IN THE latest instalment of our 'This Day in History' series, Marcus Payne of Penarth Library investigates the large number of Penarthians who served in the South Staffordshire Regiment in the First World War.

Penarth never had a Pals Battalion like many other large towns and cities in England and Wales.

But there was one non-Welsh battalion, namely the South Staffordshire Regiment, that attracted so many Penarthians it could have been labelled the unofficial Penarth Pals Battalion.

Mr Payne found there were nearly 60 Penarthians, named in the Penarth Times throughout the war, who joined regiments with no discernible link to the town and wonders if anybody knows the reason.

A photograph from the Penarth Times printed in March 1915 contained 38 soldiers from the regiment and it was easy to assume that they were mainly South Staffordshire soldiers with a few Penarthians in there.

But on closer inspection, it was revealed that as many as 59 Penarthians served in that regiment so perhaps this photo had grouped as many of them together as possible for the benefit of people in the town.

There was a great awareness back home of how many Penarthians were serving there and also great pride.

The 59 or so Penarth boys were spread amongst the 18 battalions, although most seem to have been in either the 8th (with 17 listed), or the 9th (with 14 listed) service battalions.

However some were only referred to more generally as being in the South Staffs.

In February 1916, the Penarth Times prominently featured the following article: “The South Staffs Beat Off Attack. Hold Trench Against The Foe. Penarth Men Killed And Wounded. The South Staffs, who have been called upon time after time to face the enemy in France, have again been subjected to persistent and violent attacks from the enemy, who made desperate attempts to capture their trench.

The British troops gained the day, for although the trench was entered, the lines held by the South Staffs remained intact, and the enemy beaten off with great loss of life. The defenders, however also suffered, and the casualty lists show that two Penarth men were killed (Sergeant Jeffries and Private E.W. Davies), and four seriously wounded (Privates E. James, H. Wilkins, V. James, and Sergeant W. O. Strete, D.C.M).”

The piece illustrated the heroism of the Penarth boy and the fact that a number of them never made it home.

The most senior officer seems to have been Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Joseph Trump of the Monmouthshire Regiment who was attached to the South Staff Regiment and given command of an unnamed battalion before his death in France on December 2, 1917. The majority served on the Western Front in France and Belgium although some in the South Staffs ended up in Italy and Egypt. Only one of these men mentioned : Edward Beresford, who served as a policeman in Penarth before the war, has a clear Staffordshire connection so perhaps he encouraged the others to join his home regiment.

It remains a mystery as to why South Staffs attracted so many Penarthians other than a strong desire for friends and colleagues to serve together.

This was the basis for the official pals battalions such as the Cardiff and Bradford.

The difference was that groups of local lads usually joined their local regiment to create pals battalions.