Article about: As some of you will have noticed, I have the motto of the Welch Regiment as my signature, which translates as "Better Death Not Shame"or as the regiment preferred it "Rather D
As some of you will have noticed, I have the motto of the Welch Regiment as my signature, which translates as "Better Death Not Shame"or as the regiment preferred it "Rather Death Than Dishonour" which was awarded to them in 1831 along with the right to wear the Prince of Wales Plumes, though for an unknown reason it was spelled incorrectly as Gwell Angau NEU Chywilydd rather than Gwell Angau NA Chywilydd. The early spelling translates as Better Death OR Dishonour. The misspelled motto continued in use until circa the late Victorian period and all the examples I have of it when it became a collar badge in 1909 have the correct NA spelling, but it was worn as a cap badge and on buttons with the incorrect NEU version.
The misspelled version is hard to find, but today whilst out for a jolly to a local antiques center I spotted a swagger stick for the Welch and you will probably have realised by now, or got bored and gone to another thread, that it had the incorrect early spelling of the motto. I had been after an example of the misspelled motto, and finding this today has allowed me to tick the box on my long list of Grail items, though I still hope to find the cap badge as well.
Yes, very interesting and unusual find. Just goes to show what careful and close observations can turn up. Good luck with your quest in securing a matching cap badge.
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I failed to mention another interesting point about the badge in that it uses the C spelling version of Welch, which was not officially introduced, or reintroduced depending on your point of view, until 1920. For a long time both the Welch and the Royal Welch Fusiliers had been arguing for what they saw as a return to the proper use of the C in Welch as opposed to the S in Welsh, but the War Dept used the S version, hence in WWI (&WWII) it was the Welsh divisions and the Welsh Guards etc.. Both regiments claimed that traditionally it was Welch and continued to use the C in internal correspondence etc and even produced evidence to back up this claim, though the evidence does not stand up to scrutiny, as a mistranscribed or even fraudulent letter produced to support the claim shows that it is a poor copy of the original document. I'll continue digressing for a little while longer before I return to the main reason for this post, and say that after the official use of the C in Welch in 1920 in only lasted until 2006 and when before were amalgamated as part of the current regiment, which is known as the Royal Welsh with a S, so it seems that the traditionalists lost in the end.
Anyway, to return to the C in Welch on this badge, first thoughts might be that it is post 1920, bearing in mind what I posted above, but that would be a mistake, as for both regiments, the Volunteer Battalions were allowed more leeway or perhaps were under less control of the WD and often, though not always, used the C spelling for their badges in spite of the official spelling and as such used, as in this case the C version prior to its official adoption in 1920.
Just to mention that the ball topped canes/sticks such as this are typically late Victorian and mostly pre WWI, though some would still be in use into that period.
Another example of the distain for the official spelling in use by the Vol.Bn's can be found in this other recent acquisition of mine, a Scarlet Frock for one of the Vol. Bn.'s of the RWF, which also uses the C spelling on its buttons and dates to at least a dozen years before the official adoption of it in 1920. I also have a Welch regiment document in my collection from 1919 which also has the C on the initial entry page.
A minor grail find for my collection today.
its just an opinion.
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