Pre-1920 Royal Welsh Fusiliers (RWF) Cap Badge

cWW1 R.W.F. bi-metal Other Ranks (ORs) cap badge on slide. With a 'blow hole' to reverse. Near, VGC.

The Royal Welch Fusiliers (Welsh: Ffiwsilwyr Brenhinol Cymreig) was a line Infantry Regiment of the British Army, and part of the Prince of Wales's Division, that was founded in 1689; shortly after the Glorious Revolution. In 1702, it was designated a Fusilier Regiment and became the Welch Regiment of Fusiliers; the prefix "Royal" was added in 1713, then confirmed in 1714 when George I named it the Prince of Wales's Own Royal Regiment of Welsh Fusiliers. In 1751, after reforms that standardised the naming and numbering of regiments, it became the 23rd Regiment of Foot (Royal Welsh Fuzileers). In 1881, the final title of the regiment was adopted.

It retained the archaic spelling of Welch, instead of Welsh, and Fuzileers for Fusiliers; these were engraved on swords carried by regimental officers during the Napoleonic Wars. After the 1881 Childers Reforms, normal spelling was used officially, but "Welch" continued to be used informally until restored in 1920 by Army Order No.56.

It should not be confused with the Welch Regiment, a different unit (formed in 1881 from the 41st and 69th) which recruited in South and West, rather than North Wales, and became part of the Royal Regiment of Wales or RRW in 1969

One of the few Regiments to retain its original title, in March 2006 the Royal Welch Fusiliers was amalgamated with the R.R.W. and became 1st Battalion, Royal Welsh, with RRW as the 2nd Battalion.

Code: 419