6th Gurkhas Journal 103 2023

TheJOURNAL

No.103 2023

Her Majesty The Queen

1926–2022

Front Cover: Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II taken 20 days after her coronation, by Dorothy Wilding on 26 February 1952 © Dorothy Wilding/Camera Press.

Inside Cover: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II presenting Royal Pipe Banners to the Pipe Majors of 1/6th and 2/6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha

Rifles: Lt Colonel Horsford MBE MC on the left.

Buckingham Palace, 27 June 1962

Rear Cover: Sergeant Dipesh Gurung, Pipe Major 2 RGR, carrying the 6 GR Pipe Banner at Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral.

Helen Hickey opening her 100th birthday message from Her Majesty The Queen, 27 April 2022

OFFICERS OF THE REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION

President: Brigadier John Anderson OBE

Chairman: Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Briggs duncanhbriggs6 GR@gmail.com

Regimental Secretary: Major David Bredin

Editors

Editor of the Major Rick Beven

133 Station Road, Dullingham, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 9UT. 6grspeedy@gmail.com

27 Blenheim Road, Deal, Kent, CT14 7DB

Association Journal: rickbeven@hotmail.com

Journal Family News Captain Anne Griffith griffharu@hotmail.com

Editor:

Website Officer: Captain James Herbert jamesherbet1@btinternet.com

Committee: Major Khusiman Gurung, Captain Gary Ghale

The Pipes and Drums of the Royal Gurkha Rifles standing behind the Queen’s Pipe Banner during rehearsals for the state funeral for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

May it please Your Majesty

Brigadier John Anderson and Members of the 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association present their humble duty and send to Your Majesty their heartfelt and sincere condolences on the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

All the Members of the Regiment that bears the title of our late Queen mourn Her Majesty’s passing, and we will remember with gratitude her extraordinary service to us all.

You have, Your Majesty, the assurance of our unwavering loyalty on your accession to the Crown.

It is also my honour to inform Your Majesty that our Regimental Association has commissioned a permanent Memorial to all those who served in the Regiment, and to their families.

This Memorial will be crafted in Nepal and sited in the Gurkha Museum in Pokhara, Nepal. It will be dedicated in March 2023, thereby perpetuating the memory of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s own Gurkha Regiment.

9 September 2022

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

The year 2022 was, to quote Charles Dickens “… the best of times, the worst of times….” We thankfully saw the end of the restrictions imposed by COVID in February, but simultaneously the most appalling war break out when a rapacious Russia attacked Ukraine, making atrocities routine and Armageddon plausible; our chaotic Prime-Ministerial game of musical chairs looked small beer when compared with political shenanigans in America; and on 6 February we joined together to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, celebrated nation-wide in June. But then on 8 September 2022, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, ‘Our Queen’, passed away. We as a Regiment had been extraordinarily proud to bear Her name and this year’s Journal is dedicated to Her memory.

We will each have our own special recollections of Our Queen. For me, these were beautifully summed up by the wise words of the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis: ‘Her crown is honour and majesty; her sceptre, law and morality. Her concern has been for welfare, freedom and unity, and in the lands of her dominion, she has sustained justice and liberty, for all races, tongues and creeds.”

In an effort to get our Regiment represented at the State Funeral on 19 September I enlisted the help of our Brigade Secretary, Mani Rai, and on the Tuesday before the State Funeral Mani telephoned me with the news that our Queen’s Pipe Banner could be carried. Fortunately, I was working at the Gurkha Museum, and we had to interrupt a NATO conference to retrieve it: when Daren Bowyer, the Director, explained the reasons for the interruption the NATO delegates all immediately stood to attention – a wonderful gesture. Thanks to Mani our Pipe Banner was carried by Sergeant Dipesh Gurung, PipeMajor 2 RGR, at the funeral: our special farewell to Our Queen.

We have had some matters to celebrate, including wonderful progress with the Regimental Memorial being constructed in Nepal, and which is covered

elsewhere in this Journal. While this whole project involved many of our members, ranging from every one of you who donated funds, to others involved on the ground, it would be remiss of me not to mention John Mackinlay who conceived, promoted and designed it; Mike Channing and his Committee who raised the funds and supervised the project; Gopalbahadur Gurung who led the Nepal team with Purnabahadur Gurung as his Project Manager; Dharma Raj our superb sculptor; and Yambahadur Gurung, who allowed us to place our memorial in a prominent position at the Gurkha Museum Pokhara.

Helen’s Regimental 100th Birthday card (from a painting by John Mackinlay)

We also celebrated the 100th birthday of our most senior member and that incredible lady, Helen Hickey, wife of the late Brigadier Gil, whose picture appears on page 2 of the Journal

The year marked the 40th Anniversary of the Falkland

Islands campaign for 7th DEO Gurkha Rifles and I sent our respects to their President and Association. For those involved in this campaign it was a seminal moment in their careers, and for our Brigade, a vital event, often not fully appreciated. With the end of the almost continuous wars in the Far East in 1966 we found ourselves no longer at the forefront of the British Army, and our hard-earned reputation was gradually being consigned to the dustbin of history as thoughts turned once again towards Europe. The involvement of 7 GR in the Falklands Campaign, where they demonstrated the highest standards of courage and physical endurance, reminded the Army of the professionalism and expertise of Gurkha soldiers and helped ensure our future.

Our Brigade continues to excel, providing highly trained, experienced and fully-manned units. Our successors are in good order, with 1 RGR now enjoying the sunshine of Brunei after their unit move, delayed for two years by COVID. Not only did they take top spot at Bisley, they also won the Queen’s Medal, beating 2 RGR into second place. 2 RGR are delighted to be back in UK and their Pipes and Drums were honoured to support Our Queen’s state funeral. The two RGR Companies serving in the new Ranger Regiment’s battalions have been extremely busy and highly utilised, deploying on numerous operations and continuing to highlight the professionalism of our soldiers.

Our Corps units remain an intrinsic part of our Brigade; QGE (winners of the Nepal Cup) now include the newly established 70 Gurkha Parachute Squadron, while QGS boasts six fully- manned squadrons and in the QOGLR (which most of us remember as GTR) soldiers are being trained as parachutists for the recently established 15 Air Assault Support Squadron.

The ability of our Brigade to recruit high-quality young men is one of our greatest assets; in 2022 a total of 216 recruits passed-out, and in 2023 competition remained as intense as usual: 7,395 potential recruits were called forward for Regional Selection from 19,000 applicants, with only 204 selected.

Sadly, the ongoing saga of alleged grievances, principally about pensions, is no nearer resolution, and recent coverage within the media only serves to stoke the embers. We must hope that we all can find a way to move on from this and focus on the wonderful opportunities that service with our Brigade provided and continues to provide.

On 25 March the Brigade lost our most senior officer, Field Marshal Sir John Chapple, GCB CBE DL. The Field Marshal had always fought our corner within MOD, and we owe him a huge debt: his career culminated in his appointment as Chief of the General Staff (1988-1992). In retirement, he was heavily involved with all our Gurkha charities, as well as with conservation and nature charities. We have lost a great man.

Closer to home we have sadly bid farewell to too many of our members, many of whose obituaries feature in the Journal. In particular, we lost Gill Davies after an incredibly long and brave fight against cancer; Jon Titley, also to cancer; Honorary Captain Kulbahadur Gurung MM, probably our last Chindit veteran, and our old RSM, Tulbahadur Pun. We miss them all.

The continuation of our Regimental Association and Trust is likely to begin to feature more in the near future; with the declining number of active members, it will become increasingly difficult to sustain our present activities and we will need to consider alternative ways to manage our affairs. The first step has been to recruit a new Editor for our Regimental Journal, for this is the last edition Rick Beven will produce, having taken on this difficult and time-consuming task in 2016. Thankfully, we have a volunteer – Dai Hitchcock has agreed to take over. Rick, who is a fluent wordsmith, has been an outstanding editor and we have been privileged to have someone of his dedication and devotion to sustain this most important publication; it is the one thing that pulls all our members together. We owe Rick our eternal gratitude.

John Anderson

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Although our attention has been focussed on the horrific events in Europe caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, from an Association point of view 2022 has been a busy and successful year with many highlights. There have of course also been low points: in particular the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in September and also the death of a number of our veterans.

Our link to the late Queen was a most important one which is highlighted by the theme and a number of personal accounts in this Journal. I felt extremely privileged to be commanding the Regiment during her last visit in February 1989; it really was an amazing day. I am eternally grateful to Ray Pett, who as Colonel of the Regiment created the visit with

the Palace, and also to Marie who agreed to act as the Queen on our dress rehearsal, a really difficult task but we learned so much from Marie that helped us on the big day. I must also thank Gordon Corrigan who took on the management of the visit and produced an outstanding result. For me, who had the privilege of escorting the Queen for the day, there were very many memorable moments even with the cold and rain: Mark Harman and C Company providing the excellent guard of honour, despite being soaking wet and cold; similarly David Bredin’s D Company with their amazing fieldcraft display; the way the Queen totally relaxed once the press had left and was so engaging and full of questions; our drinks and lunch in the Sergeants and Officers Messes and the cultural presentations in the afternoon. While

The Chairman congratulating Captain Bhuwansing Gurung on his retirement after a wonderful 24 years of service to 6 GRRA Nepal: 17 years as Secretary and seven years as Chairman

the Queen was very appreciative of the traditional dancing, she loved the jokers, with Lalbahadur and Tekbahadur’s excellent ‘Gaini’ sending her into hoots of laughter. Gurkha Major Chintabahadur had worked his magic once again. She was clearly moved by the warmth of feeling on her departure in the open Land Rover with our soldiers lining the route and offering flowers. I quietly returned to the camp that evening and was amazed by the buzz in the Lines; I had never experienced anything like it. For us all, who were privileged to be involved, it was a most wonderful and never-to-be-forgotten day.

To other events: I was fortunate to complete my chairman’s visit to Nepal in March, including the Nepal Branch’s AGM and reunions in Pokhara, Butwal, Chitwan and Kathmandu. There were so many highlights, so many old friends and learning about many of the amazing things that our veterans were involved with. I was so lucky to have Lieutenant

Purnabahadur Gurung, Vice Chairman of our Nepal Branch, as my guide and mentor as we made our way by road around west Nepal. He was outstanding! I also visited Tiplyang School, which is supported by the Association, a wonderful experience and certainly the best school that I have seen in Nepal. Also, visiting Honorary Captain Kulbahadur Gurung MM, our surviving Chindit at 102 years old at his family house in Kathmandu. Sadly, he died later in the year.

In April, our much-delayed Association visit to Medicina and the adjacent battlefields took place. It was brilliantly organised and managed by Brian O’Bree and his partner Ciska with local help from Danny Cesaretti, one of our Honorary members. Our brief study of some of the battles plus our visit to the Commonwealth War Cemetery at Rimini clearly showed what a difficult campaign it had been for 2/6 GR. Our visit ended in Medicina on the day they annually commemorate their liberation in 1945.

The Chairman with Honorary Captain Kulbahadur Gurung MM, 6 GR and 5/5 GR, Kathmandu, March 22

The welcome from the mayor and townspeople was overwhelming. It was extremely moving to be spoken to by so many – frequently young – people expressing their deep gratitude for what the Regiment had done for them. Although sadly we had no representative from 14th/20th King’s Hussars who, with 2/6 GR fought and liberated Medicina, I was privileged to be invited later in the year to the unveiling and dedication of their Regimental Memorial at the National Arboretum. It is a most beautiful and inspired memorial and the regiment’s links with 6 GR were strongly remembered. When you visit the Arboretum, do make a point of visiting the 14th/20th Memorial and look at the detail of the Hawk.

Our President represented us at the annual Commonwealth Gates Ceremony, our Regimental Secretary represented the Brigade of Gurkhas at the Gallipoli and Dardanelles International Memorial Service, while a small number of us joined B (Gallipoli) Company 2 RGR, our affiliated company, at Shorncliffe as they celebrated their Gallipoli Commemoration. Similarly, a number of members represented our Association at the Remembrance services at the National Arboretum, the Cenotaph, the Gurkha Statue and the Slim Statue, where Viscount Mark Slim kindly laid our wreath. It would however be much appreciated if we could get a better turn out at both the National Arboretum and the Cenotaph; both are important occasions and a wonderful chance to meet up with old comrades from across the Gurkha Brigade.

Unfortunately, our All Ranks Reunion had to be cancelled because of the Queen’s death, but we put on a good show at the Gurkha Brigade Bhela in Aldershot in June. For the first time, our Secretary organised a tent, complete with chairs and a flag which provided an ideal regimental focus for our veterans. Sadly, these were fewer than expected, so please put the date in your diary this year and join us! It is a fun day, the centrepiece of the Gurkha Brigade year, with plenty of activities, plenty to eat and drink and a chance to catch up with old friends.

Our annual Association Reunion at the Gurkha Museum and Service of Remembrance in the Cathedral were really well attended and thankfully we had finally managed to relocate our Book of Remembrance, with its beautiful heavy slate presentation case, to a better location within the Cathedral. At the AGM we managed to successfully update the Association Rules, which was a significant step forward and should make the management of the Association easier. It was so good to see Jon Titley at the reunion, the last time before he died in January. Jon had always been such a strong supporter of the Association. We were really pleased to host Canon Brian Rees, who leads our remembrance service in such a perceptive way; also Nicky Prentis who has managed our website superbly for a number of years; Chris Clark who has done a wonderful job as secretary of the Cuttack Lunch Club and finally, Tim Cummings, Officer Commanding B (Gallipoli) Company, our affiliated Company in 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles.

The Regimental Memorial, one of the most significant initiatives of the Association in recent years, finally came to fruition in November when it was placed in the grounds of the Gurkha Memorial Museum in Pokhara. It is a most beautiful memorial to everyone from 6 GR, including those who served in the Regiment, those that were attached, plus the families that supported the serving soldiers and officers. We are most deeply indebted to John Mackinlay, who conceived the idea, and to Mike Channing and his committees, both in UK and Nepal, plus others who made it a reality. My sincere thanks also to such as Mike Adler who gave so much of his time and effort to sorting out the contributions and of course to all those who contributed. The Memorial will be formally dedicated on 18 March 2023. I hope to see as many members as possible there.

I am also really happy to report real progress on a different form of memorial: the information legacy or Archive Project. Brian O’Bree and his committee have been pulling this together with priority being given to creating as many Oral Histories as possible, particularly of those not so young any more. The

occasion of the Memorial Dedication in March 2023 will provide an opportunity to interview a number of our veterans based in Nepal.

At the end of the year we had a notable Regimental presentation to the Gurkha Museum of Major General Geoffrey Bruce’s medals by the Bruce Family. These are a most interesting and unusual set, including an Olympic Gold Medal for his heroic part in the 1922 Everest Expedition, when he reached the highest point in the world of any person in history at that time. Significantly, he was also our first Association President and Chairman, a position he held for 16 years. His medals will form a major part of the regimental collection and we are deeply grateful to his daughter Sally Izod and her family for their generosity.

Also, at the end of the year we were delighted to congratulate one of our members, Sitiveni (Steve) Rabuka – who did an attachment with the Regiment in 1975-76 – on his appointment as Prime Minister of Fiji having won the December 2022 election. We send him our very best wishes for a successful tenure in office.

In conclusion, I would like to thank our committee, particularly Rick Beven, our Journal Editor, especially as this will be his last Journal. Rick has edited the last 8 Journals and we are very deeply indebted to him for the publications of the highest quality that he has produced. My sincere thanks also to Anne Griffith for managing the family news; James Herbert for supporting and improving our web site; and lastly David Bredin, our Regimental Secretary, who I believe has done an outstanding job keeping us informed and up to date as well as representing our interests.

Finally, my sincere thanks to you, our Members, for your support and good fellowship, making the Association the wonderful organisation that it is and continues to be.

Jai Sixth!

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

In his letter, our Chairman has mentioned the Association’s Information Legacy Project which was strongly endorsed at the last AGM. In preparation for this, we ask all members to consider what papers, diaries, photographs, and cine or video footage of historical significance that they or their relatives may have. It may be in an old suitcase gathering dust in the attic, or in long-forgotten albums in the bottom of some cupboard, but could be added to the 6 GR archive in The Gurkha Museum. Copies of originals can be made.

