The Loose Association of Wargamers

BaronVonWreckedoften wrote: ↑Thu Oct 18, 2018 6:28 am Just to say there were actually more Irishmen at Rorke's Drift than there were Welshmen. So start practising your harmonies for a few choruses of "Cockles and Mussels".

In the late 17th century, under Charles II, Monmouthshire was added to the Oxford circuit of the English Assizes following which, according to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, it gradually "came to be regarded as an English county".[13] The Modern Universal British Traveller of 1779 stated: "Monmouthshire was formerly a part of Wales, and continued so till the reign of Charles II, when it was reckoned an English county (as it has been ever since) because the judges then began to keep the assizes here in the Oxford circuit."[15] A later traveller, George Borrow in 1862, wrote: "Monmouthshire is at present considered an English county, though certainly with little reason, for it not only stands on the western side of the Wye, but the names of almost all its parishes are Welsh, and many thousands of its population still speak the Welsh language."

While most of the men of the 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot (1/24) were recruited from the industrial towns and agricultural classes of England, principally from Birmingham and adjacent southwest counties, only 10 soldiers of the 1/24 that fought in the battle were Welsh. Many of the soldiers of the junior battalion, the 2/24, were Welshmen.[54] Of the 122 soldiers of the 24th Regiment present at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 49 are known to have been of English nationality, 32 were Welsh, 16 were Irish, one was a Scot, and three were born overseas. The nationalities of the remaining 21 are unknown.[55](citation in article)

Etranger wrote: ↑Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:43 am .....which actually outnumbers the 16 Irishmen...

BaronVonWreckedoften wrote: ↑Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:37 pm

Etranger wrote: ↑Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:43 am .....which actually outnumbers the 16 Irishmen...

I had 19, but that was including the officers (Surgeon Reynolds, for example - who was 10 years younger than the actor who portrayed him in Zulu).

So, given that Monmouth didn't officially become part of Wales until 1972, then legally the Irish DID outnumber the Welsh.