"FIRST out in 1914, home at last" scrawled a soldier on the side of a railway carriageway in June 1919 on his journey back to Pontypool from Germany.
A new exhibition in the Torfaen Museum tells the story of the Monmouthshire Regiment’s 2nd Battalion, which fought throughout World War I on the Western Front and earned the distinction of being the only Territorial Force unit to form part of the Army of Occupation.
The 2nd Mons left from Pontypool’s Crane Street station in August 1914, the first Territorial unit to travel to France - and it did not return until June 1919.
Recently, the focus on the centenary of the Great War has understandably deflected attention away from the important story of what happened after the war and how the Allies managed Germany's transition from conflict to peace. An Army of Occupation remained in the country until 1930.
The exhibition is a partnership project organised by Torfaen Museum Trust and the Regimental Museum of the Royal Welsh in Brecon exhibition. It is being displayed in Pontypool as is part of the centenary celebrations of the battalion’s return.
Nostalgia is provided by Torfaen Museum.
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