Do you have unwanted copies of any old Association Journals and the Gurkha Brigade annual Kukri journals? We want these too please for digitising purposes.

If you think you have something which would enable future generations and historians to better understand the life in, and exploits of, the 6th Gurkha Rifles and those who served with it please contact Brian O’Bree either by email at brianobree@gmail.com or by phone on 07733 296 588

Duncan Briggs

LETTER FROM NEPAL

BY CHAIRMAN 6 GRRA (NEPAL)

Namaste from the Chairman and Members of 6 GRRA (Nepal). We take this opportunity to extend our sincere condolences to all members and friends of the 6 GRRA UK and Nepal following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Nepal Association held a Memorial Service to remember Her Majesty on 10th September 22 at Major Gyan Saheb’s Gurkha Haven in Pokhara. May her eternal soul rest in peace.

This year has been very busy and challenging for 6 GRRA in Nepal preparing for the official opening of the 6 GR Memorial and the organisation of the Dedication Lunch to be held in British Gurkhas Pokhara (BGP). This is highlighted elsewhere in the Journal

In Nepal, we held our AGM/Reunion in Pokhara in March 2022 and formalised the election of the new Central Committee. We bade farewell to our longstanding former Chairman, Captain Bhuwansing Gurung. We hope that all members will join us in paying tribute and thanking him for his outstanding contribution over the last 24 years to our Association in Nepal. He has kindly agreed to remain as one of the advisors of the Association.

At the same time, we very much appreciated a visit by the Chairman, Lt Colonel Briggs, to our AGM/ Reunion in March 2022. It was a privilege to read the comprehensive email report of his visit to key ex-6 GR strongholds west of Kathmandu. It was also wonderful to see Anne Griffith at the reunion. By coincidence, Anne also joined us at one of many ‘Memorial Project and Dedication Lunch’ meetings in Pokhara in December 2022. Major Gopal Bahadur Gurung MBE, as Chairman of the Memorial Project in Nepal, has attended so many meetings, commuting 200 kms from Kathmandu to brief and listen, and most importantly, to bridge the gap between Nepal and UK. He has been a towering pillar of strength

who has given so much since our reunions of 2005, 2013 and 2017, as a coordinator and a very respected Saheb in 6 GRRA in Nepal.

In the meantime, we must thank and congratulate our Vice Chairman, Lieutenant Purna Bahadur Gurung, for his dedication as project officer in the Memorial Project under Major Gopal. We also thank him for leading and coordinating the Dedication Lunch to be held after the unveiling of the Memorial. Captain Kamal Bahadur Gurung (Signal Pl) is assisting him in coordinating the Dedication Lunch.

The Memorial is now in place outside the Gurkha Memorial Museum Pokhara. Please do visit with your family and friends. It stands in its rightful place, an appropriate home where we may all commemorate one of the major regiments in the Brigade of Gurkhas. It has already become a major attraction and a popular background for selfies and group photographs amongst visitors.

As Chairman of 6 GRRA Nepal, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Rick Beven for his outstanding and beautiful production of the Journal in recent years and David Bredin for his untiring email correspondence, keeping many of us in Nepal abreast of Regimental matters. 6 GRRA Nepal has very sadly stopped producing its own Journal in the last few years, due to budgetary constraints, but has started including reports and articles in the UK Journal, copies of which will be sent to Nepal.

The Legacy Project is beginning to take shape, with us playing our part here in Nepal. As I draft this message in late January 2023, we have had our first meeting, with exchanges of war time memories from some participants which were of great interest. It was fascinating to hear what happened from those who were actually there in person, and saw action at first hand, particularly during the Malayan Emergency and the Borneo Confrontation.

By the time this article is published, we will have had another AGM/Reunion in Nepal in late March 2023 and the historic 6 GR Memorial will have been unveiled followed by a Dedication Lunch at British Gurkhas Pokhara. On behalf of all members in Nepal, may I thank the 6 GRRA Trustees for the kind grant of funds for the Dedication Lunch.

We will be keeping 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles flag flying high in Nepal.

Jai Sixth!

Chandra Gurung

A wreath of marigolds at the Memorial Service for Her Majesty The Queen in Pokhara

A QUICK NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Iwas in the village store in Wingham, Kent, when the Queen’s death was announced on the news. The shopkeeper told me, “The Queen’s just died.” It was early evening and Kim was at football training. Of course, it meant that this year’s Journal had to be about her: our Queen. Hāmrō Rānī.

Like many of us I had the privilege of meeting her late Majesty once at a reception in Saint James Palace in 1999. Jonny Bourne introduced me, adding that I was working for the Army Training and Recruiting Agency (ATRA). She looked at me and said, “I gather we are doing quite well” (she meant recruiting). I was flabbergasted that she was aware that the Army had reportedly improved its recruiting figures. But I also used to drink with the Colonels Recruiting in the bar in Upavon and the saying ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’ came to mind. But I was not going to disillusion Her Majesty; it was not something she ever had to worry about with her Regiment!

There are many articles about her in this edition; stories that illustrate her interest in the Regiment that bore her name, her sheer professionalism as sovereign and diplomat (read Lunch with the Queen),

her sense of humour, her innate goodness, her staying power.

But I also wanted to include some other articles in this year’s Journal, if only to hold up a mirror to what her Regiment represented: how special, how loyal, how rooted to a faraway Himalayan kingdom. So, we have Paul Pettigrew’s humorous account of joining 2/6 GR in 1959, the same year we became 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles; other stories about that – now – faraway Himalayan nation, and Neil Steven’s account of his UN service with the French Foreign Legion in Cambodia. We were and are a very special Regiment, fit to bear her name.

After eight years in the Editor’s chair this is my final edition of the Journal. I am delighted that Dai Hitchcock, old friend and numberi from 12 Platoon, Amiens Company, RMAS, is taking over from me as Editor. I hope to be writing more than editing in the future, but I will, of course, help Dai dig in. It has been an honour being your Editor. Thank you for the privilege.

Jai 6 GR! God Save the King!

Rick Beven

The 50th Anniversary Reunion of 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association, St. Jame’s Palace, 20 October 1999

THE MEMORIAL PROJECT “THE HOME STRAIGHT”

On 11 November 2022, the Memorial to our Regiment was the setting for the Annual Act of Remembrance by the Nepal Branch of the Regimental Association, attended by a large number of our old and bold and friends of the Regiment. By chance, and appropriately, John Mackinlay (whose inspiration has led us to this point) and Rachel were present on this most significant occasion. Much had happened over the year since the Project was formally launched in January 2022, largely thanks to COVID, almost four years after the Memorial idea was conceived!

Many of those reading this Journal, and this article in particular, will have received several updates on the development of the Memorial Project over those four years and, in particular, the last twelve months, as the Project moved through the various stages from a dream to reality. But as this Journal does have an additional role as a contribution to the archives of our regimental history, the purpose of this article is to draw all the threads of the last year’s progress together.

Following the approval of the Trustees, at the Trust

Meeting of 28 October 2021, to the full development of the Project to completion, and further following the approval of the Regimental Association, likewise to the completion of the Project, given at the AGM in mid-November 2021, the Project Committees here and in Nepal launched the raising of funds on 15 January 2022. The aim was to raise £35,000, towards which the Regimental Trust had granted £5,000.

The target sum was based on estimates for the Memorial to be produced using Nepalese materials and skills; detailed estimates for the cost of stone (initially to be white marble), for its carving and delivery to Pokhara, the necessary foundation works to be carried out by GWS engineers, and for design drafting into the necessary format from John Mackinlay’s artistic impressions. The costings, at this stage, included a 15% contingency allowance.

By early February 2022 more than £20,000 had been raised in UK (excluding the Trust grant), and more than NRs 3,000,000 (@160 NR/£ – £18,750) in Nepal. When fundraising officially closed at the end of April, 2022, £22,435.00 had been raised from within the membership of the UK Association,

John Mackinlay with 6 GRRA (Nepal) Memorial Committee and Supporters

£26,815.10 from the UK Nepali community and NRs 4,976,554.00 in Nepal (@NRs 160/£ – £31,103,46); the total sum raised in sterling (using the 160NRs/£ exchange rate), including the Trust grant, amounted to an extraordinary £85,353.56, to which was added £4,528.35 Gift Aid, giving a grand total of £89,881.81. It goes without saying that such a demonstration of generosity and support far exceeded the expectations of the Committees.

In light of the greater than expected response to the fund-raising, and taking account of the fact that the focus on further project development from April onwards would move to Nepal, it was decided that John Mackinlay should travel to Nepal in May to ensure that all involved understood what was required in order to bring the Memorial to completion. His visit would coincide with the receipt by the sculptor of the full-size fibre glass models of the two soldiers depicted on the Memorial from Baroda, India (where initial design work was undertaken under the freely given guidance and supervision of one of John’s university acquaintances, Dhruva Mistri, himself an internationally recognised sculptor). John was also able, then, to hand over full-scale working drawings to the sculptor; these had been produced in UK from the Indian prepared designs.

The Nepal Committee had meanwhile been considering with the sculptor the quality of the stone to be used; this had been agreed originally to be white marble. However, there was some concern raised regarding its potential brittleness and being prone to crack; the increase in the availability of funds encouraged consideration of a more expensive and more durable stone in place of marble. The recommendation of the sculptor was that ‘white granite’ be used in lieu of marble; this is in fact a white quartz which, we have been assured, will yield a better quality result – one which should last for very many years.

The quartz was not available in Nepal but was available in northern India; the increase in cost was considered to be well within the scope of the available funds, and accordingly it was agreed to use the quartz. There was an additional advantage in that craftsmen were also available there, who could pre-prepare the stone, and carve it to a pre-finished state, thereby reducing the cost of its transfer to Nepal for final sculpting.

These works commenced in early June and were complete by mid-September, to the point where the stones (the Memorial is crafted in six pieces which would be re-assembled on site) were expected to be delivered to Pokhara by the end of the week commencing 17 October, weather permitting. However, the stones were initially held in Nepal’s Customs, at least for the duration of the Dashera and Dewali celebrations. There was then a concern that it would be unlikely that the Memorial could be

The unassembled parts of the Memorial in Rajasthan

3D renderings and Photoshop visuals

complete in time for the Nepal Branch to hold their annual Act of Remembrance on 11 November.

Meanwhile, at the Pokhara Museum, the Engineers commenced work at the beginning of September in consultation with the sculptor, preparing the earthquake-proof foundations for the Memorial. These were complete by the end of the first week in October.

At this point it is appropriate that I highlight the efforts of the Nepal Committee, and in particular, Lieutenant (QGO) Purnabahadur Gurung, whose work as the Project Manager in Nepal has been outstanding; he and his team pulled out all the stops and worked flat out, having finally received the Memorial stones at the very beginning of November, to ensure that the Memorial was complete a couple of days before 11 November. The photo below depicts the Memorial as it was immediately after the Remembrance ceremony that day; there remained some minor finishing touches to the stonework and the Memorial’s immediate surroundings, which will be carried out before the Dedication ceremony which, at the time of writing, is to be held in Pokhara on 18 March 2023.

As a final postscript, our President wrote to Her Majesty the Queen on 6 February 2022 offering the Association’s congratulations on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of her accession to the throne, and took the opportunity of advising Her Majesty of the Association’s plans to create a Memorial to her Regiment, which was expected to be complete in the Autumn of her Jubilee Year. In a personal reply to John Anderson, Her Majesty welcomed the news of the proposed Memorial and expressed her interest in, and good wishes for, the completion of the Memorial. We had hoped that she might have seen at least pictures of the finished Memorial, however that was not to be; the Committees are, however, proud that The Memorial, completed during Her Majesty’s Jubilee Year, commemorates not only the Regiment and all who served in it, or were in any way connected with it, but also Her Late Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee and her personal association with our Regiment lasting some 63 years.

Jai Sixth QEO Gurkha Rifles!

Mike Channing Chairman, Memorial Project Committee

The completed Memorial outside the Gurkha Memorial Museum, Pokhara, 11 November 2022

ROYAL GURKHA RIFLES NEWSLETTER

FIRST BATTALION

The First Battalion writes this year from Brunei for the first time since 2017 – a result of repeated delays to the Unit Move caused by the pandemic. Since the last update the Battalion has undergone another busy period, finished its time in 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team, moved across the world and resubordinated to a new Brigade (4th Light Brigade Combat Team, “The Black Rats”).

Following the Battalion’s return from operations in Kosovo in the Autumn of 2021 we entered a period of relative calm, enforced by Battalion HQ after an incredibly busy year training for and deploying to the Balkans. The Battalion was able to celebrate Dashain in-person for the first time in two years and as a result the parties were particularly enthusiastic this year. Despite remaining at readiness for the Strategic Reserve Force (the UK’s at-readiness battlegroup to deploy to the Western Balkans),

Post-Christmas both 1 and 2 RGR’s efforts began to turn to planning for the Unit Move, scheduled for the summer of 2022 after two successive delays. A significant planning and logistical effort in a normal year, the 2022 Unit Move was overshadowed by continuing COVID restrictions in place in Brunei as the country caught up with its vaccination programme. Although these would eventually be lifted before the move took place, the planning that went into the sequenced movement and in-country quarantine periods of nearly a thousand soldiers and their families took huge effort and liaison.

After five years in 16 AABCT, 1 RGR was well trained and operationally experienced from two overseas deployments. Despite this the Bn had not been validated in training since Exercise ASKARI STORM in Kenya in 2018. Exercise KUKRI WARRIOR took place in March and saw each Company go through a rigorous rotation of live and blank training, before culminating

The 2022 Queen’s Medallist, Sergeant Dhanprasad Ghale, on the victorious team’s return to Folkestone

During this time, we marked a first for the Brigade of Gurkhas, with the Brigade Lama Guru consecrating our first dedicated Buddhist stupa in the gardens of the mandir at Sir John Moore Barracks. This was built by the 1 RGR Assault Pioneer Platoon, with technical assistance from the QGE, and we hope to see more being built around Gurkha units in the future.

Despite all these positive activities, 2022 has been difficult for the Battalion pariwar. In April Lance Corporal Milan Thapa Chohan, the bass drummer for our Pipes and Drums, died in tragic circumstances in Folkestone, and in August Corporal Navin Thapa Magar was killed in a training accident in Brunei. Both deaths devastated the Battalion and our families and we have placed a close focus on supporting the community through this difficult time. Needless to say both soldiers will leave gaps in our ranks that cannot be filled. We will remember them always.

Now in Brunei, 1 RGR has had the time to focus on low-level jungle skills, given that five-years worth of Riflemen have never served in the environment.

At the same time we have settled back into the different tempo of an overseas Garrison and look forward to the next challenges. Our focus is now on building the Brunei garrison into a Land Regional Hub, a new Army concept for how we provide persistent engagement to overseas partners, and which will see the Battalion at the centre of a new concept of operations at the heart of Defence outputs.

Finally, it would be remiss not to note the passing of HM the Queen recently and the RGR’s contribution to the funeral. While we marked the period of mourning and funeral in Brunei, an eight-man team from 1 RGR’s Pipes and Drums deployed back to the UK to combine with 2 RGR’s P&Ds. The combined contingent marched as part of the massed Pipes and Drums on the day of the funeral, carrying a pipe banner from 6 GR in memory of the Regiment’s special link to Her Majesty as “Queen Elizabeth’s Own.” We are proud to be the bearers of that heritage and to represent it in front of the nation.

As ever, our “salaams” to the whole 6 GR pariwar across the world.

The outgoing GM, A/Lt Colonel Rajesh Gurung, being presented with his rank slide by a junior Rfn on his tow out

SECOND BATTALION

This has been another busy year for 2 RGR, starting with a challenging Ex PACFIC KUKRI in Australia despite strict COVID rules in Brunei. The battalion has since left Brunei and completed their delayed unit move back to the UK. The battalion has now re-established itself in Folkestone and are getting to grips with their new role in 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team. Since returning, the battalion has seen a whirlwind of activity including taking over the role of lead UK Standby Battalion for Op TEMPERER, the UK Ops commitment designed to assist the police and emergency services in case of natural disaster or terrorist incident. This sees the HQ and 1 Company at 12 Hours Notice to Move, with a remaining 2 Companies to follow on at 24 hours.

