Home

Introduction

This site remembers the men of the 1st Welsh (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery who volunteered to serve their country between the Brigades’ formation in 1908 and the end of 1916.

During this period, somewhere between 1,630 and 1,640 men enlisted in the unit, serving at Home, France, Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Balkans. Following the Blitz, few records survive of their service. The purpose of this site is, therefore, to gather the surviving fragments to tell the story of the Brigade and its men.

Site Layout

The site will develop over time, but at its launch, it will cover the following:

Brigade History

The history of the 1st Welsh (Howitzer) Brigade from its formation on 1st April 1908, through to the end of the Great War.

Using a wide range of sources, augmented with original photographs, we will tell the story of its formation, pre-war years, mobilization, UK training, France and ultimately Egypt.

To go to the Brigade History, click on the button below:

The Men

No surviving copy of the nominal roll of the 1st (Welsh) Howitzers exists (as far as I know). So, one of the main goals of this site is to use surviving sources to recreate the roll. To date, over 950 members of the Brigade have been identified.

This roll forms the heart of this site. The ultimate objective of the site is to complete the roll and to put faces and biographical information to as many of them as possible. Over time, each man will have his own personal page.

To access the The Men, please click on the button below.

Future Developments

Over time, I plan to further develop the site, including:

• A more detailed review of the War Diaries;
• A look at the structure of the Brigade; and
• Review the equipment the Brigade would have used (both the 4.5 inch QF Howitzer and their personal equipment);

Blog

Finally, I also plan to keep a regular blog about the progress of developing the site. It will cover a range of themes, from the technical side of web-site building through researching the Brigade and hopefully receiving new sources of information.

To access the Blog, please click on the button below:

How to get in touch

If you want to ask any questions about the site or contribute any information about these men (documents, photos, family stories etc), please get in touch via the Contacts page.

• Update @ 21 Oct: Putting faces to names
  Summary Once again, over the last few months, I’ve been focusing on my new job so have not had too much time to dedicate to the project. That said, I have managed to grab a Read more…
• Update @ 17 May: Slow, but steady progress
  Summary The last couple of months, I’ve been back at work full time, so have had much less time to work on the project. That said, progress is still being made as I work through Read more…
• Update @ 7 March – 2nd pass through the Nominal Roll
  Summary This month I’ve continued the second pass through the nominal roll. The first time I did this, my main objective was to quickly find ancestors via Ancestry family trees to attempt to gather more Read more…
• @ 8 Feb – Image Catalogue Completed
  Summary Image Catalogue finally completed My main focus for January was to finish the Image Catalogue and I’m pleased to say that this is finally done. The aim of the catalogue is to group the Read more…
• New Image Catalogue on-line
  Its taken a long time, but I’ve finally managed to get the Image Catalogue up and running. Thanks to the generosity of so many people, I have a wide range of fantastic pictures and documents Read more…