Find your ancestors in South Wales Borderers 1890s

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The dataset is primarily a listing of men who joined the regiment between January 1891 and February 1897 for whom a surviving service record could not be initially found, amounting to 28% of the men within this population. For these exceptions, key data from the regimental description books, covering 1881 to 1897, have been transcribed.

There are generally three scenarios in which data is recorded:

For the most part, service numbers from the Description Book were allocated to new recruits.
For those men who were looking to extend, and had engaged under Cardwell terms, they had to re-attest under the new terms that came about as a result of the Childers reforms.
Some men transferred in from other regiments.

In a number of instances, the soldier died in service, which explains why their service record has not survived. In other cases, the service record survived, but the indexed name and service number were different.

Where possible, supplementary information has been sought. In some cases, there was nothing further of a military nature to add. For other men, their prior service in the militia was identified. For others, they re-enlisted during the Great War. The Western Front Association pension cards have been particularly useful in documenting further service in the First Word War. They have, conversely, been useful in documenting that no WW1 service had occurred for an individual.

For those men promoted to NCOs, serving in India with the 1st Battalion, there was the opportunity to be seconded to the Indian Army and to work in logistics. Several such men have been identified and tracked via the Army Lists of the Indian Army.

In addition to those men who appear on the list, there are several men who have been added, for whom a different service number or name has been recorded, along with two Boer War veterans with links to HMS Caroline.