The Battalion was then pulled in at short notice to support the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. A composite company were on the parade square within 24 hours of receiving the message. In London

they assisted the public in stewarding and providing help to those who needed it and wished to pay their final respects to Her Majesty. The Pipes and Drums R, formed part of the Massed Pipes and Drums, escorting the coffin from

alongside a Romanian Mountain Rifle Battalion and Exercise, this has strategic effect across Europe

GAULISH in the state-of-the-art urban training facility CENZUB in Northern

No better tool, Rfn Raj Kumar Limbu demonstrates the use of his Kukri on Exercise PACIFIC KUKRI 22

C Company on Ex GAULISH in CENZUB, France

France, another fantastic opportunity to work on interoperability with our allies.

The New Year sees the Battalion begin its formal validation pipeline, with live firing in Otterburn, planning exercises in Warminster, and the largescale combined arms manoeuvre exercise, Exercise WESSEX STORM. This Exercise will see 2 RGR pitched against a free-thinking enemy, in a combined arms Battle Group with support from the wider brigade. A real test having been in the jungle for the past five years. The battalion will then assume Air Manoeuvre Battle Group 1 (AMBG1) next summer, ready for operations all over the world at very short notice.

F (Falklands) Company – 2 RANGER Battalion

During the year new members of F (Falklands) Company conducted the Ranger Assessment Cadre and All-Arms Ranger Course. Elements of the Company deployed to West Africa for eight months

to train a partner force. Another team deployed to Southern Africa for three months to support a partner training for counter insurgency operations.

G (Coriano) Company – 4 RANGER Battalion

G (Coriano) Company personnel deployed on Op INTERFLEX, Exercise APOLLOs SABRE 22-1, and supported the Ranger Assessment Cadre as Observer Mentors. There was also time for adventure training in Capel Curig, Wales, snowboarding on Exercise SNOW STEEZ and a Battlefield tour to Fort EbenEmael in Belgium. The seizure of the Fort and three bridges over the Albert Canal on the 10th of May 1940 are a textbook example of how a small, highly trained

F (Falklands) Company instructor training partner forces in Southern Africa

force can overcome a numerically superior enemy to achieve strategic effect.

The latter half of the year saw the Company training for deployment to the Middle East in 2023. Training included the Company doing the 3-week Ranger Advanced Urban Combat Course (RAUCC), led by a team of US Green Beret instructors.

In preparation for their upcoming deployment G Company have been undertaking Arabic language lessons with the intent that all deployed personnel will have a basic grounding in the language.

At the end of the year half the Company deployed on Exercise APOLLOs SABRE 23-1, a final validation exercise. The other half of the Company deployed to California to train with the US 5th Special Forces Group in the Mojave Desert.

Both exercises provide an exciting culmination to G Company’s training cycle and will set them up to take over as 4 RANGER’s Operations Company in April 2023.

G Company personnel on the Rangers Advanced Urban Combat Course

THE GURKHA WELFARE TRUST

Throughout the year our teams in Nepal, now over 500 staff, have continued their efforts to get to the homes of vulnerable Gurkha veterans and widows to deliver financial and medical support. We have faced many difficulties during the year, from continued COVID restrictions to widespread disruption caused by a heavy monsoon season. As always, our staff have stepped up and worked tirelessly to deliver pensions, provide medical care, and meet deadlines for completion of school builds, earthquakeresilient homes and water projects.

Financial aid

We deliver a package of care to Gurkha veterans and widows to ensure they can live with dignity. Our Pensioner Support Teams journey into the hills of Nepal on motorbikes, in 4x4 vehicles and on foot to pay them a pension, check their health and deliver medication in their own homes.

Last year we paid a pension worth 13,100 Nepali Rupees per month to over 3,700 Gurkha veterans and widows.

We also provide financial aid through other grants. The Home Carers Allowance is a grant for family members of Gurkha veterans or widows who care for them full time and are not able to work. The Disability Support Grant is provided for disabled dependents of Gurkha veterans and widows to help them live in comfort and with dignity.

Last we provided a Disability Support Grant to 232 people, and a Home Carer’s Allowance to 329 people.

Our mobile support teams

As our pensioners grow older they are increasingly vulnerable, and many are reliant on home visits by our Mobile Support Teams who deliver pensions, carry out health checks and deliver medical equipment, mobility aids and medicines. 51% of our pensioners are now over 80 years old, and without our intervention many of them would be totally isolated.

The GWT team undertook 8,907 home visits over the course of the year.

Winter allowance

Winters in Nepal can be bitterly cold, with the temperatures often plummeting to a chilly sub-zero. We help Gurkha veterans and widows prepare for the cold weather with a winter gift. Last year, we provided warm hats, scarves and gloves which were

We provide an international standard of healthcare and medication to Gurkha veterans and their families living in Nepal. We do this through our regional medical clinics, via home visits by specialist staff and by arranging subsidised treatment at carefully selected national hospitals.

Last year we treated 168,574 medical cases and dispensed 15,993 medications.

Rifleman

Krishnabahadur Limbu, 10 GR

Life-changing treatments at our medical camps

With the generous support of one of our UK donors, we also provide free medical camps for people living in the most remote communities in Nepal. For many, this is the only medical assistance they receive. Relatively simple procedures like cataract removals and tooth extractions can make all the difference to those living in discomfort. We also held organised a dedicated prosthetics camp where we fitted prosthetic limbs, transforming the lives of many adults and children living with disabilities.

We saw a total of 1,720 patients at our three medical camps in Humla, Phaplu and Diktel Districts.

Building a brighter future for Nepal’s children

Our Schools Programme matches specific commitments from individual donors and charitable trusts to build, repair and improve schools in remote regions of Nepal, in turn providing access to education and a better future for Nepali children.

Major School projects include the construction of new two-storey classroom buildings, a library, gender-separate toilet blocks, handwashing facilities, incinerator, and secure perimeter fencing. School refurbishments include repairs to existing classroom

buildings, installation of handwashing stations and gender-separate toilets. Even the provision of new classroom furniture can make a huge improvement to the learning environment.

Last year we completed three major school builds, 12 school extensions and 84 school refurbishments.

Earthquake-resilient homes

Nepal is still suffering the effects of the devastating 2015 earthquake and many of the veterans and widows we support live in homes which are in poor condition. We build earthquake-resilient homes for our most vulnerable pensioners, so that they will be protected in the event of another natural disaster.

During the year, we built 101 new homes for Gurkha veterans and widows.

We also awarded Emergency Hardship Grants to 332 people, to provide emergency supplies, essential items and home repairs for those hit by disasters including heavy monsoon rain, floods and landslides.

Clean water and sanitation

Utilising funding that comes, in the main, from FCDO, our water projects bring clean water and sanitation to remote communities in Nepal. We install individual tap stands and toilets to households and schools.

Shree Saraswati Balkalyan School

By ensuring a safe water source and providing a comprehensive education programme on the importance of sanitation we see sharp drops in water-borne diseases such as dysentery.

Last year the GWT completed 76 water projects, installing 6,194 tap stands and benefiting 32,786 people.

Residential Homes

Our two Residential Homes provide round-theclock care to Gurkha veterans and widows who would otherwise struggle to live alone. With no comparable facility in Nepal, they set the standard of care for the elderly. In addition, they also host our new and flourishing rehabilitation facilities with dedicated space being allocated for beneficiaries who require further intervention from our specialist Rehab Therapists.

Last year there were 36 permanent residents across the two homes.

Activities in the UK

Last year we saw hundreds of supporters take on a range of races and endurance events to raise funds for the Trust. Our challengers ran marathons, climbed mountains, cycled the length of the country, trekked to Everest Base Camp, and more.

Trailwalker 2021

Trailwalker 2021 saw a great turnout of participants ready to take on the gruelling 100km trek across the South Downs. In total, 1,256 individuals joined 314 teams to take on the ultimate endurance event, raising over £500,000 in sponsorship. The fastest team from the Queen’s Gurkha Signals crossed the finish line in an incredible 10 hours and 19 minutes. Ex-Gurkha Chris Green, aged 75, completed his fourth Trailwalker in a personal best time of 24 hours and 12 minutes.

The Doko Challenge 2022

In June we welcomed a crowd of around 100 supporters to Wimbledon Common to take on the Doko Challenge, a 5km cross-country run based on the traditional Gurkha recruitment race. The event was a huge success with everyone completing the course, the leader crossing the finish line in an incredible 19:30.

Rifleman Dhanbahadur Limbu’s new home

Gurkha Widow at GWT tapstand

THE GURKHA MUSEUM

The Museum’s Main Effort in 2022, has been preparing our bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which, if successful, will be the lead funding for the Museum’s redevelopment project. It is an onerous process and at times has felt all consuming but we have not allowed it to divert us from our core mission and we have continued to develop new content and to engage widely.

The year started exceptionally well as we, at last, signed a lease with the MOD, giving us security of tenure for at least the next 30 years, and then our Expression of Interest to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for our redevelopment project, now christened Project Kaida, was accepted. Although a long way from grant of the money, this is a most significant step forward and we then selected Studio MB to develop the Royal Institute of British Architects Stage One Project Brief. Although we are not building a new structure, this is the planning doctrine that NLHF expects to be followed – which will be a key plank of the bid. Among their recent successes, Studio MB were responsible for the design of the D-Day Story in Southsea and the York Army Museum. Other key supporting documents required were an Activity and Engagement Plan, Accessibility Audit and Audience Development Study. In all a total of 26 supporting documents were required to accompany the application – submitted in February 23.

In June we produced a small travelling exhibition on the Falklands conflict, which we took to the National Memorial Arboretum for the 40th Anniversary commemoration. This included a series of podcasts (still available online and in the Museum) by 7 GR veterans. We have not yet had the capacity to produce English language transcripts, but these will follow.

Our summer exhibition this year – Off the Battlefield; on the Scene – looked at Gurkha involvement in non-conflict operations, from earthquake relief to

anti-poaching and more recent pandemic-related activity. We also touched upon the setting-up and the work of GWT. We always try, now, to turn physical exhibitions when they end, into online ones, to reach wider audiences.

A range of new events and activities this year have both increased awareness and generated commercial income. We began the year in style with a Burns Night ‘with a twist’, celebrating GurkhaHighland links. It was a huge success; 2023’s reprise was almost sold out before Christmas. Many guests were visiting us for the first time. The event also served as the launch for Harkbir 1899, our premium whisky. More recently, a Halloween dinner featured an after dark tour of the museum and stories of bhuts and evil spirits. Our regular Armchair Battlefield tours, Winchester Lunch Clubs and other lecture-lunches have returned and take-up is strong.

Our events for children; curry and craft days during school holidays, remain popular, and we added in a workshop with programmable Lego vehicles assisting in a disaster-relief scenario to complement the Summer exhibition.

A notable acquisition this year has been a painting commissioned and presented by 7 GRRA depicting the approach march to the start line for the assault on Mount William, commemorating the Regiment’s contribution to the Falkland Islands conflict forty years ago. Another is the most impressive medal set of Major General Geoffrey Bruce, 6 GR, including his 1924 Olympic Gold Medal for alpinism.

Chris Manson, our part time Museum Assistant/ Receptionist has retired and been replaced by Richard Croydon, a former Household Division musician. In summer 2022 we also said goodbye to Christine Bernath, the Assistant Director, who moved on to a position at The NAM. In her place, Kimberley Matthews has joined us in the revised role of Operations Manager, having previously been Commercial Manager at the Museum of Army Flying.

Charlie Martin, Head of Fundraising and Marketing, also moved on, having spotted a post with the Saints Foundation, charity arm of her beloved Southampton FC! We are currently seeking a replacement with sufficient experience and knowledge to run our major capital appeal. Just before the end of the year we promoted Doug Henderson, erstwhile Collections Officer, with the new title of Assistant Curator, better reflecting his seniority and important role as our only ‘museums qualified’ member of staff.

Our digital outreach programme, Gharma Sunnu, having won the 2021 Winchester Business Excellence Award for Digital Innovation, subsequently won first place in the Association of Cultural Enterprises awards for Digital Income. Its little brother Gharmu Siknu was also launched. A series of short, actor-led animations, these are aimed at school-age children. One of these, telling the story of Nepti, the orphan

tiger club, rescued and adopted by 7 GR soldiers, is a finalist in the Smilie Charity Film Awards. We are trying different social media platforms to reach different audiences and have had particular success reaching a younger audience through Tik Tok.

Next year will be a demanding one as we take things on from the NLHF Development Stage submission (if successful) into detailed design and preparation for a submission mid-2024 of a Delivery Phase bid. We will also be in serious fundraising mode!

We will provide further briefings next year as the plan develops. In the meantime, I offer my heartfelt thanks to 6 GR for their continued support of the Museum.

Daren Bowyer

Decorations and awards of Major General Geoffrey Bruce

Top: Companion of the Order of the Bath, Star of Nepal Second Class, and Star of Nepal neck decoration. Bottom (left and right): Olympic Gold Medal and Kadir Cup Medal. Bottom (centre): Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross, eight campaign and other medals including one MID

THE CHAIRMAN’S VISIT TO NEPAL

March 2022

Visit to Typliang

Early in the morning on 21 March 2022 Lt Colonel Duncan Briggs, Chairman 6 GR Regimental Association (UK), accompanied by WO2 Prem Kumar Gurung and WO2 Kulbahadur Gurung, left Pokhara in a hired vehicle for Typliang, a small village in Myagdi. They were heading for Shree Kalika Secondary School that is partially supported by 6 GRRA (UK). Early in the afternoon, on arrival at the school, the visitors were welcomed by the students and the Headmaster, Mr. Deuraj Pun, with khadas and garlands and met by the school staff. This was followed by a briefing by the Headmaster in his office and a discussion on how the annual grant given to the school was utilized. Mr. Deuraj was very thankful and appreciative of the grant and the continued support from 6 GRRA (UK). The funds, he said went a long way in helping the students and supporting the school facilities.

The Headmaster then took the visitors on a tour of the school. It was a very impressive and wellmaintained school, providing a delightful place for the children to study. There was a science room with various scientific equipment and a computer

laboratory with 16 personal computers. Before leaving the school the visitors and the staff took some photographs to commemorate the occasion.

After the school visit, accompanied by the Headmaster and science teacher, the visitors walked through the village to the resting place of the late Honorary Lieutenant Tul Bahadur Pun VC. The Chairman had brought a wreath from the UK and placed it on the VC’s final resting place as all stood in silence in memory of the great man. The VC’s wife is also buried nearby. The visitors were informed that Arjun Pun, the VC’s son, had purchased a piece of land near the school to build a museum to honour his father. A fitting gesture for a truly great man from Typliang.

The visitors soon left Typliang and after a horrendous road journey arrived at the ‘Heritage at Mallaj,’ an old Malla Durbar that had been recently renovated and converted to a ‘resort’ by the Malla king’s grandson. The owner himself was there to welcome the tired travelers and briefed them about the Durbar. In the evening the visitors attended a BBQ party bringing the day to a close.

The visitors being welcomed at Shree Kalika Secondary School

Next morning on their way back to Pokhara, the group visited Kushma and ‘The Cliff,’ which has the second longest bungy jump in the world and the highest swing bridge, both over the Kali Gandaki gorge. There is also a kilometer-long ‘zip line’ across the gorge, a very impressive and challenging site for the adventurous. The three visitors however enjoyed watching it all over a hearty breakfast in the safety and comfort of a nearby restaurant.

The final stop before arriving back in Pokhara was the Sarankot viewpoint high above the Pokhara valley. Here sipping coffee lattes, the group enjoyed the magnificently breath-taking sight of the crystal-clear mountain ranges that appeared so near, the placid Phewa Lake shining in the late afternoon sun and the serene and peaceful Pokhara town way down below. A sight to behold and remember long after a very long and bumpy and uncomfortable ride all the way from Typliang.

Lalit Dewan

Visit to Butwal and Chitwan

Chairman 6 GR Regimental Association (UK), Lt Colonel Duncan Briggs, visited Nepal for the first time since taking over as Chairman in March 2022. He arrived in Kathmandu on 16 March 2022 and travelled to Pokhara on the 18th to attend the AGM. During the next few days he visited various locations in Pokhara and met many old friends. The next phase of his visit, from 24 – 27 March 2022, was to Butwal and Chitwan.

