Key events upcoming as Royal Warwickshire Regiment celebrates 350 years of history
As Royal Warwickshire Regiment celebrates 350 years of history next month, Mark Warby takes a look at that and another significant landmark – the 65th anniversary of the death of World War I cartoonist Capt Bruce Bairnsfather.
THIS October marks 350 years since the formation of the county regiment, the Warwickshire Infantry, the predecessor of the modern-day Royal Warwickshire Regiment, now the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
Shortly before this, on 29th September, it is the 65th anniversary of the death of one of the most well-known members of the regiment, Captain Bruce Bairnsfather, who lived at Bishopton from 1904-1919 and was serving with the 1st Battalion when his Fragments from France cartoons of life at the front and creation of the character Old Bill, catapulted him to worldwide fame during the First World War.
The infantry regiment came into being in 1674, and in 1743 was designated the 6th Foot. Forty years later when regiments were linked to counties, the Sixth was renamed ‘First Warwickshire.’ In 1832 William IV conferred the title ‘Royal’ and in 1881 it became the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. After another change in 1963, to the Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers, in April 1968 it amalgamated with the three other English Fusilier to become the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
The regiment has fought in many conflicts – from the War of Spanish Succession (1702-12), Peninsula Wars (1808-14) and Indian Mutiny (1857) to the Boer War (1899-1902), the First World War (in which they lost 11,000 men), the Second World War (including Dunkirk and the D-day landings) to Afghanistan and Iraq. Its fascinating history is brought to life through the displays and exhibits in the galleries of the Fusiliers Museum, Jury Street, Warwick.
The most famous name associated with the Regiment is Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, who served with the 1st Battalion. Other celebrated members have included A A Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh stories, crime novelist Peter Cheyney, Field Marshal Sir William Slim – and, of course, Cpt Bruce Bairnsfather, “the man who made the Empire laugh in its darkest hour.”
On the outbreak of the First World War, Bairnsfather was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion and went to France in November 1914, attached to the First Battalion as Machine Gun Officer. He spent the winter of 1914-15 in trenches at St Yves, on the edge of the Bois de Ploegsteert (known by the soldiers as ‘Plugstreet Wood’) in Belgium, participating in the famous 1914 Christmas Truce.
It was at St Yves, in a ruined cottage barely a hundred yards from the enemy, that Bairnsfather began to draw comic sketches of trench life. Eventually someone suggested he send one of his drawings to a paper. A drawing captioned “Where did that one go to?” was posted off to the Bystander magazine in London, who published it on 31st March 1915 – the first Fragment from France.
On 19th February 1915 the Stratford Herald published ‘My Dug Out,’ a poem Bairnsfather had sent to the paper from the front lines. He later made a drawing incorporating the poem, which was published in the Bystander.
Blown up by a shell during the Second Battle of Ypres on 25th April 1915, Bairnsfather was one of 17 Officers and 500 other ranks from the Warwicks reported killed, wounded or missing following the attack that morning.
In August 1916 Bairnsfather was attached to the Intelligence Department of the War Office. His cartoons were now also used for propaganda purposes and he made visits to the French, Italian and American armies in France.
Bairnsfather’s cartoons were reproduced on an array of merchandise, and published volumes of his drawings sold over 1 million copies. Old Bill’s popularity was incredible, and the character went on to appear in books, plays and films right through to the Second World War, realising a prophecy made by the Stratford Herald in April 1918 that “in Fragments from France Captain Bruce Bairnsfather achieved a triumph of the cartoonists art which will live long after the wars’ horrors have passed.”
What’s on: 350 years of the Royal Warwickshire’s history
The Fusiliers Museum has a programme of events during October to commemorate 350 years of the Regiment. One of these is an illustrated talk - Bruce Bairnsfather, Old Bill, and the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, which is being held at the museum on Saturday, 5 October at 2pm. The talk includes rarely seen and newly discovered material and will look at Bairnsfather’s strong links with the regiment and how he went from drawing humorous sketches at the front to worldwide fame as a cartoonist.
It will tell the story behind his character Old Bill and give an insight into Bairnsfather’s forty-year career as a cartoonist, lecturer, playwright, vaudeville and variety act and early star of BBC television, all which took him and Old Bill on adventures from London to America, Japan and many places in between.
There will also be the opportunity to see original drawings and other artefacts.
Tickets to the talk are £6, available from the museum or online via Eventbrite.
