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Show H ' iposed Memorial on Historic Field of Yorkfown 'ould Be Symbolic of Friendship of Two Groups of : First-Class Fightin' Men,' British and American m , ' it? ,wi 1 1 , f-s ' - fris ; J k to ' :4 1 : 1 iiAv 4 if ? I i Cup presented by officers of the Koyal Welch Fusiliers to officers of the United States Marine Corps in memory of their service together togeth-er during the Boxer Rebellion. ft, f MO SCOTT WATSON :';stern Newspaper Union. ; THE historic field of ti:7orktown in Virginia Where may soon be 1!U a unique memorial. be a monument to the "hip of two groups of .' lass fightin' men" who lnd together by more vesie tie of common in-etthe in-etthe greatest of which itljt they have stood to shoulder against .y.ion enemy. These two Ccare the British army's -vWelch Fusiliers and "wited States Marines, 'irst time these fight-;,'0!i fight-;,'0!i served together was idh3 ago this June dur-)ats;famous dur-)ats;famous Boxer Rebel-North Rebel-North China. As the f steady aggressions , China by European !Mp an organization of : eat patriots, who called 'icteves Boxers and who 'fc'.o preserve China for ese, raised tke rally-of rally-of "Kill the foreign mt.:, and fell .upon the et'tommunities in and isefeking. Many of the npfcrs were killed and ainder were besieged , gation quarter of the jnite capital. Gii',ie news of this outbreak . o! ed to the world all the and;nts whose nationals ses. )lved immediately sent jary forces to China. nanli objective was Tientsin g foreign population with j sailors and soldiers ral3erately trying to hold .';.ist the onslaughts of Chinese fanatics. The Tmpt to relieve them ?por.n a column of Ameri-verSl Ameri-verSl ies and Russian troops en back to their base wa'ielming numbers of the 3n ""Tiere the Marines were ; by other Marines and on Cl also joined by the Sec-l0;ion Sec-l0;ion of the Royal Welch 'despatched from Hong 3re r the command of Ma-ar Ma-ar sntsin Captured. jblic is combined British and 3re force advanced toward ws, i:vhen Major Morris fell the command was as- the next in rank, Maj. yyValler Tazewell Waller :ine corps, and the Fu-T Fu-T i Marines fought side Hi the series of actions f alted in the capture of e city and the rescue of ;:aguered foreigners, ut team, incidentally, was a mor-ining engineer, then iem (vely unknown but des-the des-the suture fame as the, Pres-;howhe Pres-;howhe United States Her-i Her-i scat: Hoover. hetitthe fighting which fol-also's fol-also's the allied armies Peking, the close as-: as-: helif the Fusiliers and t2 he Continued and so great many The Royal Welch Fusiliers has one of the most interesting histories histo-ries of any regiment in the British Brit-ish army. It dates back 250 yeara to 1689 when, after the blood1 less revolution of 1688 forced James II to flee to France, leaders lead-ers in the English parliament asked William of Orange, president presi-dent of the Dutch republic, whose wife, Mary, was the eldest daughter daugh-ter of the deposed King James, to ascend the throne of England. One condition was imposed upon the new ruler. The throne was to be assumed in the name of Mary but William was to administer admin-ister the affairs of the country. So the reign of William and Mary began. One of the first acts of the new monarchs was to grant to the people of England, the Bill of Rights. To protect the liberties granted to his people, William III raised immediately an army of 25 regiments regi-ments of foot (infantry). One of these, the Twenty-third, was enlisted en-listed along the border counties of Wales among the descendants of the ancient Britons who were followers of the Welsh chieftains, Llewellen and his brother, David. Da-vid. It was first known as Herbert's Her-bert's Twenty-third Foot, after Lord Herbert of Chirbury, who raised the regiment, and his cousin, Col. Charles Herbert, who first commanded it. Baptism of Fire. When King William took the field with his new army against the forces of James II and his ally, al-ly, Louis XIV of France, which had been raised to restore the deposed English king, Herbert's Twenty-third Foot had its baptism bap-tism of fire under the eyes of King William at the Battle of the Boyne on July 1, 1690. Its record rec-ord of gallantry on that historic field has continued unbroken for 250 years. In recognition of its services in Marlborough's campaigns cam-paigns against the French in the early Eighteenth century, the prince of Wales, later King George I, conferred upon the regiment reg-iment the title of "The Prince of Wales Own Royal Regiment of Welch Fusiliers," a title which has been shortened to the better known Royal Welch Fusiliers. Like other British