In the early morning on 24 March 2022, Briggs Sahib, my wife, Goma, and I travelled to Butwal via Tansen, Palpa. Before reaching Tansen, we stopped at the former AWC Palpa. The property had been handed over to the Nepal Government in July 2006 and currently is a Gaon Palika office. The main building is still intact, well maintained and in good condition with a few additions. Originally, this property was owned by the late Major (QGO) Pahalsing Thapa MVO, ex GM 1/6 GR, father of WO2 Nidhiraj Thapa. He had graciously gifted it to GWS to establish the AWC.

At around 5 pm on our arrival we were met and welcomed by Major Chintabahadur Gurung MVO MBE and Rifleman Hembahadur Thapa at Hotel Avenue in Gol Park, Butwal. Chintabahadur Sahib had been the GM when Briggs Sahib commanded 6 GR in 1988/89. They had also trained together as regimental footballers and played in numerous Nepal Cup football competitions. After a lot of guff suff and catching up Chinta Sahib left us around 7 pm.

Early in the morning of 25 March 2022, Briggs Sahib and I visited a recruit training academy in Sukhanagar, run by a former 6 GR soldier, 21166445 Rifleman Hembahadur Thapa. We not only observed the training but also participated in some of the activities. We were very impressed by the way the academy was organized and run by Hembahadur. Due to nominal fees charged and standard of training at this academy, all available 60 places in the course were oversubscribed each year.

Later, we attended the ‘Reunion party’ organized by

The Chairman lays a wreath at Tul Bahadur Pun VC’s resting place

Chairman 6 GR RAN Butwal branch in the same hotel we were staying in. A total of 17 members from as far as Dang, Ghorahi and Bhairahawa had travelled there for the function. The Chairman welcomed us all and we observed a minute’s silence in memory of our departed brothers. I updated everyone present about 6 GR and RAN activities and the 6 GR Memorial project. Lt Colonel Briggs followed expressing his happiness in meeting old friends including Captain (QGO) Nandakumar Thapa, and their families. He also conveyed warm greetings and ‘thulo salaams’ from the Burros in the UK. After drinks and delicious tipan tapan followed by lunch, the ‘Reunion’ finished around 3 pm.

On 26 March, Chinta Sahib joined us for breakfast at the hotel. The old friends continued catching up until 2 pm when we finally said our goodbyes before heading for Chitwan.

Chitwan is only about 110 km from Butwal but, due to the road widening project, it took us 5 hours to get there. We arrived at Hotel Royal Century in Bharatpur

at 7 pm where two senior Chitwan branch members, Major Lalbahadur Thapa and Captain Bhupalsing Thapa, were waiting to welcome us. Again, it was another CO and GM reunion from 1989 – 1991. After a long guf suf over refreshments and dinner we parted at 10 pm.

The Former Area Welfare Centre at Palpa

The Reunion in Butwal

Around 10:30 am on 27 March 2022, the Chitwan phase of the visit commenced. The Chairman, Captain Bhupalsing Thapa, assisted by other local members had organized the Reunion Party at a ‘party palace’ in Bharatpur. After the group photograph, we moved into the hall where all 39 members including wives were seated. The Chairman, Vice Chairman, WO1(RSM)

Ichhabahadur Gurung and Major Lal Thapa thanked Briggs Sahib for coming to visit them and spoke highly of his work and leadership during his time in 6 GR. I again updated everyone about 6 GR and RAN activities and the 6 GR Memorial project. Briggs Sahib followed by conveying ‘thulo salaam’ to all from the UK members and assured the gathering that as Chairman 6 GRRA (UK) he would do his best for everyone in Nepal. This was followed by drinks and tipan tapan, guf suf and lunch around 1:30 pm.

Of the many attending the reunion, there were two very senior gentlemen – 21143227 WO2 Manbahadur Gurung (aged 94) and 21144547 Lance Corporal Kishanbahadur Gurung (aged 93). Both were still very active and in good health. They were from the first batch of recruits to join 6 GR in Malaya in January

1948, post Indian independence. It may be of interest to readers to know that post Indian independence in 1947, personal army numbers of British Gurkhas comprised of 8 digits that began with 2114****. For some mysterious reason sometime in 1950, it reverted to 2113**** and again went back to 2114**** series in 1954, followed by 2115****. This numerical sequence continued through 2116**** from 1971 and 2117**** in 1999. In 2007 this unique Gurkha personal army number system came to an end. Today, Gurkha soldiers have similar numbers as their fellow British Army counterparts as well as equal TACOS.

On 28 March 2022, Ms. Phoebe Griffith, younger daughter of late Lt Colonel Adrian and Anne Griffith, joined us for breakfast. She was in Chitwan completing her PhD on Gharial crocodiles. Phoebe told us all about Gharial during breakfast. At 10 am we left Chitwan for Kathmandu, finally arriving at the Kathmandu Guest House around 6 pm. Our long and memorable tour of Butwal and Chitwan finally came to an end.

Purnabahadur Gurung

Duncan, Phoebe Griffith, Goma and Purna Saheb in Chitwan

GBA ANNUAL REUNION SERVICE AND LUNCH

4 June 2022

Saturday 4 June 2022 was not only the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Weekend but also saw the annual Gurkha Brigade Reunion Service and Lunch at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. The 40th anniversary of the Falklands War was a special theme both in the service and afterwards in the Indian Army Room.

The service was led by the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Lord Chartres for the first time after taking over from our dedicated and long-standing Brigade Chaplain, Peter Clement, who sadly died in 2021. Lord Chartres was assisted in the service by the Senior Chaplain of the Academy, the Reverend Monsignor Canon Robert Corrigan, Pandit Shankarmani Nepal and Lama Guru Kesang Ghale; it was a truly multi-denominational service! It was, as always, a most moving and stirring

service in the lovely Memorial Chapel, with special mention for those who died or were injured during the Falklands War. Mention was also made of John Bradburne, the former Officer from the 9th Gurkhas and a Chindit, who was murdered while serving the poorest of the poor in Zimbabwe and Field Marshal Sir John Chapple, who sadly died in 2022. At the end of the service we all moved outside to the All Ranks Memorial and took part in the Act of Remembrance which included prayers by the Pandit and Lama.

After making our way to the Indian Army room, catching up with old friends on the way and getting a welcome drink, Brigadier David Morgan, who was the Commanding Officer of 1/7 GR in the Falklands gave a short, heartfelt address about the Gurkha role in the campaign. This included his considerable frustration

The Royal Memorial Chapel, Sandhurst

with the authorities in UK who had tried to prevent 1/7 GR going in the first place and then from full involvement in the battles. Thankfully, he believed, that this attitude was something that had been overcome, as shown by full Gurkha involvement in subsequent campaigns, and that this was largely due in the first instance to the outstanding performance of 1/7 GR in the Falklands. Colonel Mike Kefford, the current Chairman of the 7 GR Association and D Company Commander in the Falklands gave a short address about the painting that the 7 GR Association had commissioned to commemorate the Campaign. After the unveiling of the painting, we could see a scene from the night advance to Mount William, the 1/7 GR objective, via Mount Tumbledown. The artist has managed to really capture the situation during that long night creating the most wonderful atmosphere in the painting.

6 GRRA were, as usual very well represented with 16 sitting down to lunch, though I know that our numbers were significantly reduced as many of our Members were committed to Jubilee parties and celebrations. It was of course wonderful to see everyone, but it was particularly nice to see Carole Horsford who joined us again after a number of years. The baht was particularly good; the speeches not too long, including much good news for the future of the Brigade, and of course the chat and banter among our Members, possibly the most important thing, was full of laughter and non-stop.

All in all, it was a really good day with plenty to ponder on from both the service and the lunch, but full of great fellowship both within our Association and also with members of our brother Associations.

Duncan Briggs

Colonel Mike Kefford, Chairman 7 GR Association, giving the address before the unveiling of the 1/7 GR Falklands War Painting

The 6 GRRA Table

THE GURKHA BRIGADE ASSOCIATION BHELA

9 July 2022

After a three-year absence the Gurkha Brigade Association (GBA) Bhela returned on a beautiful sunny day at the Queens Avenue Sports Fields in Aldershot on Saturday 9 July. The GBA Secretary, our own Manikumar Rai, had made a particular effort to make this Bhela special and there were a number of innovations such as the regimental tents of 2 GR, 6 GR, 7 GR and QOGLR. Our Hon Sec, David Bredin had done a wonderful job organising our tent which provided an ideal focus for all 6 GR Veterans: both Gurkha and British. As well as the tables and chairs we had Association property both for sale and to hand out, all under our 6 GR flag flying in the breeze.

There were plenty of amusements at the Bhela: dodgem cars, Ferris wheel; many interesting stalls including: clothing, mortgages, Gurkha Welfare, Gurkha Museum plus various options for food and drink. One stall was promoting the film “Beneath the Bravery,” a film about the life of Kulbir Thapa VC, which had been produced by Pradeep Shahi, the son of our own Major Navinkumar Sahi. The film is also currently being scripted to become a play in London’s West End. Interestingly, Pradeep was assisted by Madhu Gurung, the daughter of

Lieutenant Rambahadur Gurung who was at the Bhela in his wheelchair; still in great heart and with that wonderful roguish smile.

There were lots of activities; the Ladies Volleyball was keenly contested with large crowds surrounding the pitch giving great encouragement. The competition was finally won by the Queen’s Gurkha Signals Ladies. The final of the Veterans Football, the Kathmandu Cup was also played but of course top billing went to the final of the Nepal Cup between Queen’s Gurkha Engineers and Queen’s Gurkha Signals. It was an exciting end to end game which resulted in a draw, but with the Engineers winning on penalties.

For most of us though, the Bhela is all about meeting up with old friends and comrades both within and outside the Regiment and it was good to be able to relax with friends in the 6 GR tent and enjoy a drink and some lunch. Sadly, there were fewer of our Gurkha Veterans than expected, as there were numerous other events on the same day, but it was wonderful to see those that made it. It is hoped we will have a better turnout in 2023.

Duncan Briggs

Members enjoying lunch in the 6 GRRA Tent

PRESENTATION OF THE MEDICINA FLAG

30 August 2022

Earlier this year, I was privileged to join a small party of retired officers from 6 GRRA on a visit to Italy to commemorate the 77th Anniversary of the Battle of Medicina, which took place on 16 April 1945. We were joined by OC Mortar Platoon and five serving Gurkhas from Support (Medicina) Company 1 RGR and were warmly welcomed by the Mayor and townspeople of Medicina.

It occurred to me at the time that Medicina Company should have a flag of Medicina to mark the occasion and I had hoped to find one whilst we were there.

Unfortunately, that did not happen and so on my return to England, I decided to commission a flag from Flagmakers, the makers of all the flags used at the recent Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

On the 30 August, I took the flag to Camberley on a visit, kindly arranged by Major Bruce McKay, RGR Regimental Secretary, and presented it to Major Daniel O’Connor, Chief of Staff HQBG. The flag will now be sent to 1 RGR in Brunei.

Anthony Vosper

Presentation of the Medicina Flag

GALLIPOLI AND DARDENELLES INTERNATIONAL MEMORIAL SERVICE

3 September 2022

The Gallipoli & Dardanelles International memorial service took place at All Saints Church, Kings Lynn, on 3 September 2022. This annual event includes representatives from all the participant countries of that campaign including the Second Secretary from the Turkish Embassy, the Defence Attachés from Australia, New Zealand, France, India and Canada as well as the Mayor of Kings Lynn. A number of

standard bearers from the RBL and France were in attendance. A wreath laying ceremony concluded the Service with your Secretary reading the Exhortation. John Crowe, President of Gallipoli & Dardanelles International, was delighted with the Gurkha representation and expressed a wish to maintain links with the Association.

David Bredin

The Regimental Secretary with Brigadier Vikramjit Sing Gill and Mr Graham Beck (grandson of OC Sandringham Company, Royal Norfolk Regiment)

MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN

Pokhara

10 September 2022

With a heavy heart the world came to know of the passing of Her Majesty

The Queen on 8 September 2022 at Balmoral in Scotland. Only two days earlier we had seen her on TV accepting the resignation of the outgoing PM, Mr. Boris Johnson, and congratulating the incoming PM, Ms. Liz Truss, looking radiant and in good health. The sudden turn of event only two days later, took the world by surprise and caused profound sadness for all members of her Gurkha Regiment.

Since January 1959, the Regiment had the honour and privilege to bear her name in our Regimental title, thus becoming the 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles, the only British Army Regiment bestowed with such a privilege and honour. Throughout the subsequent years, Her Majesty paid the greatest interest in all activities of the Regiment.

On our first and second UK tours, we also had the honour of welcoming Her Majesty to Queen

Elizabeth Barracks in Church Crookham on two occasions. First, in May 1978, and eleven years later, in February 1989.

On her first visit to the Regiment, she was welcomed by a Guard of Honour commanded by Major Gopal Bahadur Gurung MBE and on her second visit, Her Majesty was welcomed by a Guard of Honour commanded by Major Mark Harman. During Her Majesty’s visit to Hong Kong in October 1986, 6 GR again had the privilege of mounting the Guard of Honour with Major Gopal Bahadur Gurung MBE again in command. A very proud and unique achievement for Major Gopal to have commanded the Guard of Honour for Her Majesty twice. Previously, on Her Majesty’s earlier visit to Hong Kong in May 1975, Major (later Colonel) Paul Pettigrew had commanded the Guard of Honour welcoming Her Majesty to the Crown colony.

During their military service, the following 6 GR Gurkha officers had the honour of serving as Her

Majesty’s Queen’s Gurkha Orderly Officer (QGOO):

Captain (QGO) Lalbahadur Thapa MVO MC

Captain (QGO) Siriprasad Thapa MVO

Captain (QGO) Tambasing Gurung MVO

Captain (QGO) Manbahadur Gurung MVO

Captain (QGO) Chandrabahadur Thapa MVO

Captain (QGO) Pahalsing Thapa MVO

Captain (QGO) Gambahadur Gurung MVO

Captain (QGO) Dalbahadur Gurung MVO

Captain (QGO) Manbahadur Tamang MVO

Captain (QGO) Jaibahadur Gurung MVO

Captain (QGO) Chintabahadur Gurung MVO MBE

Captain (QGO) Padambahadur Gurung MVO

Captain (QGO) Balkrishna Gurung MVO MBE

Captain (QGO) Chandrabahadur Gurung MVO

On Saturday 10 September 2022, to mourn the passing of our beloved Queen, a memorial service was hastily organized by Lieutenant (QGO)

Purnabahadur Gurung, Vice Chairman 6 GRRA (Nepal), at Gurkha Haven, Pokhara. Despite the short notice, twenty members attended the memorial service with heavy hearts and in a very sombre mood. For the occasion, at one side of the courtyard in Gurkha Haven, an official portrait of Her Majesty was placed on top of a 6 GR banner on a table with the 6 GR flag below. In the absence of the Chairman, who was in the UK, the Vice

Chairman commenced the ceremony reading out the biography of Her Majesty from her birth in 1926 to the day of her passing, aged 96, a few days earlier. Special mention was made of Her Majesty’s gracious consent and approval for us to proudly bear her name in our Regimental title, ‘6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles.’ Various emails that had been received from 6 GRRA (UK) were also read out.

With all senior officers out of Pokhara or in Kathmandu, the ceremony then proceeded with Captain (QGO) Racchebahadur Gurung, the most senior officer present, placing a wreath of marigolds on behalf of all 6 GR members and offering his salutations and prayers. This was followed by a two-minute silence in memory of Her Majesty. Other members then took their turn in placing flowers, offering their salutations and prayers for Her Majesty’s well-being in her heavenly abode. A great era had sadly come to an end.

Rest In Eternal Peace Your Majesty.

We also take this opportunity to offer our very best wishes to the new monarch, His Majesty King Charles III, on his ascendance to the throne as the new Head of State of the United Kingdom. God Save the King!

Lalit Dewan

Captain (QGO) Racchebahadur Gurung lays a wreath on behalf of all 6 GR

2 RGR GALLIPOLI COMMEMORATION DAY

13 September 2022

As many readers will know, our Association has affiliations with a number of companies in the Royal Gurkha Rifles based on past battle honours and these links are something that we have been trying to strengthen in the recent past. In 2 RGR, who had recently returned from Brunei, our affiliation is with B (Gallipoli) Company and so the invitation to join them for their Gallipoli Commemoration Day on 13 September 2022 was much appreciated.

