918 (from National Library of Scotland)

  •  National and Local contemporary press

  •  The Times Digital Archive 1785 - 1985

  •  The London Gazette

  •  The RAF Museum Archive (for RAF/RFC Casualty cards)

  •  Royal Flying Corps Research Website

  •   Fatal Air Accidents in Britain Website (Period 1914 - 1920)  

  •  War Memorials and commemorative plaques

  •  The FreeBMD Project

  •  The Great War Forum

  •  The Imperial War Museum Register of War Memorials

  •  The National Army Museum

  •  The Long, Long Trail - Discovering the British Army and its Soldiers in the Great War

  •  The Wartime Memories Project

  •  Ancestry.co.uk  -  Military Records

These sources, with others, form the basis of the  Regimental Roll of Honour of Officers of the South Wales Borderers who died in the Great War.  

 

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The CWGC commemorates those official casualties who died in service, or died due to service, during the First World War.   The formal inclusive dates of the war are between 4th August 1914 and 31st August 1921 and any member of the UK and Commonwealth/Empire Armed Services who died during this period are officially registered and commemorated by the CWGC either by an approved headstone on the grave, or if this is not possible or practical, the name being inscribed on a Memorial to the Missing.

 

In December 2020, the Commission reviewed their policy on amendments to the Casualty Database.   One of the outcomes of the review was that they would no longer add Honours and Awards to the database where there is no entitlement to post-nominal letters.   Therefore the recording of "Mentioned in Despatches", for instance, would no longer be carried out.    

 

There are some apparent anomalies in the individual records in the Debt of Honour Register maintained by the CWGC and these are listed here with the suggested corrective action taken, and the Webmaster's long term aim is to correct all of these inaccuracies.

 

Officers of Other Corps and Regiments Honoured and Remembered in this Website/Project

Also recorded and honoured in this website/project are the names of fallen officers of the following Yeomanry, Royal Engineer and Infantry Regiments:

Site Author/Webmaster

The site author/webmaster can be contacted here:   fallenofficersofthegreatwar@gmail.com

 

Soldier Cross

Copyright and source - Imperial War Museum, under Share and Re-use

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

 

 Written by Robert Laurence Binyon - 1914

 

 

Page last updated:  31st December  2024

| Project Home Page | SWB Home Page | Officer Casualty Analysis | Commonwealth War Graves Commission | SWB in the Great War |

| Regimental Rolls of Honour |

| Surname - A | Surname - B | Surname - C | Surname - D | Surname - E | Surname - F | Surname - G | Surname - H | Surname - I and J | Surname - K |

| Surname - L | Surname - M | Surname - N | Surname - O | Surname - P | Surname - R | Surname - S | Surname - T | Surname - W | Surname - Y and Z |

| Roll of Honour by Year | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 - 1921 |

| Roll of Honour By Unit | 1st Battalion | 2nd Battalion | 3rd (Reserve) Battalion | 4th Battalion | 5th Battalion | 6th Battalion |

| 7th Battalion | 8th Battalion | 10th Battalion | 11th Battalion | 12th Battalion | 1/1st Brecknock Battalion TF | Detached Officers | Non-Active/Former Service Officers | Attached Officers |

| Fallen Officers of Other Corps and Regiments |