page_title: South Wales Borderers
section_title: Second Sikh War and Indian Mutiny
hierarchical_section_title: South Wales Borderers / History / Second Sikh War and Indian Mutiny
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque to Private James Cooper, VC in w:Warstone Lane Cemetery, Birmingham, England
context_page_description: The South Wales Borderers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for 280 years.
  It came into existence in England in 1689, as Sir Edward Dering's Regiment of Foot, and afterwards had a variety of names and headquarters. In 1782, it became the 24th Regiment of Foot, and had its depot in Warwickshire.
  Based at Brecon from 1873, the regiment recruited from the border counties of Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire, and Herefordshire. It was not called the South Wales Borderers until the Childers Reforms of 1881. The regiment served in a great many conflicts, including the American Revolutionary War, various conflicts in India, the Zulu War, Second Boer War, and World War I and World War II. In 1969 the regiment was amalgamated with the Welch Regiment to form the Royal Regiment of Wales.
context_section_description: The regiment returned to India in 1846 and saw action at the Battle of Chillianwala in January 1849, where the regiment fought off the enemy with bayonets rather than rifles and 255 of its men died, during the Second Anglo-Sikh War. Meanwhile, five Victoria Crosses were awarded to men of the regiment who rescued their colleagues from cannibals on the Andaman Islands in May 1857. Some 35 soldiers of the regiment were killed by mutineers at their garrison in Jhelum in July 1857 during the Indian Rebellion: among the dead was Captain Francis Spring, the eldest son of Colonel William Spring.
caption: Memorial to Private James Cooper VC who fought gallantly in the Andaman Islands in May 1857
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