regiments, the Royal Welch have what they call , their "battle honours" names of the most conspicuous battles in which they served emblazoned em-blazoned upon their regimental standards. Among them are Co-runna, Co-runna, where the fallen Sir John Moore was "buried darkly at dead of night" ; Lucknow, with its memory of the Highlanders, the MacGregors and the Campbells and the thrilling rescue; Blenheim, Blen-heim, Inkerman, Ramilles, Waterloo, Wa-terloo, Oudenarde and nearly a score of others all bright pages in England's military history. Although the Royal Welch served throughout the American Revolution there are no names of battles on the soil of the United States emblazoned on the regiment's regi-ment's banner. Ask a Fusilier today why and his reply will reflect re-flect the sentiment which makes appropriate the proposed memorial: me-morial: "Tradition says our predecessors pred-ecessors of those days did not wish the memory of our American Ameri-can battles recalled that is all we know." . . . Although the United States Marines Ma-rines are a much younger military mili-tary unit than the Royal Welch Fusiliers, they, too, have a long and honored tradition back of them. The Marine corps is the oldest active armed force in the United States, antedating both the army and the navy. It was organized by the Continental congress con-gress on November 10, 1775, nine months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Marine Traditions. The Marines, like the Fusiliers, preserve their traditions by certain cer-tain symbols or customs. One of these symbols is the sword which their officers wear. It is described in the regulations as "one with a Mameluke hilt, curved or scimitar scimi-tar blade and bright metal scabbard." scab-bard." It came about in this way: In 1805 a young Virginian named Presley Neville O'Bannon, first lieutenant in the Marine corps, with Midshipman Peck, a sergeant and six privates from the Marines, formed a part of the motley army of Greeks, Turks and Mameluke Arabs which William Wil-liam Eaton, President Thomas Jefferson's naval agent in the Mediterranean, led against the stronghold of Derna, held by Yu-suf, Yu-suf, bashaw of Tripoli. Yusuf, who had deposed his brother, Ahmet, Ah-met, had been preying upon American commerce and enslaving enslav-ing American sailors. Eaton's plan was to help restore to the Tripolitan throne the former bashaw, ba-shaw, Ahmet, who would thereafter there-after respect American rights in the Mediterranean. Young O'Bannon took part in that epic march of 600 miles across African deserts and in the storming of the fortress of Derna where for the first time in history his-tory the Stars and Stripes were hoisted over an Old world fortress. fort-ress. In appreciation of his services, serv-ices, Ahmet presented O'Bannon with a sword with a Mameluke hilt and this sword became the model for the weapon which has been the symbol of authority for Marine officers from that time on. O'Bannon's exploit also is memorialized in the first line of the famous "Hymn of the Ma- Tinea." From August, 1937, until February Febru-ary of last year the same Second battalion of the Royal Welch and the Fourth regiment of the Marines Ma-rines were stationed along Soo-chow Soo-chow creek, bordering the foreign for-eign settlements of Shanghai to guard British and American citizens citi-zens and property when the Japanese Jap-anese attacked that city. Revolutionary Service. The close association of these two military units in 1900 and again in 1937-38 is in striking contrast con-trast to the first contact of, the Fusiliers with American men-at-arms. That took place more than 150 years ago and they were then enemies instead of friends. For the Royal Welch were among the troops sent to America in 1775 to help subdue the rebellious English colonies on this continent and they served in almost every major engagement of the Revolution, Revo-lution, beginning with the Battle of Lexington and ending with the surrender of Cornwallis at York-town. York-town. Among the defenses erected by that ill-fated British leader, when he was penned up in the Virginia seaport, was a star-shaped fortification fortifi-cation on the right of the British line. It is pointed out today to visitors to the Colonial National Historical park as the "Fusiliers Redoubt" because it was held by a remnant of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (who had been decimated decimat-ed during the seven years of warfare war-fare in America) assisted by a few British marines. They held this redoubt against three attacks by, Washington's French allies under Count Rochambeau and rank of major general in the Marine Ma-rine corps before he was retired. Before