South Wales Borderers Museum

The South Wales Borderers Museum is located at Brecon in Wales and is the regimental museum of the 24th Regiment of Foot. The museum's collection is made up of artefacts collected from a variety of sources from around the world and which display the regiment's 300-year history.

The collection
The museum is based at The Barracks, Brecon, South Wales, and claims to have the finest collection of weapons to be found in any regimental museum in the United Kingdom. Its collection of guns shows the development of soldiers' weapons from the 18th century to the present.

The museum's Medal Room contains about 3,000 medals. The Victoria Cross case in the main hall contains sixteen replica VCs which represent the originals which are owned by the regiment but which cannot be displayed because they are too valuable. The museum's greatest attraction is its Zulu War Room, which displays the exploits of the 24th Regiment of Foot during the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War made famous by the 1964 film Zulu, during which campaign the Regiment won 11 VCs. Queen Victoria called the soldiers of the 24th Foot "The Noble 24th".

The museum has an extensive archive which in particular relates to the Zulu War of 1879. Access to the archive collection is available to bona fide researchers by appointment. The museum also has an excellent collection of pictures, paintings, dioramas, drums, assegais, ammunition, buttons, badges and uniforms.

Victoria Crosses held by the museum
The South Wales Borderers Museum owns the Victoria Crosses awarded to the following soldiers of the Regiment:


 * Sergeant William Wilson Allen, 24th Regiment ( Rorke's Drift )
 * Private David Bell, 24th Regiment
 * Major Gonville Bromhead, 24th Regiment ( Rorke's Drift )
 * Brigadier General Edward Stevenson Browne, 24th Regiment
 * Captain Angus Buchanan, 4th Bn, South Wales Borderers (On loan)
 * General Sir Alexander Cobbe, Indian Army. attached King's African Rifles
 * Lieutenant Neville Josiah Coghill, 24th Regiment ( Isandhlwana )
 * Private William Griffiths, 24th Regiment
 * Private Frederick Hitch 24th Regiment ( Rorke's Drift )
 * Sergeant Alfred Henry Hook, 24th Regiment ( Rorke's Drift )
 * Major General Dudley Graham Johnson, South Wales Borderers attached 2nd Bn, Royal Sussex Regiment
 * Private William Jones, 24th Regiment ( Rorke's Drift )
 * Lieutenant Teignmouth Melvill, 24th Regiment ( Isandhlwana )
 * Co. Sergeant Major Ivor Rees, 11th Bn, South Wales Borderers
 * Sergeant John Williams, 24th Regiment ( Rorke's Drift )
 * Warrant Officer II John Henry Williams, 10th Bn, South Wales Borderers