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Cymru am Byth THE WELSH GUARDS ASSOCIATION CENTENARY ANNIVERSARY Once a Welsh Guardsman Always a Welsh Guardsman Contents: President’s Foreword 2 Author’s Foreword 3 The President, Vice President and Treasurer 4-5 The Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General 6-8 Minutes of first Association Meeting 10-11 List of past Presidents, Superintending Clerks and Secretary Generals 12 Rules of the Association 1920 13 Early dinners - 1928, 1929 14 The Welsh Guards Association poem 15 The Committees of the Branches 16 Closed Branches 16 Branches and Secretaries: • Cardiff 17 • East Glamorgan 17 • Llanelli, Cardiganshire & Pembrokeshire 17 • London 18 • Merthyr Tydfil 18 • Monmouthshire 18 • Montgomery, Shropshire & Midlands 19 • North America 19 • North of England 19 • North Wales 20 • Ogmore 20 • Swansea & West Glamorgan 20 • Welsh Guards Reunited 20-21 • Regimental Band 22 Welfare Officer Jiffy Myers MBE 22 Welsh Guards Association Golf 23 Early Branch Booklets, Dinners and Battlefield Tours 24-25 On a lighter note/ On the subject of the tie 26-27 Blazer Badges and Famous Associate Members 27 Nicknames 28 Parades and Standard Bearers 30 Welsh Guards Association lapel badges 31 Gallery 32 1 Foreword Colonel T C S Bonas President t is a very great honour for me to and commitment. Many thousands go Ibe the Association’s President in this through their doors each year which our centenary year and I would like to helps to raise our profile and educate pay tribute to all my predecessors, the the public on our illustrious history. We Secretary Generals and all those who remain indebted to them. have and currently serve in Branch Over its many years, the Association appointments and most especially the has always looked out for its veterans Branch Secretaries. Without the tireless and members and this welfare role support of all of them, the Association continues to this day. Since 2014, we would not have thrived as it did, and have been helped and supported by nor would it be here today. Jiffy Myers, our Regimental Veterans The Association has changed Officer who should also be thanked considerably since our formation, most for his vital work looking after those notably in membership numbers and in need and it is something he does branches but its raison d’etre remains, extremely well. namely where Welsh Guardsmen I believe it most appropriate that we can come together and enjoy their should celebrate our Centenary here in comradeship, their common heritage Cardiff not least that the Associations and share the odd memory! This now first ever meeting was held here but happens through both our traditional also at that meeting the Cardiff Branch, Association and Branch gatherings our first, was also formed. We therefore and through social media. Both celebrate its Centenary this year as forums have their own advantages but well. crucially enable us to communicate with each other well. I am sure you will enjoy reading this specially produced Association Whilst we have faced challenges in Centenary Brochure and a considerable recent times, the Association is still a amount of care and thought has gone successful and thriving one and we into it. Our warmest thanks must go to should continue to be very proud of it. Stan Evans for producing it and it is so Our level of activity and engagement appropriate that he did so given his in remains high whether it be St David’s depth knowledge of our Regiment and Day, Remembrance Sunday, Regimental his loyalty and devotion to it. events such as KAPE Tours or Trooping the Colour, the Darts and Shoot May we look to the next hundred Competition, our Bi-Annual lunch, our years! annual Battlefield Tour, our annual Race Meeting and of course our strong Association golf. The Welsh Guards Museum, established by Stan Evans in 1995 and still run by him and his volunteers, performs a great service to both the Association and Regiment and they must be thanked for their devotion 2 Author’s Foreword 23523467 Stan Evans fter the euphoria of the many end the war and other friendships lasted Now as the word got around at last Aof war victory celebrations, the just a couple of days or even hours, people had a place to contact other Nation got back to the monumental sharing their ration of rum each veterans. The chance to feel a part task of rebuilding the country and, time before they went over the top. of something especially introduced more importantly, their own lives. What Unbelievably some of these brave for them. Bringing together all Welsh seems amazing now is the depth of men were barely old enough to drink Guardsmen from Brigadier Generals to mental damage the war had brought alcohol. These survivors regularly had the newly titled Guardsmen (previously to the tens of thousands of servicemen to bury their comrades who were addressed as Privates, this was an returning