[4][12][13][14] During the Armada crisis of 1588 Carmarthenshire had 300 trained foot in bands under captains, and 404 untrained (of whom 300 served as 'pioneers'), together with 15 light horse and 30 'petronel's (the petronel was an early cavalry firearm).

Conduct money was recovered from the government, but replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.

When open war broke out between the King and Parliament, neither side made much use of the trained bands beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops.

[5][7][32] The 1697 militia returns showed the Regiment of Foot as 341 strong under Col Rowland Groyn and the Troop of Horse as 40 men under Captain Thomas Cornwallis.

An adjutant and drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits.

It was embodied for permanent service on 8 December that year under the command of Col George Rice, of Llandeilo fawr, MP and Lord Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire.

On 26 May 1761 it moved to north Devon, where from its headquarters (HQ) at Bideford it was employed with other militia regiments in guarding and escorting French prisoners-of-war.

The war was now ending and on 3 December 1762 the regiment was dispersed, with detachments marching home to the main balloting centres such as Llandeilo and Llanelli to be disembodied.

In February 1781 it was reinforced to 320 strong by a further draft from Carmarthen and the following month began a march via Tiverton, Devon to east Cornwall where it spent the summer as part of a militia brigade camped on Maker heights overlooking Plymouth Sound.

[43][44] From 1784 to 1792 the militia ballot was used to keep up the numbers and the regiments were assembled for their 28 days' annual peacetime training, but to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually mustered each year.

[7][46][47] The French Revolutionary Wars saw a new phase for the English militia: they were embodied for a whole generation, and became regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in the British Isles), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits.

In May 1796 the regiment was ordered to Whitehaven in Cumberland to relieve the Cardigan Militia: the detached companies were concentrated at Welshpool and began the march on 16 May.

The 'Old Militia's' tour of duty in Ireland had to be cut short and it re-embarked for Liverpool at the end of July, though every man was given a gilt medal on an orange ribbon by the City of Dublin as a mark of appreciation for having volunteered.

Colonel Johnes had been succeeded in command by Col Lord Cawdor from the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry, who had defeated the French at the Battle of Fishguard the previous year, with Lt-Col Ravenscroft remaining as second-in-command.

In October the reduced regiment embarked under Lord Cawdor at Portsmouth as part of a large militia draft aboard the transports Dictator, Diadem Romulus and Stately.

In July 1801 it relieved the Lancashire Militia in the Bristol, Garrison, where the duties included guarding prisoners-of-war at Stapleton Prison and manning the Avonmouth forts.

In July it was part of a militia brigade in camp at Stokes Bay, Gosport, where it was joined by a draft of supplementary militiamen from Carmarthen to increase its strength.

It then moved into winter quarters in Hilsea Barracks, providing sentries for Portsmouth town and the naval dockyard and arsenal, as well as manning Southsea Fort.

[53] During the summer of 1805, when Napoleon was massing his 'Army of England' at Boulogne for a projected invasion, the Royal Carmarthens, with 508 men in eight companies under Lt-Col William Owen Brigstocke, were still stationed at Bristol as part of a brigade under Maj-Gen Josiah Champagné.

In May the Royal Carmarthen Fusiliers had to send a recruiting party to Carmarthenshire to try to find men to replace those who had transferred to the regulars or were time-expired.

Soon after Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo the whole regiment was sent back, taking up quarters in Lampeter, Aberystwyth and Milford Haven, with HQ at Kidwelly.

The permanent staff of the Royal Carmarthen Fusiliers were called out in October 1816 and issued with live ammunition to defend the barracks at Brecon against a threat of attack by discontented workers from Merthyr Tydfil; they were stood down after four days.

The regiment was not embodied during the Crimean War, but carried out an extended (56 day) training period in 1855 and supplied a number of volunteers to the regular army.

[29][30][54][62][31][69][77][78] The Welsh militia artillery often carried out their annual training at the same time, so the batteries around the Haven could cooperate in live-firing exercises against target vessels, and with the searchlights and defensive mines operated by the Royal Engineers.

There were moves to reform the Auxiliary Forces (Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers) to take their place in the six Army Corps proposed by St John Brodrick as Secretary of State for War.

[80][81] Under the sweeping Haldane Reforms of 1908, the Militia was replaced by the Special Reserve, a semi-professional force whose role was to provide reinforcement drafts for Regular units serving overseas in wartime.

[87] The Regimental Colour issued in 1759 bore the Coat of arms of the Lord Lieutenant (at that time their own colonel, George Rice) on a blue silk ground.

About 1825 the officers' shako bore an eight-rayed star with the Prince of Wales's feathers, coronet and 'ICH DIEN' motto in the centre above a scroll inscribed 'ROYAL CARMARTHEN'.

After conversion to rifles, the regiment adopted a shako plate badge of a bugle-horn enclosing the precedence number 24; officers also had the feathers, coronet and motto above.

In 1833 the King drew the lots for individual regiments and the resulting list continued in force with minor amendments until the end of the militia.