My wife Ria and I were very happy take up the invitation as were two of our veterans living in the Shorncliffe area, Colour Sergeant Gyam Gurung and Ramlal Shrestha, plus, we were delighted that Gavin Edgerley-Harris was also able to join us to represent the Association. The day began with a ceremony at the Guard Room, with an extremely smart guard of honour, a short service, a minute’s silence and

a wreath laying, including our Association wreath. After coffee and time to chat with the officers, men and families of B Company, we moved into a large MT Shed where 4 presentations on various aspects of the Gallipoli campaign had been prepared by the young riflemen of the Company. These had been well researched, despite limited time, and just showed how capable the young riflemen were and how good their spoken English has become. It was wonderful to see how interested and involved the young men had become with the gallant deeds of their forefathers and how much respect they had for those who fought in that most difficult of campaigns.

We were really pleased to meet with Lt Colonel Nicholas Moran, the Commanding Officer, with Major Tim Cummings, the Officer Commanding B Company, plus the current Company 2IC Captain Shiva Rai and his replacement Captain Begindra Limbu, and of

Gallipoli Commemoration, Sir John Moore Barracks

course many of the NCOs and Riflemen of B Company plus many wives. Our visit ended with a delicious tipan tapan and drinks, and we departed knowing that our Association had re-established strong personal links with B (Gallipoli) Company and 2 RGR.

I was extremely grateful to Gavin Edgerley-Harris, Gyam Gurung and Ramlal Shrestha for making time to join us and for me it was wonderful to catch up with both Gyam and Ramlal after many years.

Duncan Briggs

The 6 GR Association Team with our wreath

B (Gallipoli) Company Riflemen presentation on the Gallipoli landings

BRIGADE GOLF DAY

15

September 2022

The Gurkha Brigade Association (GBA) Annul Golf Meeting was held at Weybrook Park Golf course in Basingstoke, Hampshire. The rolling landscape, superb layout and naturally free-draining soils makes this one of the finest all-weather golf courses in the South of England. We were blessed with the weather and stunning views were seen for miles around. However, putting may have been challenging for the players who played for the first time on this course.

The format played was Stableford competition on an individual world handicap system (WHS) and categories 1 to 3 with handicaps 0-9, 10-15 and 16-28 respectively. A total of 32 players participated and scored above the standard.

This is my 6th year organising the GBA Annual Golf Meeting from HQBG. I am an original member of the 6 GRRA team, the Regiment I joined in 1982 until it

became RGR in 1994. The representation of the 6 GRRA team remains as strong as ever. The members who took part this year were Jack Furtado, Gyankaji Gurung, Rajendra Gauchan, Khusiman Gurung and myself and 4 of us managed to win prizes. Jack Furtado has been an inspiration for 6 GRRA golfers and to other GBA members. He has never missed the event and this year won a raffle prize.

Lt General Sir David Bill, President of the GBA, took part in the event. He read out the letter he wrote on behalf of the GBA to King Charles III before we observed a minute’s silence to mark the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The date for the next GBA Annual Golf has been fixed for Thursday 14 September 2023 and Weybrook Park Golf Course has been provisionally booked.

Dammar Bahadur Shahi

Gyankaji Gurung, Rajendra Gurung, Jack Furtado and Dammar Shahi

DEDICATION OF THE 14TH /20TH KING’S HUSSARS MEMORIAL

“Our brothers in arms”

3 October 2022

On October 3, my wife Ria and I were privileged to represent the Association at the unveiling and dedication of a Memorial to all those who served in the 14th/20th King’s Hussars, our affiliated regiment. The ceremony took place at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire and we were blessed with good weather.

The genesis of the Memorial was an amazing story of dedication and determination, essentially driven by Darren Walker and his wife Rachel. Darren had been a Bandsman in the 14/20KH Band and as such was also a medic. He had been in support of, then Major Richard Shirreff’s B Squadron in the Iraq War, a squadron which also included Ian Thomas as 2IC. The Walkers felt strongly that there should be a specific Memorial to the Regiment which had been formed in 1922 but had merged with the Royal Hussars in 1992 to form the King’s Royal Hussars. The Walkers raised the funds for the Memorial, gained permission for it to be included with the other Cavalry memorials, did the design and commissioned both the stone mason and the metal sculpture. After a huge effort and despite COVID, the memorial was finally ready in 2022, appropriately 100 years after the formation of the Regiment.

As can be seen from the photographs, the Memorial includes the all-important Prussian Eagle, the cap badge of the Regiment; the badge that during my service, we as 6th Gurkhas wore on our right sleeve. This is a beautiful piece of art produced by sculptor Alan Williams made almost entirely from items recovered from scrap bins in the King’s Royal Hussars tank park. As such, it is particularly special to the soldiers and officers of the Regiment, who spent so much time and depended so much on

Darren Walker opening the Ceremony

General Sir Adrian Bradshaw after the unveiling. Right: The 14th/20th King’s Hussars Memorial

their tanks and other equipment.

The service itself was delightfully low key, but very moving, with Chaplain Clive Baggallay, a former soldier in 14/20 KH, leading the Dedication and prayers and Peter Garbutt reading a thoughtprovoking poem by Darren Walker as well as the Regimental collect. General Sir Adrian Bradshaw did the unveiling of the Memorial and led the Act of Remembrance. A buffet lunch followed the service and included a toast to absent friends, led by General Sir Richard Shirreff.

As well as the importance and significance of the Memorial Dedication, one thing that I found most moving was the strength of the bonds that still exist between our two regiments. You will see the crossed khukuris of the 43rd Gurkha Lorried Infantry Brigade shown prominently on the memorial, but more importantly for me was the large number of former soldiers and wives who wore a crossed khukuri or a 6 GR badge; very special!

Duncan Briggs

Above: The “Hawk” sculpted from scrap tank parts.

FIELD OF REMEMBRANCE SERVICE

10 November 2022

Thursday 10 November dawned fine and I was pleased to arrive early at London Waterloo. It was just as well because to my surprise there was a full shutdown on the Underground. The bus queue was horrendous, no taxis to be had so it was a long walk to the Victory Services Club to leave my bag before walking back to Whitehall!!

Sadly, Brigade of Gurkhas were only given 3 tickets for the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey despite other regiments receiving plenty. With no ticket for 6 GR, we were very fortunate that Mark and

Leslie Shaw represented us after they had done their duty for the Royal Scots.

As a result we all arrived early at the Slim Statue for the short ceremony and it was good to have a chance to catch up with so many old friends. We were also joined by Lt Colonel James Shaw, Grenadier Guards, in full uniform; James is the grandson of Freddie Shaw who commanded 3/6 GR during the Chindit Campaign and at Mogaung. With wreaths just from the Gurkha Brigade Association (GBA), 6 GR and 7 GR it is a short and simple ceremony; with no fuss and the public walking by or stopping

Viscount Mark Slim laying the 6 GR Association wreath at his grandfather’s statue

to see what is going on, but I feel it is more moving and meaningful in its simplicity; something that I believe Field Marshal Slim would have appreciated. We were extremely pleased that Viscount Mark Slim joined us and kindly laid the wreath on behalf of the 6 GR Association.

Finally, we moved onto the Gurkha Statue between the Old War Office and Main Building. Space was at a premium due to the redevelopment of the Old War Office into a commercial building but we did eventually have 10 wreath bearers representing the 10 antecedent Gurkha Regiments, plus those for RGR

and the Corps Units. A number of our members were pressed into service to represent regiments now in the Indian Army. The service began with the President GBA reading the Gurkha collect and included a bugler to sound the Last Post and Reveille and a piper to play a lament. After the service we were able to catch up with many of the spectators who had kindly made the trek to support us at this important annual event.

Duncan Briggs

Mark Shaw and nephew Lt Col James Shaw at the Gurkha Statue

GURKHA BRIGADE DINNER

10 November 2022

The 6 GR Regimental Association took a table as usual at the very well attended Gurkha Brigade Association Annual Dinner on 10 November 2022 at the Army & Navy Club. The 6 GR attendees were Ray Pett, John Anderson, Duncan Briggs , David Bredin, Mike Channing, Gordon Corrigan, John Conlin, Niall Macnaughtan and Dai Hitchcock. The Speaker was GBA Chairman David Hayes CBE. As well as the serving Brigade there were tables from every antecedent Regiment and Corps save 10 GR, though at least two ex-10 GR officers were spotted!

The day had started with a very moving event attended by the Queen Consort at the Field of Remembrance outside Westminster Abbey who was greeted by our own ex -6 GR Major General Gez Strickland DSO in his capacity as Colonel of The Royal Gurkha Rifles. The GBA members and associated other guests subsequently moved along

Whitehall stopping to pay respects at the statue of Field Marshal Slim and ending at the Gurkha Soldier Memorial where a short ceremony was held.

The evening concentrated not only on the theme of Remembrance but also on the excellent state of the modern Brigade and its exciting future, albeit in a shrinking army. Recruitment remained strong and the Brigade was being given ever more challenging roles and responsibilities. Since 1997 Brigade units from platoon/troop level and above have been deployed more than one hundred times.

We are not limited to one table for what is a very convivial evening so for this year 2023 it would be good to get a second 6 GR table together in good time for those able to make it.

Dai Hitchcock

ACT OF REMEMBRANCE

The National Memorial Arboretum

12th November 2022

Under the auspices of Major Rob Cross and his team, which included the Gurkha Veterans Standard Bearer, Captain Bhimbahadur Saru, we gathered in the Arboretum Visitors Centre of the National Memorial Arboretum on the morning of 12 November. Our group included around 60 members of the various Gurkha Associations and supporters of the GWT, as well as a contingent from QG Signals, which included a piper. A number of ‘Didi-bhaini haru’ added a welcome splash of colour to the rather overcast, inclement weather.

After a coffee or two and a good ‘gaph’, we were marshalled onto “Heroes Square.” At 1135hrs, processing behind the piper and the standards of the BGVA and the NW Branch of BGVA, we made our way to the ‘Chautara’ where we formed a half-circle. Chairman of the GBA, Colonrl David Hayes, commenced the Act of Remembrance with a short briefing on the Brigade, which was followed by our own Brigadier John Anderson reading the traditional exhortation before the two minutes silence. Wreaths were then laid by representatives of all the GBA Associations, as well as

GSPSRA, GWT and the Malaya Veterans.

We were joined this year by two 6 GR Veterans: WO2 Hombahadur Rana and Colour Sergeant Jumbahadur Gurung. Hombahadur enlisted at BGC Paklihawa in October 1964, joined A Coy 1/6 GR at Gallipoli Lines in HK and retired from Brunei in October 1984, while Jumbahadur joined D Coy 6 GR in May 1981 and served at both TDBG and RMAS, before taking over as CQMS at BGN. Back with 1 RGR he was awarded the Commander’s Commendation for his work in Kosovo on “Op Agricola” and he then went as an instructor to Battle School in Brecon, prior to retiring in May 2000.

With over 60 members of GBA present, the Brigade was better represented here than on the Cenotaph March. We urge everyone to join this very moving annual event and hope to have a better turnout from 6 GRRA next year. In 2023 this gathering is due to take place on Saturday 11 November 2022 at the slightly later time of midday, although this is subject to confirmation.

David Bredin

David Bredin lays the 6 GRRA wreath

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY Cenotaph Parade

13 November 2022

Various retired 6 GR Officers and soldiers took part in the Veterans’ March Past on Remembrance Sunday 2022. It is always a solemn occasion but this year was particularly poignant due to the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. The King led the National Ceremony for the first time as the Monarch then 10,000 veterans marched past the Cenotaph to pay their respects to the fallen. The Earl of Wessex took the Salute from the March Past of Veteran Organisations on Horse Guards Parade.

6 GR march as part of the official Gurkha Brigade Association contingent but it is worth paying tribute to the efforts of the late Jon Titley who many years ago set up the original 6 GR Marching contingents on Remembrance Sunday. It was Jon who recognised the importance of having a Gurkha presence in the Veterans’ March Past and pretty much singlehandedly put the ball in motion. The original

6 GR marchers were then incorporated into a GBA contingent as the years passed and now it is firmly a part of the GBA Calendar.

As ever the Gurkha contingent , easily recognisable by their Hats Felt Gurkha, receive enormous applause from the other veterans and the watching crowds alike. It Is truly humbling to march past in such company and realise the affection that the British public has for the Gurkha soldier.

After the parade the GBA marchers and their families adjourned to the India Club next to the Indian High Commission in the Strand for a much-needed bhat and a warm up. It is to be hoped that we get another good turn out this year of all ranks on what is such a special day.

Dai Hitchcock

6 GRRA ANNUAL REUNION

19

November 2022

On Saturday 19 November old friends gathered in Winchester for our Annual Reunion. The day started with our traditional memorial service in the Cathedral centred around the Welsh slate plinth for the Book of Remembrance, which had been moved to a much more convenient location in the north side aisle.

The short service was led again by Canon Brian Rees, who included Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth as he remembered those who have died in the past year. The lesson was read by Richard Morris and the Book of Remembrance page was turned and names read out by Tony Groves. After we stood for a minute’s silence in remembrance Nirmal Thapa, late Pipe Major 1 RGR, now retired, played a lament from the gallery above the north door. Gary Ghale then laid the wreath at the Book of Remembrance. Then outside into the almost sunshine we posed for a group photograph.

Back up to the Gurkha Museum, with much to discuss and report on this year the AGM started slightly early.

At its successful conclusion a vote of thanks was proposed by our President, Brigadier John Anderson, to our Chairman, Duncan Briggs and his team for their hard work to produce an important update to the Association’s Rules which was accepted virtually unanimously. The bar beckoned and we joined the ladies and guests in the McDonald Gallery.

The guests included Canon Brian Rees and his wife Susan, Major Tim Cummings OC B (Gallipoli) Company 2 RGR and his wife Claire, Chris Clarke late 2 GR who has done a sterling job as current co-ordinator of The Cuttack Lunch Club and, with her husband Julian, Nicky Prentis, who for many years has provided the technical support to our Association website. All were warmly welcomed in the Chairman’s after lunch speech.

No sooner had we finished a delicious curry prepared and served by Bhindya’s team and toasted His Majesty The King (this still takes getting used to after toasting the Queen for as long as anyone can remember!), the People of Nepal and the Regiment when Piper Nirmal played around the tables, including the ever popular ‘Black Bear’ accompanied by plenty of table thumping. Brigadier Christopher Bullock was invited to offer the quaich to Nirmal.

Old friends re-met, new friends made and those no longer with us remembered, it was a most enjoyable and successful day.

Brian O’Bree

Brigadier Christopher Bullock MC offers the traditional quaich to Ex-Pipe Major Nirmal Thapa

MAJOR GENERAL GEOFFREY BRUCE CB DSO MC MEDALS PRESENTATION

7 January 2023

To write the biography of Geoffrey Bruce (reviewed elsewhere in these pages), Alistair Roberts visited Geoffrey’s daughter Sally Izod in her home several times. Discussion concerning the smartly displayed collection of Geoffrey’s decorations and awards ensued and thanks to Alistair’s encouragement the family agreed that the most appropriate future home for the medals was The Gurkha Museum. Alistair brought them to the Museum in September 2022.

However, it was felt that the family should be invited to come to the Museum for a more formal handover to the Museum. This was arranged on Saturday 7 January 2023. Present from the family were Dr Phillip Hay (Geoffrey’s grandson and Sally’s son), his wife Sima and daughter Rebecca, Mary Volk (Geoffrey’s granddaughter and Sally’s sister Janet’s daughter), Colonel Alistair Roberts (Geoffrey’s step-grandson) and his wife Carolyn. The Association

was represented by Mike and Jane Channing, Rachel Mackinlay (sadly John was still shaking off the aftereffects of COVID) and Brian O’Bree.

We were welcomed by Daren Bowyer, the Museum’s Director and Doug Henderson, the Assistant Curator. Doug then led off the family for a much-appreciated tour round the Museum. Then, before sitting down to a very convivial curry lunch in the McDonald Gallery, the formal presentation was made to the Museum.

