Swansea Volunteers Collection

Archive Collection

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Bookmark:http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb216-riswsv

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Physical Description

Scope and Content

Declaration of engagements, 1801; Monthly pay lists, 1801-02; Members lists, n.d. and 1801-02; Correspondence, 1801-1856; Papers relating to the Swansea Volunteer Force, n.d.-1882; Volunteer Force Publications, 1859-1882; Papers relating to the Fry family, 1860-1871

Administrative / Biographical History

Swansea Royal Volunteers were raised in 1796, with the specific responsibility to defend Swansea. At this date it was commanded by Captain John Beavan and other officers included Captain William Jones and Captain John Landeg. By 1797 William Jones had been promoted to Major and John Landeg had succeeded Beavan as Lt Colonel Commandant, Beavan having been made Lt Colonel. The Corps was probably made up of three or four companies and most of the records in this archive relate to the company of Captain William Jones. The Corps was disbanded in 1802. However by 1859 the Government became increasingly aware of Britain's vulnerability to attack. It was decided to revive the Volunteer Movement. It was the responsibility of the Lord Lieutenant of each county to form the volunteer corp. C. R. M. Talbot the Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan established the Local Volunteer Rifle Corp during 1859. George Grant Francis put forward the case for an artillery corps and took command of the 1st (Swansea) Corps, Glamorgan Artillery Volunteers in the same year.

Arrangement

Part of this collection was originally catalogued at University College Library, Swansea, where an interpretation of the original order was made. This catalogue lists the items chronologically under the headings stated in Scope and content.

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Acquisition Information

The records were originally held at The Royal Institution of South Wales, Swansea. From 1966 onwards the records were moved to the library in the University College, Swansea in consignments. They were transferred to West Glamorgan Archive Service in the Spring of 2004.