35th Llamedosian Foot

An Army regiment, referenced as a posting of Roderick Purdeigh before leaving the army to become a full-time explorer. Nothing more is known as to this regiment's history, or indeed if it exists in the consensus present, but the inference is that it was composed of Llamedosians who were at least nominally loyal subjects of Ankh-Morpork, in older days when the city ruled a wider area. (The lives of the Purdeighs, father and son, took place in the early and middle 1800's, well over a hundred years before the consensus present). This would tie in with other known facts, such as the courtesy title of the heir to the Ankhian throne being Prince of Llamedos. (Perhaps he was Colonel in Chief?). It would fit the well-known and referenced Llamedosian military tradition, and it would also fit the fact that a principal export of Llamedos appears to be seasoned and experienced sergeants of the Dai Dickins stamp - they had to start learning their trade somewhere.

The Regiment has a battle honour: Lawke's Drain.

It is telling that a previous Lord Rust once commanded this Regiment. Was there anything left of it afterwards, or did they mutiny?

A reliable source (our own DaibhidC) has unearthed the following snippet: "At the Battle of Lawke’s Drain, (where) a member of the 35th uttered the famous cry "Howondalanders, sir! Quite a lot of 'em!" This pretty much definitively places the battle in Howondaland, but I'd love to see the citation. If you are out there, Daibhid C, could you oblige?

Annotation

Regard the existence of Welsh regiments in the British Army, cf the Welsh Guards and the Royal Welch Fusiliers, who both share Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, as honorary colonel-in-chief.

Most of this is in the discussion page, but Lawke's Drain is a clear reference to Rorke's Drift, a battle in the Anglo-Zulu War. The defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift immediately followed the British Army's defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana earlier that morning on 22 January 1879, and continued to the following day, 23 January. One hundred and thirty-nine British soldiers belonging to the Twenty-Fourth Regiment of Foot, later a Welsh regiment and often mistakenly thought to have been one at the time, successfully defended their garrison against an intense assault by four to five thousand Zulu warriors. The overwhelming Zulu attack on Rorke's Drift came very close to defeating the tiny British garrison, and the British success is held as one of history's finest defences. Had the British defence failed here, no immediate force would have been ready to face the Zulus, who would have been free to attack deeper in to South Africa. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the defenders, along with a number of other decorations and honours, the highest number ever awarded for a single action.

The film Zulu celebrates the battle, and is replete with lots and lots of those little historical details about the Welsh soldier, which, when the knobs are turned up to eleven, become Discworld material. A senior NCO who could be Dai Dickens ("Why us, Sarge? Why us?"/"'Cause we're here, lad."), a regimental choir who sing back at the Zulu warriors... recommended as part of the background influences to Llamedos.

And the really tantalising thing... in Jingo, we are told that in a time of regrettable peace and lack of sworn enemies, Lady Sybil Ramkin's grandfather led an Ankh-Morporkian army into Howondaland, and succeeded in generating a lot of swearing and quite a few brand new enemies before he was finished... would Lawkes' Drain have been fought under his overall command?

Another of those tantalising pointers to a white state, possibly a colony, in Howondaland, analagous to our own South Africa and/or Rhodesia? (pre-independence Zimbabwe, to those under forty) Alas, all we know is that there was an unfinished novel called The Dark Incontinent that might have fleshed this out, just as The Last Continent expanded on all those preceding little hints in canon about a Discworld almost-Australia...