The Bruce medal collection is the most significant 6th Gurkha medal gift to the Museum since our Regimental Trust gifted Tulbahadur Pun’s Victoria Cross. The Association is hugely grateful to Sally and the Bruce family. It will serve as a unique reminder of one of the most accomplished 6th Gurkhas of the 20th century.

Brian O’Bree

Presentation of the Bruce Medals to The Gurkha Museum

(From left – Alistair Roberts, Dr Phillip Hay, Brian O’Bree, Mary Volk, Mike Channing, Daren Bowyer, Rebecca Hay, Carolyn Roberts and Sima Hay

6 GRRA SHOOT AND DINNER NIGHT

Stanford Hall

12-14 January 2023

The 6 GRRA shoot was, once again, a great success and has for many become the Association’ highlight of the year. It is a rare opportunity to catch up properly over a couple of dinners and shooting with fellow 6th Gurkhas and their families. Normally so much of our interaction is snatched conversations in the margins of other events.

The bandobast was excellent with Jeremy pulling the strings like a world class conductor and everyone else chipping in. Jake cooked a marvellous bhat, aided by Chesh beasting the rice cooker. We had delicious snacks, soups and cakes prepared by Stephen, Caroline, Fiona and Tina. A fabulous black tie dinner was cooked by Karen, Fiona and Eliza, assisted by Mankumar in Shropshire who cooked the venison. And Paul, Tommo, and Malcolm sorted out all of the drinks. Finally Speedy and Charles found us a Gurkha Piper at the last minute, who played a tremendous set.

The old and bold (which is everyone now that the sano sahebs are all in their 50s) were, as ever, very welcoming to the next generation. It was great to see Henry and Toby Shaw, who have recently launched their own military careers, at the shoot once again, and I was delighted to have my blended family represented with our daughters Charlotte Irens and Celeste Primrose shooting straight and sparing nothing. Charlotte was blooded by Jeremy after the second drive, having shot her first brace of pheasants. She is already a better shot than her father and I am happy to take some of the blame for the overall poor shot to pheasant ratio!

None of this would be possible were it not for the legendary generosity of our own 6th Gurkha Royal Marine, Nick Fothergill, who hosts us at Stanford Hall. He went above and beyond by DJing late into the night. It has become a very special place for all of us.

Jules Irens

Jules and Charlotte Irens

Pre-dinner drinks in the Library

6 GRRA at Stanford Hall

Celeste and Charlotte

Charlotte is blooded by Jeremy

Celeste

Jeremy, James and Alex

The 6 GRRA Shoot

Dinner night at Stanford Hall

Photograph by Robin Adshead 1/6 GR. From his book Gurkha. The Legendary Soldier

Commentary by Lt Colonel J. P. Cross.

DIARY OF EVENTS

OBITUARIES

6 GRRA DEATHS AND OBITUARIES

With great sadness the Association notes the deaths of the following members since the last issue of The Journal

ALLMAND Professor Christopher, who died on 16 November 2022.

GODFREY David, Major OBE, who died on 11 April 2022.

GURUNG Kulbahadur, Honorary Captain MM, who died on 1 December 2022.

HORSFORD Mrs Gillian (Gilly), widow of Major General Derek Horsford CBS, DSO and bar, CO 4th/1st Gorkha Rifles, who died on 15 July 2022.

SMITH Ms Joanna, daughter of Brigadier Terence Smith, Comd 10th Indian Brigade, who died in September 2022.

TITLEY Jon, Major, who died on 3 January 2023.

PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER ALLMAND

Christopher Allmand was born in Hampstead, London, in 1936. After his wife Bernadette’s death earlier in the year Christopher’s health deteriorated. He died on 16 November 2022, aged 86.

Christopher was the youngest child of an English father, Professor Arthur John Allmand MC, and French mother, Marguerite. Christopher’s siblings, Marguerite and Michael, were 15 and 13 when he was born. During WW1, while lecturing at Liverpool University, Christopher’s father became Assistant Chemical Adviser to the government and was awarded the Military Cross for his work to protect against chemical warfare. In 1919, he became Professor of Chemistry at King’s College and was very highly regarded in his field. Christopher grew up in a mostly French speaking, strong Roman Catholic, happy home environment where he was known by the family as Christophe for much of his life.

By 1942, his father, Marguerite and Michael had all left home to join the war effort. To do so Michael left early from Oriel College, Oxford, where he was studying history and was attached to 3/6th Gurkha Rifles in Burma. Very sadly, Michael died

of wounds at the battle of Mogaung and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery. Christopher was only eight years old. Later, Christopher was to follow in Michael’s footsteps

by boarding at Ampleforth in Yorkshire and subsequently going up to Oriel College, Oxford.

Christopher’s father died unexpectedly in 1951, aged only 66, and his mother in 1957. Losing both parents by the age of 21, his sister Marguerite welcomed him into her family and he became a popular uncle to her children Anne, Martin, Roger and Elizabeth. He stayed at Oxford to do a PhD where he met Bernadette his wife to be. They married in 1964 and had a happy marriage for 57 years. They had four daughters Catherine, Sarah, Celia and Alison. When Bernadette’s dementia worsened, he “elected to move into a care home with her to remain by her side which he did, faithfully, until her last moments, forever patient, calming and loving” – the words of daughter Catherine in her Eulogy. Bernadette died on 3 February 2022.

Christopher’s working life was as a university lecturer and researcher in medieval history. He started at Bangor University, then to Liverpool University in 1967 until his retirement from teaching in 1998. His work took him abroad on many occasions, as far afield as the USA and Australia. As a teacher he was said to be inspiring through his passion for his subject and interest in his students; as a researcher and writer he was highly acclaimed and did some of his most important work after he retired.

It was in recent years that a number of us have had the privilege in knowing Christopher and Bernadette. In 1991, they visited Hong Kong with Christopher’s eldest sister Marguerite Murphy to formally present Michael’s VC to the Regiment at a special parade. In 2003, all three came, and were joined by Joanna Lumley, Regimental Trustees and others of the Regiment, for a ceremony to mark presentations of the VCs of Michael and Tulbahadur Pun to The Gurkha Museum by the Allmand family and by the Regimental Trustees respectively. Christopher very kindly sent a transcription of the detailed letter written to his father by Lt Colonel Freddie Shaw, CO of 3/6th, after Michael’s death for it to be published in our 2012 Journal. In November 2017, John Conlin, Richard Morris and I (with Linda Dilks and Anne

Morris both of whom had been with us in Burma in 2015) joined Christopher and Bernadette plus ten other Allmand family members at a wreath laying at the church of St Edward The Confessor at Golders Green where Michael’s regiments are remembered in the stained-glass memorial window; Christopher himself wrote up the event in our 2018 Journal. But perhaps the greatest privilege was to have Christopher and Bernadette with us during the Association’s battlefield tour to Burma in late 2015. It was Christopher’s first visit to Michael’s grave in the Taukkyan War Cemetery near Yangon and also to Mogaung where Michael fought and died so bravely. His and Bernadette’s presence made the tour all the more poignant for the rest of us.

Christopher’s understanding in the importance of maintaining a link with the Regiment and Association has meant much to those of us who keep alive the memory of his brother Michael. The link now continues through his cousins, Anne Rose and Elizabeth Allmand, both of whom are members of the Association and who both have been central to the Tulbahadur Pun VC Memorial School at Tiplyang. And we are delighted that the link has increased as Christopher and Bernadette’s eldest daughter, Catherine Ostler, has also joined the Association recently. I thank Catherine for allowing this to be written using information from her full and most moving eulogy to her father.

He was a much-loved father, grandfather, uncle and great-uncle. His faith, scholarship, humility, compassion, calmness, enjoyment of music, sense of fun and genuine interest in others was an inspiration to and appreciated by so many. He is much missed by his children, grandchildren and the wider family who have lost both his wife and him in less than nine months. Our heartfelt condolences go out to them.

Brian O’Bree

DAVID GODFREY

David Anthony Godfrey was born in Bristol on 10 March 1937 and was educated at Rendcomb College, a public school in Cirencester, where he was noted for his outstanding sporting prowess.

Aged 18 he was called up for National Service and quickly identified as a potential officer. After the six-month Officer Cadet Training Unit course he was commissioned into his county regiment, the Gloucestershire Regiment, in March 1957. He served with the Glosters in Cyprus, Osnabruck in Germany, Dover, Lydd and Cyprus again, as well as a tour as an instructor at the Wessex Brigade depot in Exeter. In 1962 David was one of the first two British officers to attend the 59-day United States Army Ranger Course, part of the US Special Forces Command. During the course he was negotiating an obstacle course which included the requirement to crawl along a rope some considerable way off the ground. David got halfway across when a US sergeant instructor on the ground ordered, ‘growl, Ranger, growl’. David replied that officers of the British Army did not growl and could not then help breaking into laughter. On completion of the rope trick he was placed under arrest and marched off to the guardroom, from where he was shortly released. Needless to say he passed the course with flying colours and numerous commendations (although not for growling).

He then served as an instructor at the Jungle Warfare School (JWS) in Malaya in 1963/64, where he first made the acquaintance of Gurkhas. He was promoted to substantive captain in March 1964 and appointed adjutant of 1 Glosters. His appetite whetted by his tour in Malaya, David was seconded to 1/6 GR in January 1968 and then transferred to the permanent cadre in 1969, just before the amalgamation of the two battalions of the regiment in June of that year. Duncan Briggs writes that he was privileged to serve as one of David’s platoon commanders during an overseas exercise for a joint company of C and D Companies 1/6 GR based at JWS. David’s relaxed, natural, considerate, but very professional leadership style was perfectly suited

to the command of a Gurkha company. This, plus his extensive knowledge of jungle operations and tactics were an inspiration and Duncan was forever grateful for the huge amount that he learnt from David in those six weeks. After amalgamation he was one of Colonel Ralph Reynolds’ company commanders in Gallipoli Barracks before long leave and taking up the post of GSO3 Operations and Training in Headquarters 48 Gurkha Infantry Brigade in Sek Kong. He was then the Brigade Representative as a company commander at Sandhurst and, with the aim of getting him staff qualified as soon as possible (he had avoided attendance at the staff college), in 1974 was posted as GSO2 Officers’ Wing, School of Infantry. To the surprise of many, who considered that he was destined to command the battalion, he cut his name in 1976 and moved to South Africa, initially settling in Cape Town and then moving to Namibia. There he was managing director of the Rossing Foundation, set up in 1978 by Rio Tinto Zinc, with the aim of helping the indigenous peoples to become more sustainable, and included the equivalent of Outward Bound, agricultural development, water schemes and much

David Godfrey in 1970

more, for which he was awarded the OBE in the 1990 New Year honours list.

On retirement from Rossing he moved back to Cape Town, and in 2009 bought land thirty-five miles south east of Cape Town where he became a wine grower, with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, producing his first vintage in 2014, aptly named ‘Chautara’ wine. David was one of those rare individuals – someone whom it was impossible to dislike. In the regiment he very quickly gained the respect of his Gurkhas – which is not something that happens overnight – and of his fellow officers. He was a thorough professional, setting and achieving high standards but never losing his sense of humour, or his sense of the ridiculous. On Gordon Corrigan’s arrival in the regiment David took him to Kowloon to be outfitted by Sam’s Tailor, and his method of overtaking slow Chinese vegetable lorries was to wait until a lay-by, whereupon he would swoop into it and emerge back on the road the other side of it and ahead of the lorry. He was an excellent, albeit frightening driver! One of his great passions was golf, and in Hong Kong he and Colin Lees (7 GR) could be found on the golf course most weekends. On leaving the army he took part in numerous marathons, and also triathlons, although he said that for the latter his swimming always let him down, leading to him usually coming last. David’s love life was interesting, to say the least. He was married and divorced four times. Most of us will remember Joanna, and the marvellous parties she hosted in Hong Kong, and who was the mother of three delightful daughters, Melanie, Lucy and Juliet. That marriage came to an end in Namibia. David’s third marriage, to Helena Fagan, produced a son, Gabriel, and another daughter Alice, while his fourth marriage again ended in divorce. For the last five years of his life he found a wonderful partner, Diana, of whom his five children totally approved, but persuaded him not to marry on the grounds that every time he married it ended in divorce! It is a hackneyed expression, but David really was larger than life. He never forgot his Gurkha roots and was always most generous to the Association, was a regular contributor to the Burns Foundation in Nepal, as well as making substantial grants to the Nepal

earthquake fund. He died suddenly, of a heart attack, on his farm at Chautara on Monday 11 April 2022. For those of us who were privileged to know him, he is a sad loss. It will be a long time before he is forgotten, although David would not wish there to be any of what he would describe as lugubrious nonsense. His funeral was held on 30 April and Gordon Corrigan was able to attend by link. His ashes will be scattered over his vineyard and in Wales, and he has instructed that his gravestone is to say ‘He was never bored.’ To Diana and to his five children we send our heartfelt condolences.

Gordon Corrigan

KULBAHADUR GURUNG MM

Honorary Captain Kulbahadur Gurung MM died at his family home in Kathmandu surrounded by his family on 1 December 2022; he was 103 years old.

He was the oldest of our veterans by some margin and the last of our World War II soldiers. He is survived by four daughters, Budhi Kumari, Devi Kumari, Mim Kumari, Bhim Kumari and two sons, Gokul and Narayan. To them all we send our most sincere condolences, but also our thanks to them for having allowed us the privilege of knowing Kulbahadur in his later years. He was clearly an outstanding character: brave, strong, determined, objective and often critical of his British Officers, but with a real sense of consideration for others. His reminiscences of his time as a Chindit in Burma as a 24-year-old, centre not on heroic deeds but on the many friends and colleagues who were killed and the effect that this would have on their families. Sadly, with only 350 of the initial 1100 in the Battalion surviving the Chindit Campaign, there were very many of these.

Kulbahadur was born on 17 June 1919 in the remote village of Mohoriya, Thum Dansing, 4000 Parbat in Western Nepal, high above Birethanti; one of four brothers and 4 sisters, although two of his brothers died young. He had no schooling and from the age of three was tending the family flock of goats. There

were no opportunities for employment in the village except farming and most young men wanted to join the Gurkhas having heard the stories of retired and returning soldiers. Kulbahadur’s father, who had retired as a Sergeant in the Nepalese Army was however, completely set against it.

With much regret, because he highly respected his father, at the age of 19 Kulbahadur ran away from home with the 6 GR Galla Walla. He was taken to Gorakhpur where thankfully he was selected. It was 11 October 1938, his documents show that he was 18 and his first pay was five Rupees. He then spent a year doing recruit training in Abbottabad, which he described as “hard,” before posting to 2/6 GR in Malakand Fort in Waziristan. In October 1940 he was posted to the newly reformed 3/6 GR in the same area before the unit moved to Landi Kotal.

In January 1942 he was selected for the Army Physical Training Course where he excelled and subsequently

became an instructor at the Mhow Officers Training School; by then as a Sergeant. Previously he had completed his first Nepal leave of two months, having to walk eight days from Butwal to reach home. He gave all his money to his father as was normal and they were reconciled. After leave, back at Mhow, in September 1943 he received a letter from his Gurkha Major explaining 3/6 GR were training for war. Kulbahadur immediately asked to return to his unit and he joined them as a platoon commander doing jungle training in Assam.

In March 1944 3/6 GR were flown in Dakotas to Burma to the airstrip called Broadway at the beginning of the 2nd Chindit Operation. 3/6 GR were over 1000 strong with 160 mules. Their task was to block a strategic road and rail junction near the town of Mawlu. They were under almost constant attack by the Japanese from the moment they arrived. In the first week Kulbahadur’s Company Commander was shot dead as they were discussing the siting of their position. The defensive position, called Henu Block was finally completed and the road and railway destroyed. His company was ordered to attack a Japanese camp in the local area of Mawlu. This resulted in a fierce fight with six killed and 41 wounded for the tally of 17 Japanese killed. All the wounded were recovered and flown out by Dakota two days later. After the successful attack they continued patrolling further and further afield but without contact. They were then ordered to attack Kadu, some 90 miles North East of Henu Block and marched for three days, but just as they were about to attack they were ordered to return as quickly as possible as Henu Block had been attacked by a large force. On the way back they destroyed a Japanese vehicle convoy and before reaching Henu Block attacked the supporting Japanese units at Kayin and Cepen. Success in these actions had a high cost, with 15 of Kulbahadur’s platoon being killed. The Japanese withdrew however, and the block was reestablished, but 200 of the 400 defenders had been killed during the seven days of relentless attacks and bombardment. Kulbahadur related that there were dead Japanese and bomb craters everywhere, describing it as a “disaster scene.” Soon afterwards

Honorary Captain Kulbahadur Gurung MM at the 2017 Durbar, Pokhara

3/6 GR were told to evacuate their position by walking out to India.