his death several years ago he suggested that the association associ-ation of the Fusiliers and the Marines, Ma-rines, representative forces of the defenses of the two leading democracies de-mocracies of the world, be immortalized im-mortalized in a permanent memorial me-morial and that an appropriate place for it would be at York-town. York-town. Gen. Richards' Speech. His suggestion was repeated and given emphasis in an address made this year by Brig. Gen. George Richards, United States Marine corps (ret.) speaking before the annual meeting and dinner of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of Virginia, held on February 22 in honor of Washington's birthday, he reviewed the history of the association of these two military units, recalled General Waller's suggestion that the memorial be erected on the field of Yorktown and concluded: "When, 13 or more years ago, that proposal was made, international interna-tional politics with the problems of statesmanship a field at all times not the responsibility of the active soldier presented not the clear outlines that are today apparent ap-parent to the vision of our people. peo-ple. This condition then led the followers and associates of General Gen-eral Waller to turn elsewhere lest that memory be lost. We appealed ap-pealed to the talent of the late John Philip Sousa. At the spring dinner of the Gridiron club in Washington, in 1930, there came from the gifted baton of that great composer . . . the last of his many, many military marches, the very last: "The March of the Royal Welch Fusiliers," Fusi-liers," dedicated to the Marine corps. As the strains of that martial mar-tial music faded away, from the lips of the President of the United States came his story of the siege of Tientsin, the burden of care and anxiety lifted from the shoulders shoul-ders of that young mining engineer engi-neer and his associates, how from across 10,000 miles of sea, the might of two great nations had reached afar to say their people in China should not die. History Repeats Itself. "That recent reunion at Shanghai Shang-hai of last year history repeating repeat-ing itself with its revival of the recollections of the like service in North China of 1900 has recalled re-called to the veteran officers of that campaign the almost forgotten forgot-ten and unfulfilled wish of the late Maj. Gen. Littleton Waller Tazewell Waller of Virginia. These veterans wish that under your auspices under the aegis of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution of his native state, the proposal of one of Virginia's distinguished dis-tinguished soldiers, be submitted for the reaction of America's public. "It is not sufficient that that memory of a common service be preserved only in martial music mu-sic and solely to the ear of the soldier. It deserves now to be perpetuated in the wider field to the eye of the public in the chosen way of that departed leader lead-er of ours. American public opinion, opin-ion, it is confidently believed, will support the project. More, in its larger sense in its wider import, measured by the trend and aspect as-pect of these times our people ' will applaud our effort." Well T?ff-tywoy m-v - AWA T ooks j58fr . v - ew ot the "Fusiliers Redoubt" on the Yorktown battlefield. jflmiration of the Royal the American major J! their officers is quoted ': declared "Just give " we will go anywhere ' At the end of the cam- hina Major Waller and & -s of the First battal-y battal-y Marines received from ' S of the Fusiliers a sil-'1P sil-'1P cup, engraved with all ies, and presented in their service together, since that time it has custom for the officers iliers and the Marines ,k (ji'ge messages of greet-piDavid's greet-piDavid's day (March 1), rj-rsary observed by all ihman. Qrs passed. Once more T-ers and the Marines ythers-in-arms" and this ' ' s again on Asiatic soil. after the siege the French generals gen-erals gave their unstinted praise to the stubbornness of the resistance re-sistance which they had encountered encoun-tered there. They could scarcely scarce-ly believe that so few men in this fortification had been able to hold in check their superior numbers. Lord Cornwallis, also, in his official offi-cial report of the capitulation, paid a glowing tribute to the courage and bulldog tenacity of the Fusiliers. If the proposed memorial mentioned men-tioned at the beginning of this article is erected it will be placed here. The first suggestion for such a memorial came from the major of the American Marines who won the admiration and respect re-spect of the Fusiliers during the Boxer rebellion Littleton Waller Tazewell Waller. Major Waller, who was a Virginian, rose to the |
