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Records.
Sapper Mason


Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 333
Location: ANGLESEY
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Greetings to one and all for 2006,
My question(s) today is/are this, it is well known that the service records of the 1/24th were lost/destroyed at Isandlwana, why (if known) were these papers taken into battle and were they sent from Brecon or taken with the 1/24th when they went abroad?

Were the 2/24th papers also taken to South Africa at any time during the Zulu war and if so where were they held? Was anyone taken to task about BOTH battalions of a regiment serving abroad at the same time and finally when was this practice stopped? Thank you, Graham.
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Mike Snook


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 130
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Graham

Brecon was a regimental depot and respsonsible only for churning out recruits to the two battalions. The battalions were never stationed there during the Victorian era. (As an aside 1SWB was in Brecon in the 1950s and deployed to Malaya from there - but this was not typical).

It was perfectly normal in 1879 for a battalion to be self-contained in terms of its personnel records and muster rolls. The papers were in the camp at Isandlwana because they travelled as part of the battalion headquarters baggage. The 2/24 papers would also have been lost at the camp.

There was no offence in both battalions being overseas - it was just that it was not typical and theoretically not desirable. But 2/24 was sent overseas as an operational expedient - at a time of overstretch. There was nothing to sort out afterwards. It was just one of those things.

Regards

Mike
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John Young


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1020
Location: Lower Sheering, Essex
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Graham,

Bear in mind that in 1879 apart from the Rifle Brigade & the 60th (King's Royal Rifle Corps) Regiment which had four battalions each, the only regiments to have two battalions were those numbered from the 1st to the 25th, and the West India Regiment. Excluding the last mentioned, according to September 1878 edition of the Army List, the 1st; 2nd; 3rd; 8th; 13th; 17th; 21st & 24th had both battalions on foreign service at the same time.

John Y.
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