After three days however, new orders to attack the strategic, heavily defended town of Mogaung were received. After marching to the area, the bridge at Pin Hmi was the first and a most difficult objective which other units in the Brigade had failed to take. In the 3/6 GR attack, Kulbahadur was commanding one of the A Company platoons on the left with B Company on the right. Seven Japanese dead were found at the bridge when the firing stopped; the bridge had been taken. Four days later 3/6 GR attacked Mogaung; again, A Company left and B Company right. The Red House, the main Japanese position was on B Company’s axis and Kulbahadur was full of praise for B Company’s bravery. Victory at Mogaung meant the end of the Chindit Campaign for the Battalion. From a total of around 1100 of 3/6 GR who arrived at Broadway, there were only 350 who returned to Assam and many of these were wounded. The personal deprivation is almost impossible to comprehend, jungle conditions, light scales, living on totally unsuitable K Rations, covered in lice, often having to take clothing from dead comrades as their own clothes fell off them as rags.

3/6 GR finally marched to an airstrip and were lifted out on their way back to Dehra Dun, where they received a heroes’ welcome. Kulbahadur, by now a Lieutenant, was given 56 days leave and 1,000 Rupees. After leave, he returned to 3/6 GR, who moved by train to Calcutta and in April 1945 boarded a ship for Rangoon. They were based in Pegu just north of Rangoon but saw no action until the Japanese surrender in August 1945. In September 3/6 GR sailed for Bangkok and lived in a school guarding Japanese prisoners of war until December 1945 when they sailed for Indonesia. After four days at sea however, they were diverted to Sarawak, now Malaysia, until February 1946 when they returned to India.

Kulbahadur was awarded a Military Medal for his bravery during the Chindit campaign, but sadly, until 2020 he had no idea what it was for and apparently had never seen his citation. The award was not made

until April 1945, although the citation has dates from the previous year. It cites two incidents in March 1944; one, the unsuccessful attack on a hill shortly after they landed, in which it is believed Brigadier Mike Calvert was also personally involved, and the attack by C Company on the Japanese camp at Mawlu once the block had been established.

On return to India Kulbahadur received a letter from his father that a marriage had been arranged. Kulbahadur had no idea who he was to marry, but he was granted 60 days leave. His wife to be, Shree Kumari Gurung, was a distant family member, but no relation. She was 25 years old and Kulbahadur 26; both quite old for marriage by Nepalese standards of the time.

He returned to 3/6 GR after leave; by July 1947, the British Officers had left and been replaced by Indian Officers. Kulbahadur had asked to return to 2/6 GR, his original battalion and serve in the British Army in the so called “Opt.” However, he took four months leave in December 1947 as his first daughter had been born and on return to the transit camp in Gorakhpur was ordered to return to 3/6 GR. He regretted not arguing the case but did not fully understand the situation and ended up back in 3/6 GR in Bangalore, married accompanied.

His unit, now re-named 5/5 GR, was deployed to Hyderabad and then in October 1948 sent direct to Kashmir until April 1952 as tension had mounted. The Battalion Headquarters was in Tangdhar, relatively low, but the companies were deployed above 10,000 ft. A second tour in Kashmir followed from 1954 to 57, this time at Kargil, well above 10,000 ft, but again, although there was plenty of patrolling there were no incidents. He was posted to the Boys Company in Dehra Dun for two years in 1957, now as a Captain, and after a medical downgrade was posted back to 5/5 GR on operations in Nagaland as Gurkha Major in October 1962. That month war broke out with China and 5/5 GR were deployed to the border area where, although not involved with the fighting, they received a significant number of Gurkha and Indian troops returning from Chinese capture. By June

1965, 5/5 GR had again been deployed to Kashmir as tensions rose and both India and Pakistan declared war on each other despite the United Nations best efforts. 5/5 GR were deployed to Pathankot to clear a group of Pakistani paratroopers who had landed in the area. This was successfully completed with 12 prisoners and one body being handed over to Brigade HQ.

Kulbahadur’s last two years of service as Gurkha Major were peaceful and he retired in July 1967 after 29 years’ service at the age of 47 and as an Honorary Captain. He then concentrated on his family and farm. He bought a property in Pokhara to further his children’s education. He and Shree Kumari lived in their village where he took a leading role in supporting improvements such as bridges, schools and water projects. In 1988 he moved to Pokhara, feeling unable to continue the work on his farm at nearly 70 years old.

In 2001, Kulbahadur, on his own, visited Japan. This was arranged by his younger son Narayan who had a business in the tourist industry in Kathmandu. Kulbahadur stayed with a Japanese family who had previously visited his village of Mohoriya. He was extremely well looked after, visiting many places including Hiroshima and Nagasaki and had a wonderful time. Interestingly, using the English that he had learnt in 6 GR.

Sadly, in November 2015, Kulbahadur’s wife, Shree Kumari died peacefully in Kathmandu. They were clearly a devoted couple and Kulbahadur missed her greatly for the rest of his days.

In 2017, the 6th Gurkha Rifles Association celebrated the Regiment’s 200 years of service to the Crown at the British Gurkha Camp in Pokhara. Our Chairman, Brian O’Bree, arranged for Kulbahadur to present the British Officers with the lovely commemorative badge and ribbon that had been commissioned for the occasion. Although walking with a stick, and 98 years old, Kulbahadur was in fine form and everyone really enjoyed talking to him.

In 2020, the Association was approached by the BBC who were planning a programme celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the victory over Japan in 1945. They were very keen to interview Kulbahadur, and particularly so as the programme was to be hosted by Joanna Lumley, whose father had served with Kulbahadur in 3/6 GR in the Chindits and at Mogaung in Burma. However, the Covid pandemic caused real problems. Despite this, and with the immense help of Kulbahadur’s eldest son, Gokul, himself a retired Sergeant from 6 GR, the interview was arranged on a sweltering day in Pokhara with full Personal Protective Equipment and Kulbahadur looking splendid in Service Dress. From our perspective he was clearly the star of the show in terms of those interviewed.

Sadly, Honorary Captain Kulbahadur Gurung MM has finally attended his last parade, but this brave, tough, resourceful and wonderful soldier will never be forgotten and will inspire future generations of Gurkha Soldiers and British Officers.

Duncan Briggs

JOANNA SMITH

Joanna Smith was born in Quetta in 1934, where her father was serving with the Indian Army. She died at home in London in September 2022. Her father was Terence N Smith, who had been commissioned into 6th Gurkha Rifles in 1918 and rose to the rank of Brigadier in World War II. In Italy he commanded 10th Indian Brigade of the 10th Indian Division, which had 2/6th Gurkhas under command for a period in October 1944 during the battalion’s bold advance to capture and hold the precipitous ridge from Montecodruzzo to Monte Chicco that rose 1,300 feet above the Rubicon River. His father had been in the Indian Medical Service. Joanna was born and always remained very much “a daughter of the Empire.”

She valued greatly her connection to the 6th Gurkhas, becoming a member of the Regimental Association, and attending events such as the Annual Reunion Book of Remembrance service in

Winchester Cathedral. She was a strong supporter of the Gurkha Welfare Trust, to which she made a generous donation in her will.

She lived a very full life, both at work and personally. An early international experience in both dimensions came on the administrative staff of the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in 1958. In the early 1960s she was posted to the Information Section of the British Embassy in Rangoon, Burma, where she distributed information to Burmese government departments and opinion formers which made clear the threat we were all facing from the advance of Soviet and Chinese Communism. It was there that I first came to know her, and there that she formed friendships with British colleagues which endured to the end of her life.

Later, she became a valued Administrative Officer in the Conservative Party’s Research Department. But it was as Secretary to the Headmaster of Westminster School that her qualities found their finest expression. In a tribute to her, published in the school magazine when eventually she left the school, a master wrote: “Her modesty, humility and self-effacement conceal, even from those who know her well, the richness of her personality, the fullness of her life, and the generosity and warmth she habitually bestows on those who have come to depend upon her… She has everyone’s trust, because she is a person of total integrity and discretion.” The writer also praised her for a strong memory, tact and sensitivity. During this period, in addition to her work in the school Joanna found time to act as a prison visitor, and to study for an English Literature degree at Birkbeck College.

She was an adventurous traveller. When she was just 22, she and her mother drove a Morris Traveller from Kuwait to London, a six-week journey. (This was in 1956 when her father’s service as Chief Administration Officer in the Government of Kuwait was ending). The car performed valiantly until reaching South Kensington, where it finally broke down.

For about 50 years she lived in Pimlico, not far from Westminster Abbey. She was liked and respected by many who lived in the neighbourhood, who rallied round her when she became bed-ridden in the last year of her life.

She worshipped regularly at St Stephen’s, Rochester Row, playing a very active role and giving successive Rectors the benefit of her strong views on how worship should be conducted. She took the lead in developing a link between St Stephen’s and the Anglican church in Myanmar (as Burma had been renamed). As part of this activity, she visited the country several times until she was in her mideighties. A striking reminder of that role remains in the church, where large, attractive banners bearing maps of the provinces of Burma with their names in Burmese as well as Roman script hang from pillars in the central nave.

She attended meetings of the Britain-Burma Society regularly and Burma acted as a connecting link with many friends and neighbours.

Joanna Smith

Joanna‘s affairs of the heart never led to marriage, but she became a kind and dedicated godmother to six children, with whom she kept in close touch as they grew into adult life, except for one who died young. One of them, my daughter, assisted her cousin to administer her affairs in the last year of her life.

Eventually, the lack of a family of her own and severely reduced physical mobility took a toll on her spirits, but it is the warm-hearted and adventurous Joanna of earlier years who deserves priority in our memories. The most vivid evocation of her in her prime has been given us by Anne Lea, who became a friend when they served together in the British Embassy in Rangoon. Here are some excerpts:

“After I married an Australian, we visited each other regularly across the world and had wonderful adventures together. From outback camping in Oz, driving alongside flocks of emus and kangaroos and watching apostle birds drinking from a bucket at sundown, to driving on two occasions all across Pakistan, visiting ancient archaeological sites, including Mohenjo-Daro (the ancient Indus Valley civilisation). Then the important part, tracing old family connections up and down the country: over the Bolan Pass to Quetta with visits to the Staff College which her father attended, and finding the house where she was born; to Jacobabad, where her grandfather started his career in the Indian Medical Service; to Lahore Cathedral where she found her grandmother’s wedding lines; to Abbottabad, for a reception at her father’s Battalion Headquarters and to the house where she grew up; to Murree where her sister Susan was born; to Peshawar for a personal tour of the Museum and finally to the remains at Kalat where one of her ancestors was stationed; then all down through Baluchistan, head well covered. A journey of remembrance like no other.

visits to bluebell woods and driving around searching for random patches of bluebells growing in the London streets. Vivid memories. Her generosity, warmth, inclusiveness, intelligence and world-wide interest and activities knew no bounds. She was a treasured friend, whose memory is embedded in myself and my whole family.

Ave atque vale Joanna.”

JONATHAN TITLEY

Jon Titley died peacefully and surrounded by his family on 3 January 2023, two days after his 72nd birthday. Jon’s credo had been simple – grab every minute of life – and he did exactly that: we have lost

In London, it was theatres, galleries, everywhere on her beloved London buses, tiny gardens in unexpected places, and, in the bluebell season,

Roger Garside (National Service Commissioned Officer, 1/6 GR, 1958-59)

Jon Titley

a good and kind man who got more out of his life than most of us could get out of several lifetimes.

Jon was born in Birmingham on New Year’s Day in 1951 and was fortunate to spend much of his early years in what is now Ghana, but in 1956 he contracted Nephritis and the family had to return to England, where Jon spent over a year in hospital. The family initially lived in Worcestershire and then in Upper Basildon, where Jon attended Wallingford Grammar and was made Head Boy. On leaving school he joined the Para Depot and was sent to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, but to his horror found that there were no vacancies in our Brigade: he applied to the Parachute Regiment and, against stiff competition, was accepted – only to turn the offer down when vacancies in the Brigade became available. In July 1972 Jon was commissioned into 6th QEO Gurkha Rifles, joining the Regiment in Brunei in September, and was posted to D Company, initially under Gopal and subsequently Tim Underhill. On first meeting his Platoon he astounded them by telling them proudly in fluent Nepali that he was “a big white monkey”: his friends had successfully set him up! He learnt quickly and, with his wonderful sense of the ridiculous, developed a reputation as a ‘character’, which was not always appreciated by the more senior British and Gurkha officers.

After a stint as Intelligence Officer (as Jon said, the ultimate contradiction) he returned to UK to attend the Mortar Officers Course, followed by a tour in Northern Ireland with the 2nd Battalion Royal Green Jackets. While in UK he met Lyn, who had spent much of her life in Kenya and understood Jon’s wanderlust: they were married in August 1976 in Hong Kong. He took over the Mortar Platoon and Duncan Briggs recalled how, in helping with the updating of our Internal Security training, Jon drew on his NI experience and it was clear that ‘...behind the jocular front, there was a most capable, professional and dedicated soldier, knowledgeable and keen to help.’

In 1977 Jon was selected for an attachment as Mortar Officer with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment: he was the perfect choice, for he was

good at his role and he and Lyn were excellent ambassadors for the Brigade. Above all, he could completely out-Aussie the Australians, and he developed close friendships which were sustained by regular attendance at their reunions for the rest of his life. He then served two years with the Infantry Demonstration Company in Warminster, during which time his first daughter Clair was born, returning to Hong Kong in 1982 to take command of D Company. None of us will ever forget the famous Hollywood Night party he and Nick Sutton ran, or the infamous ‘Sahibs Disco’ that somehow failed to make him a millionaire but was huge fun. This was followed by command of Support Company, plus a stint as Operation Officer in Brunei, but Jon was not entranced with the prospect of having to start stafftraining and being stuck in an office, and in 1983 he resigned from the Army and took up civilian life in Brunei, working for Nowsco and then Fitzpatricks, where he could continue to be near his beloved Gurkhas and where his second daughter, Sarah, was born in 1984.

Civilian life began to pall for Jon, and he joined the Northern Frontier Regiment in Oman for two years as a contract officer, while Lyn and their daughters based themselves in England. Jon then re-joined the family and they moved to Nepal in 1991 for six years, where Jon set-up one of the first specialist security companies, providing second careers for many of our retired soldiers. While this venture was not terribly popular with the hierarchy, it saw Gurkhas providing security in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Angola, Kuwait and elsewhere. Sadly, Jon and his business partners fell-out, and he and Lyn separated and subsequently divorced. He settled in London but in typical ‘Titters’ fashion, resurfaced in Kosovo in 1999 to run a bar for a Gurkha friend – with his personality, a sure-fire success. This was followed by a move to Knysna in South Africa in 2003 where he married Lisa, whom he had met in 1998. While there he was able to indulge his love for military history and became very much an expert on the British Army’s South African campaigns, and particularly Rorke’s Drift, immortalised in his favourite film, ‘Zulu’. Jon and Lisa separated in 2011 and sadly she predeceased him in 2022.

Jon’s next move was to Malta for some five years. His camper van, Matilda, painted in 6 GR colours and emblazoned with his motto “Life is Good,” became a familiar sight and was the last in his long line of idiosyncratic cars, ranging from Lotuses to Morgans. He returned to the UK and settled down in Timekeeper’s Cottage in Westbury with Kutcha Boy, his beloved dog, who had his own electric blanket; Jon must have been the only resident with a bath, barbeque and ‘sleeping-pit’ in his garden. He and his friend Jess made an amazing trip across Mongolia in 2015 – he still had the adventure bug – but he also found time to play an active part in the local British Legion as Branch Chairman.

