I have been pondering the more poetic language used to describe the British Army. The Regiment is a ‘family’; the barracks or Depot, the ‘home’, its custom and practice are ‘traditions’ and the lineage of those Regiments through many amalgamations are a ‘golden thread’ which continues from the founding of the Army to the present day.
In 1775 the 32nd Regiment of Foot was being transported to Ireland when the ship Rockingham Castle foundered approaching Cork harbour with the loss of 122 officers and men, 12 women, 14 children and the entire ship’s crew. In addition, all regimental records were lost. From 1775 to 1815 successive Commanding Officers of the 32nd requested duplicates of the copies that should have been held at Horse Guards, the headquarters of the British Army. Finally some thirty years later, in a letter dated 24 July 1815, the Adjutant General acknowledged that as copies were either not made, or had been mislaid, ‘the Record Book of the 32nd Regiment should commence from the year 1775’ and the detailed history or ‘tradition’ of the 32nd was lost.1
In 1782 the 32nd became affiliated to the County of Cornwall, becoming officially known as the 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot.’ The idea was to encourage recruitment from the county, but the reality seemed to be somewhat different as enrolment tended to occur from areas in which the Regiment was stationed. Indeed, up to one third of English regiments were recruited from Ireland. As Major Hugo White, biographer of the DCLI points out, the affiliation with Cornwall became more significant after 1881, when the 32nd became the 1st Battalion the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry with a permanent ‘home’ at the existing Depot in Bodmin. Between 1859 and 1968 it was the ‘home’ of the British Army in Cornwall. Despite the scale of Victoria Barracks at its peak, the Museum at The Keep remains the strongest link to that past.
The Cornish regiment participated in many notable campaigns over time however, the scale and devastation of the twentieth century wars had terrible consequences for millions of ordinary people. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that 4494 soldiers of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry died during World War One. In this way, the Army’s ‘family’, ‘home’ and ‘traditions’ became relevant to far more people and this trend continued until the middle of the last century for example, through the involvement of Territorial Battalions in the Second World War and the advent of National Service. At the museum we receive many enquiries each week from people researching their own connection to the regimental ‘family’.
The ’golden thread’ continued with the amalgamation of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry into the Somerset & Cornwall Light Infantry in 1959 and The Light Infantry in 1968, through to the present day Rifles regiment formed in 2007. The museum holds The Light Infantry collection and archive and has close links to the current regimental Association.
To misquote, history is ‘a complex and nuanced subject and is far too important to leave to historians’.* Our past should be widely shared, evaluated, appreciated and reconsidered and museums provide the place to do so. In the archive alone there is so much of interest, and many stories waiting to be claimed. At Cornwall’s Army Museum it is possible to learn and appreciate what the ‘family’ have given. If this Museum had to close, a regimental history and ‘tradition’ will be subsumed elsewhere and Bodmin and Cornwall will lose this heritage to our detriment.
Andrew Sims, Volunteer Archivist
*‘War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men’ attributed to French Prime Minister Clemenceau, but in addition Briand and Talleyrand. There seem to be many variations of this sentiment in use, such as ‘War is too important to be left to the generals’.
- Hugo White, One and All A History of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry 1702-1959, Tabb House, 2006, p. 30. ↩︎