History of the Welsh Guards #264992

It is the lot of few regiments, as it is of few great men or women, to have the story of their birth and early years written by a contemporary hand. We all know how difficult it is to prove events even within our own times, and therefore the nearer we get to them the more unlikely it is that they recede into the realm of fiction.<br><br>The Welsh Guards have this advantage, and, seeing that their inception took place during a great war, it is all the more important that their advent should be set down clearly and by one who was present.<br><br>I had the advantage of being present and assisting at the birth, and no one can be better qualified than Major C. H. Dudley Ward, D.S.O., M.C., to carry on the story with its bapteme de feu and glorious exploits in the subsequent years of war.<br><br>It had been the unanimous wish of the Welsh people - than whom none are more noted for their loyalty to the Crown - that the Principality should take its place among the nations of the British Isles in finding a regiment to assist in guarding the Throne.<br><br>King George V gave expression to this sentiment, and to his own wishes, on February 6th, 1915, by commanding Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener, K.G., then Secretary of State for War, to put His Majesty's orders into execution. Accordingly, as I was commanding the London District, I was sent for by the Field-Marshal and ordered to raise a battalion immediately. On my asking Lord Kitchener how soon he expected this to be done, he replied, in his usual abrupt manner: "In a week!" My answer was: "They shall go on guard on St. David's Day" - and they Did!