123 years after the Queen's Colour of the 24th Regiment was saved from the raging torrents of the Buffalo River in South Africa during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, the Colours, currently located in Brecon Cathedral, are about to be saved again - this time for posterity.

On the 22nd January 1879, during the Battle of Isandhlwana, when the British Army suffered one of its heaviest ever defeats at the hands of the mighty Zulu nation, Lieutenants Melvill and Coghill were ordered to save the Queen's Colour of the 1st Battalion of the 24th Regiment from falling into the hands of the enemy. They managed to make the banks of the Buffalo River, but there they lost their lives in their heroic attempt and the Colour was washed away down river. Two weeks later it was recovered and returned to the 1st Battalion who proudly carried it in its battered form for another 55 years. Officers Melvill and Coghill were subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for their courage and valour.

The battle scarred Colours, which were finally laid up in the Regimental Chapel in Brecon Cathedral in 1934, are now beginning to show signs of decay. Such is the unique nature of these precious Colours that the Colonel of the Regiment, Major General Christopher Elliott decided to launch an Appeal to raise funds for their conservation. Being a very expensive project, it was thought that this would take some time to achieve, until an anonymous benefactor offered to meet the costs outright. As a result of such outstanding generosity, this work can begin straight away and is to be carried out by the specialist firm Framework Enterprises Ltd from Carmarthen under the expert guidance of their Managing Director, Mr John Butler, email framework@felingwm.fsbusiness.co.uk

The Colours will be hermetically sealed in a high grade anti-static filmed acrylic material with the temperature and humidity controlled by an in-built silica gel tray. The result will preserve these unique Colours for the Regiment, Wales and the Nation for a very long time to come.

For those of you who are keen on military history. The Queen's Colour of the 1/24th was not the last to be carried into battle. This honour rests with 58th Foot (later the 2nd Battalion The Northampton Regiment) whose Colours were carried at Laing's Nek in the 1st Boer War on 28 January 1881. Lieutenant Alan Hill of the 58th, the ensign carrying the Queen's Colour, was awarded the Victoria Cross for rescuing on his horse the mortally wounded Lieutenant Baillie carrying the Regimental Colour. Baillie's dying words were 'Never mind me; save the Colour'.

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