Colonel W L Vale wrote this definitive history of the South Staffordshire Regiment because "it would .. be a loss to the records of the British Army if those of a Corps such as The South Staffordshire Regiment were allowed to sink into obscurity. I have therefore endeavoured to relate its long and eventful story from its raising in 1705 until its amalgamation with The North Staffordshire Regiment in 1959. When the late Mr. J. P. Jones wrote his history shortly after the end of the 1914-1918 War, it was hoped to interest those who had fought in that war or whose relatives had. Consequently he devoted over two thirds of his book to this period and this lack of proportion has inevitably reduced narratives of the Regiment's many previous wars and left little space for peace-time stations or activities. His history ends in 1920 and since then the South Staffords have undergone heroic service in the 1939-1945 War and some of their stations before and since that war have been peace-time in name only. Many new facts concerning the 38th and 80th have come to light during the past forty years."

As a result, it is the definitive history of the South Staffords. The book was kindly loaned to the project by The Staffordshire Regiment, and is reproduced by kind permission of the Regiment.