Indeed, the rank-and-file soldiery of the British Indian Army was largely Celtic and Welsh, given the backwardness of their native regions compared to England; the officer corps was largely English.
Its beginnings may be traced to the labours of the Rev. Griffith Jones (1684–1761), of Llanddowror, Carmarthenshire, whose sympathy for the poor led him to set on foot a system of circulating charity schools for the education of children.