from the trenches. A lot often men from their own villages, honour bestowed upon them by returned seemingly unhurt physically neighbours or even related. King George V in recognition of their but mentally damaged. Many found it sacrifice during the First World War), The hierarchy of the British difficult to fit back in to civilian life. so that they could get together with Expeditionary Force (BEF) believed others, including many who were still Returning veterans were accepted as soldiers could function better if they suffering from the effects of war. They being “different” and sometimes being fought alongside men from their realised they were no longer suffering unable to hold down jobs they may own “neck of the woods” so they alone and the shame some men had have held before they went to war. In created what were to be known put on themselves for just surviving the fact, there were hundreds of cases of as the “Pals Battalions” In 1915 the war and leaving their dead comrades would be employers whilst recruiting Welsh Guards became the youngest behind slowly left them. It became the workers putting up signs saying, “War infantry regiment in the British Army norm, as it is today, and any generation veterans need not apply” It would and became “pals” just because they will testify the normal subject of take more than another 60 years came from the same small towns and conversation were the good times they before society acknowledged veterans villages from all over Wales. With so had. suffering war fatigue, shell shock and many of our casualties coming from finally post-traumatic stress disorder these neighbouring villages and towns, PTSD. survivors had no one to talk to, to tell Stan enlisted aged 15 years and served what they had seen and what they had It is unbelievable that some of these between 1959-68, an ex-Drummer and to do. So many became recluses within returning veterans missed being in present Curator of the Welsh Guards their own communities. the trenches. But they did. Forgetting Museum in Oswestry. all the horrors of fighting a war of attrition, the terrible struggle to stay Their salvation alive and the sights and smells that In November 1919, the Regiment would stay with them for the rest decided to create the Welsh Guards of their lives but remembering the Comrades Association where men friendships and camaraderie they could be brought together in an forged with other veterans during atmosphere of compassion and times most people could hardly joviality where prior rank or status imagine. They missed their fallen were put aside. comrades perishing beside them on a The very first meeting of this new much too often regularity, praying that Association took place in Wellington they could survive another day. Barracks (see below) and the first Friendships lasted as long as the branch to be formed was Cardiff in duration of each battle till the end of 1919. 3 President of the Vice Presidents Welsh Guards Association Colonel Tom Bonas Brigadier Johnny in 1967 and was posted to Sharjah took over as President of Rickett CBE was for nine months - attached to the the Association in 2004 born in Laugharne, Grenadier Guards. whilst he was Deputy Carmarthenshire and He re-joined the Battalion in Munster Commander 102 Logistics was called up for National and was then attached to the Brigade in Gutersloh, Germany. During Service in 1959. He was commissioned Coldstream Guards for their first tour his Regimental career, he has seen into the Regiment, became a regular of Northern Ireland followed by the service in the UK, Berlin and Hohne and left the Army as a Brigadier after Battalion’s first tour. as well as Belize, the Falklands and 35 years. He has served all over the Northern Ireland. He commanded world principally in the Middle and Far Later appointments include Section the Prince of Wales’s Company and East, Germany, the USA and East Africa. Commander Anti-Tank Platoon, Platoon was Second in Command. He also He speaks French, German and Arabic Sergeant Number Two Company, commanded 3rd Battalion The Duke of fluently. He has seen many periods Superintendent Sergeant Guards Wellington’s Regiment in East Yorkshire. of active service in Aden, Northern Depot, Colour Sergeant during the He left the Army in December 2007 Ireland and when he commanded the Falklands War, Company Sergeant Major becoming the Regimental Adjutant that Battalion in the Falklands War in 1982. Number Three Company, Company year, a post he has held since. He commanded 19 Infantry Brigade Sergeant Major Royal Military Academy and Colchester Garrison from 1984 Sandhurst (RMAS), Drill Sergeant 1st His time as President has seen some - 1986, attended the RCDS and then Battalion, Regimental Sergeant Major significant changes in the Association, became Deputy Commander and COS Victory College RMAS, Second in not least the establishment of a digital of SE District in 1987.