[1][2][3][4][5] Units of rifle volunteers were formed throughout Great Britain in 1859 and 1860 in response to a perceived threat of invasion by France following the Orsini affair.

[1][7][2][3] In the following year the Childers Reforms of line infantry saw the three Monmouthshire corps becoming volunteer battalions of the regular South Wales Borderers.

In all the Monmouthshire Regiment formed battalions, most of which fought on the Western Front, during the conflict as follows:[10][11] All units of the Territorial Force were disbanded soon after the end of the war in 1918 and 1919.

[22][23] They next saw action in the Battle of the Falaise Gap in August 1944, where the battalion suffered heavy casualties and 'A' and 'B' Companies had to be amalgamated.

'B' Company was soon reformed again from a large number of men from the now disbanded 5th East Lancashire Regiment of the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division.

They entered Germany on 8 February, taking part in a month's heavy fighting and suffering 300 casualties before being withdrawn for rest.

On 5 August they were nearly surrounded by enemy forces on Bas Perier Ridge and suffered heavy casualties and were reduced to half strength, forcing them to temporarily amalgamate with the 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment of the 185th Brigade, of 3rd Division, which was temporarily attached to the 11th Armoured.

[23][24] It was during the fighting that eventually lead to Corporal Sidney Bates, of the 1st Royal Norfolks, being posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

Reinforced, the battalion advanced after the retreating German forces, passing through Belgium and taking part in the liberation of Antwerp in early September 1944.

They moved into the Netherlands as part of the force protecting the flanks of the airborne troops that had landed in Operation Market Garden.

On 12 December 1942 it was redesignated the 1st Battalion, South Wales Borderers; the original 1st SWB having been disbanded after most of the unit was captured in North Africa.

The Territorial Army was re-established in April 1947, although there was a considerable reconfiguration with some pre-war units not reformed, or converted to a different role.

In addition, the buttons and non-commissioned officers' chevrons were black, to denote the unit's ancestry as a Rifle battalion.

[3] It was eventually amalgamated in 1955 with 638th (Brecknock) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery (TA) and ceased to exist as a separate unit.