Jon’s peripatetic life after he left the Regiment was, I think, understandable: never one to vegetate, he was constantly looking for new adventures, be they in war zones or peaceful backwaters. He could do this with ease, for he had the extraordinary ability to make friends wherever he went – and to keep them. He got up to all sorts of scrapes: there are few of us who will ever forget his streak at the 1986 Hong Kong Rugby 7s tournament, where our Pipe Band came to attention as he and Charles Blackmore ran past, thus blowing his cover, or his habit of setting himself on fire, his imitations of a fork, his involvement in elephant polo in Nepal or his hilarious bon mots, many have which have passed into 6 GR myth. Only he would attend films fully dressed as the main character, while his attempts to borrow an aardvark from Sydney Zoo to prove to his Aussie mates that they existed was historic. But Jon was not just the permanent joker. He had an enduring love for his Regiment, to the extent that he would fly-in for special occasions, or travel days simply to join us, and he rarely missed an event. We must remember that it was he who started the 6 GR Contingent on the Cenotaph Parade, now adopted as a major Gurkha Brigade Association annual event. Single minded and creative, a raconteur par excellence, a generous and kind friend and a catalyst for hilarious escapades, Jon was one of a kind. On the Gurkha Brigade website he noted that his most important luxury was his pipe and baccy, and that the title of his memoire would be “Did I actually manage to get away with that?.” He did.

While working in Brunei in 1984 Jon had been stabbed by a local man and eventually had to be evacuated to London for treatment: he said that after this near-fatal experience he had realised that he did not fear death and that one should enjoy every day as if it was the last. Although Jon had had a brush with mouth cancer some years ago, it came as a shock to all when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in November last year and given a prognosis of three to four months. His reaction was typical: he told his friends, arranged a Pre-Wake party for January and, now reunited with Lyn, took his whole family to South Africa for a Christmas holiday, where to the joy of us all, he and Lyn were remarried on 9 December. His final days were happy, spent with Lyn, his daughters and their families, building memories for his grandchildren, visiting old haunts and enjoying the weather. Jon was not to make his pre-wake party, for he died shortly after his return to UK.

Jon’s funeral on 14 January was an extraordinary uplifting event, carefully crafted by him in advance and with wonderful and moving tributes by friends from all walks of life, of all ages and backgrounds and with one thing in common – their lives had been enhanced by Jon. To Lyn, Clair, Sarah and their families – in whom he implanted the love of adventure and travel – we extend our condolences. Jon brought fun, laughter, love and joy to all of us. For enriching our lives, for teaching us to treasure every minute of it, we thank him.

John Anderson

ON JOINING 6 GR

There were four of us from Intake 24 who were selected for the Brigade of Gurkhas: Lalbahadur Pun to 1/2 GR, John Parkes to 2/2 GR, Kit Maunsell to 2/10 GR and myself to 2/6 GR. We all finally passed out in December 1959 after a two-year course. I had just turned 20 and was looking forward to some action in Malaya. It came sooner than I thought.

The Brigade Rep at the time was Peter Myers. Apart from winning two MCs by the time he was 24, his main claim to fame was as the Company Commander of Lacchiman Gurung VC of the 4/8th Gurkha Rifles. He subsequently completed a unique double as the CO of Rambahadur Limbu VC when commanding 2/10 GR. Kit Maunsell was to be Rambahadur’s

Company Commander in Borneo only six years later. He won an MC during this fierce action fought on a hill near Serikin on the border between East Malaysia and Kalimantan on 21st November 1965.

I clearly remember our selection interview which took place at the Staff College, Camberley, as the panel consisted of three Field Marshals, FM Harding, Colonel 6 GR: FM Slim, Colonel 7 GR: FM Templer, Colonel 10 GR; and Major General Lewis Pugh, Colonel 2 GR. He was the only one in uniform and had an impressive display of medals, which included three DSOs.

I had a pretty easy time with FM Slim, as he knew both my father and grandfather. One of his

Divisional Commanders, Major General Rees (19th Indian Division) had been my grandfather’s Adjutant when he was CO of the 5/6th Rajputana Rifles. My grandfather had also commanded the Bannu Brigade from October 1934-October 1938. Slim was at that time CO of 2/7th GR.

My father had been the Chief of Staff to Major General Punch Cowan (ex 6 GR) who had also

commanded another of Slim’s Divisions (17th Indian Division). Also, like Slim, he had been an instructor at the Officer Training School at Belgaum.

However, I can only remember the question put by Templer who was particularly fearsome. He fixed me in the eye and asked, “Now then Pettigrew what makes you think you are good enough for the Brigade of Gurkhas?” I cannot remember my reply

2nd Battalion Officers, Hong Kong 1963

Row 1: Lts (QGO) Ranbahadur Pun, Matbarsing Gurung, 1 ?, Karnabahadur Pun Row 2: Lts (QGO) Amarbahadur Gurung, Lt ED Powell-Jones, Karnabahadur Gurung MM, Lt DK Simons, 2?, Lt MD Channing, Mitrabahadur Ale, Lt PD Pettigrew, lndraman Pradhan, 2Lt JW Conlin, 3? Standing: Lts (QGO) Chhabilal Thapa, Capt PBH Robeson, Santabahadur Gurung, Capt IWW Anderson RAMC, Amardhoj Limbu, Capt (QM) JWR Craft, Capts (QGO) Namsing Rana?, Capt JM Owen RAEC, Chandrabahadur Thapa, Capt JJ Willson, Rikiram?, Capt RWF Wilson, Tekbahadur Gurung Sitting: Capt (GCO) Tekbahadur Subba, Capts (QGO) Lilbahadur Gurung, Major GH Walsh, Tambasing Gurung MVO, Major RC Neath, Lt Col AS Harvey MC, Maj (QGO) Khusiman Gurung, Major RNP Reynolds MBE, Capts (QGO) Manbahadur Rai, Major EL Burke RAPC, Kumbahadur Burathoki

but it was obviously good enough to get me through.

I subsequently discovered that Lewis Pugh on 9 March 1943 led what came to be known as the “Last Action of the Calcutta Light Horse.” The Calcutta Light Horse was raised in 1872 and formed part of the cavalry reserve of the British Indian Army. Inactive since the Boer War, their last action was against a German merchant ship Ehrenfels transmitting Allied positions to U-boats from Mormugao harbour in what was then Portugal’s neutral territory of Goa. Some members of the Calcutta Scottish also took part. The membership of the Calcutta Light Horse was largely made up of elderly businessmen and planters. The operation, named Operation Creek, was kept covert to prevent claims of contravening Portugal’s neutrality and was not made public until 1978, 35 years after it took place. The exploit was made into a film ‘The Sea Wolves’ in which Lewis Pugh was played by Gregory Peck. As the filmmakers noted, during the first 11 days of March 1943, German U-boats sank 12 Allied ships in the Indian Ocean. After the Calcutta Light Horse raid on Goa, only one ship was lost in the remainder of the month.

I have had many a drink in the Light Horse Bar located in the Saturday Club in Calcutta as I visit there often on behalf of a couple of charities. The Club came into existence in 1875 and then moved into its present premises in 1900. The officers of the Calcutta Light Horse were among the Club’s founders and when the Regiment was disbanded in 1947

the Regiment’s Trophies were housed in the Light Horse Bar, which still retains the same old decor and atmosphere.

Back to my story! Having completed our various post-commissioning courses at Hythe and Warminster we embarked on HMT Oxfordshire in March 1960 for our six-week voyage to Singapore. I was nominated as the Weapon Training Officer for the voyage, and my main task was to keep the soldiers amused by shooting at balloons over the stern of the ship. However, they soon got bored with this so I thought shooting at sharks might be more interesting. I looted a joint of meat from the butcher and towed this behind the ship. It soon had the desired effect, compounded by many dead sharks, and in no time we had a shoal of hundreds attracted by the blood.

Unfortunately, this did not go down well with the Oxfordshire Wives Committee who complained to the CO that if young Johnny fell overboard he would be eaten by the sharks! I made the point that young Johhny would certainly drown but to no avail, so I went back to balloons although the impressive shoal lasted for most of the voyage.

We finally arrived in Singapore where the various adjutants met Lalbahadur, Kit and John as their battalions were based in Singapore and Johore. I, however, was destined for Ipoh, which was a two-day train journey away in North Malaya. I therefore spent the day at Nee Soon Barracks before reporting to the railway station

After the war members of The Calcutta Light Horse raiding party commissioned Hamilton & Co., Jewellers and Silversmiths, Calcutta, to make a Sea Horse brooch for their wives. There was one left over and many years later it was purchased in Calcutta by my father and presented to my mother on marriage (Editor).

that night. Although 1960 was at the tail end of the Malayan Emergency there was still a threat from the CTs. I discovered that I had been nominated as OC Train and was handed an impressive folder telling me what to do in various emergency situations. I must say I took little notice until our first derailment! Fortunately, it was nothing serious but that and a second derailment meant that I arrived in Ipoh some two days late with no one to meet me.

The Malay taxi driver spoke no English but seemed to recognise “Gurkha Camp” so I eventually arrived at the BO’s mess, which appeared to be empty. However, the Mess Sergeant soon found me a room, and explained the Battalion was on operations on the Thai Border. I also found out that the normal dress kaida in 2/6th was Mess Kit every day except Wednesday, when we wore dinner jackets. However, as the Battalion was on ops the dress was shirt and tie. So correctly dressed I went to the anteroom, which had a number of chairs in impressive lines in the shape of a U. I sat down and managed to get a

gin and tonic, and started to read a week-old copy of the Daily Telegraph when a very distinguished senior officer appeared. He was Major Desmond Huston who was then commanding HQ Company. Originally a 5th Gurkha he transferred to the 2/6th after partition. He was a life-long bachelor with a penchant for fast cars and owned a two-litre AC Bristol, which he used to race in the Singapore Grand Prix. I stood up and introduced myself and then sat down again to the immortal words “don’t get up but you are sitting in my chair.” I quickly found another chair.

Subsequently, when brushing up on my Regimental History, I came across a photograph of Desmond as OC A Company in 1954 being congratulated by the then General Sir Gerald Templer for successfully destroying a CT Camp. Following the assassination of the local High Commissioner, in February 1952, Templer had been sent to Malaya to assume control of both the civil government and military operations. Templer combined vigorous military operations against the insurgents’ jungle bases with

A mail train derailed near Gemas in Johore

Picture, copyright: Imperial War Museum

political reforms designed to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the civilian population. He is credited with coining this phrase. During the subsequent Borneo Confrontation General Sir Walter Walker came up with his own version of this phrase, which was “Grab them by the balls and the hearts and minds will follow”. This reminds me of one of Slim’s quotes:

There is only one principle of war and that’s this. “Hit the other fellow, as quickly as you can, as hard as you can, where it hurts him most, when he ain’t lookin’.”

Next morning, I reported to the Adjutant, Tim Whorlow, who organised my uniforms etc. and then handed me a large brown envelope from the CO, Pat Patterson. He said I should read it when I

got back to the mess. It was a pretty simple but intimidating order in that I was told that my small group of four (myself, L/Cpl, signaller, and orderly) would be dropped by helicopter at grid reference X in 10-days time and we would patrol to Grid Reference Y. The rest of the instructions were on resupply by Auster drop and communications etc. I looked at the attached map to discover that I would be patrolling from one side of the Malay Peninsula to the other. It was expected to take about two weeks during which time no one would speak English.

It was a bit of a shock for a 20-year-old who had only been in the country for a couple of days!

Paul Pettigrew

Gurkhas disembark from a Fleet Air Arm Sikorsky Whirlwind helicopter in Malaya

Picture, copyright: Imperial War Museum

“I SEE HER EVERY TUESDAY…”

In late 1965 or early 1966, Captain (QGO) Chandrabahadur Thapa was serving a one-year tour of duty in the UK. I was on inter-tour long leave and, between his visits to my parents, Chandre Saheb came and stayed a few days with my family and me in a little Somerset village. How little? Well, it had one street and only two pubs.

On the first evening I took Chandre to ‘my’ pub to introduce him to the landlord and some local chums, who had never met a Gurkha. To everyone’s astonishment, George the landlord bought him a pint: not my chums, not me – just Chandre Saheb. Next evening, some local notables came round for a drink and nibbles. About half an hour into proceedings, a lady came over with him and said, “I think your friend is a bit confused. I asked him if, since he’s

been in the UK, he had seen the Queen. His reply was, ‘Yes, I see her every week.’ I don’t think he really understood me.”

He had understood perfectly, I said, “You see, he is one of two Queen’s Gurkha Orderly Officers, exceptional men, who stand on duty at every investiture for a year, are invited to Balmoral once in the year to shoot a deer, etc.” Then I noticed the silence in the room; everyone had been listening. Now, still silent, our guests were gazing open mouthed at the exchange, and all looked suitably awed. Chandre Saheb, of course, was blissfully ignorant of being a minor sensation — and just nodded, smiled, and returned to his drink.

Jack Keen

Captain (QGO) Chandrabahadur Thapa, Queen’s Gurkha Orderly Officer

A FLOWER ON LOFTY HEIGHTS A KHUMBU TREK

After leading several treks in Western and Central Nepal I decided it was time to head East to the Khumbu, home of the true Sherpas and, of course, Sagarmartha or Chomolungma as the Sherpas call it. I decided to visit the isolated Gokyo Lakes, said to be the highest freshwater lakes in the world. A little southwest of Everest they are in the head waters of the Dudh Khosi which originates from Cho Oyu. Below Cho Oyu is the terminal moraine of the Nongozupa Glacier, the biggest glacier in Nepal. From Gokyo Ri (5480 m) there are good views of Cho Oyu, Gyachung Kang, Pumori, Everest, Nuptse, Lhotse and Makalu. So you can see why I wanted to go there. Additionally, in those far off days it was little trekked, unlike Base Camp which I thought was overrated even then.

In the group I had with me the Mawson twins, both Citizen Military Forces (i.e. TA) lieutenant colonels. I had been Ray’s 2i/c for a year before I took over from him as CO of 16 Battalion, Royal Western Australia Regiment, with battle honours Gallipoli, Suvla and Sari Bair shared with 6 GR and with the Kokoda Track among many others in WW2. Brother Glynn had been CO of the WA University Regiment at the same time. Ray had trekked with me in the West and later both served with their wives for three years in NGOs in Nepal. I also had one of my regular majors and his wife, we numbered twelve plus me, not thirteen please note, a manageable size for such an enterprise.

We flew to Lukla and landed safely on the decidedly dodgy airstrip, said to be one of the most dangerous in the World, adorned with two wrecked planes whose landings had not been as successful as ours. Two days trekking, reminding us that the old adage of ‘what goes up must come down’ is reversed in Nepal, saw us in Namche Bazaar, the principal Sherpa town and centre of trade for the region. It is surrounded by wonderful peaks including Khumbila,

Namche Bazaar and Kwande Ri.

the Sherpas sacred mountain, Thamserka, Kwangde Ri and others but best of all is beautiful Ama Dablam (Mother’s Locket), in my view second only to Machhapuchhare in the West. It was market day and the town was alive with traders bringing in produce and goods of all kinds from far and wide, including by yak train over the Nangpa La (5,700 m) from Tibet. Sadly, two ladies decided to go back, one unable to deal with the intense cold at night and the other found the trek too hard to handle. I had to send two of my sherpas back with them to await our return in Kathmandu. As you probably know sherpa is also a term loosely used for trek assistants not usually of the Sherpa clan. After two days of necessary acclimatisation while exploring Namche and taking in the stunning views all round we set off again with our team of dzos and yaks, the former docile and the later often grumpy, no smiling Pokhara porters here.

We walked North with occasional views of Everest, Nuptse and Lohtse, crossing the Dudh

Khosi at Phunki with its impressive water driven prayer wheels before climbing to our camp site at the magical monastery village of Tengboche (Thyangboche). Perched on a high ridge in a stunning situation at almost 4,000 m and surrounded by pines, azaleas and rhododendron trees, it is a major centre of Buddhist learning in the Khumbu. Sadly, the Gompa had been severely damaged by fire the year before, and though an Australian trekking group, by chance camped nearby, had helped the monks save many of the precious artefacts, most of the library and the ceremonial robes and masks used at the Mani Rimdu festival had been lost.

My Sirdar, Nawang Samden Sherpa, had been a monk in Tengboche for thirteen years but had fallen in love (how does a monk fall in love you may well ask) and the Rinpoche had allowed him to leave. He later became a high climbing Sherpa, successfully climbing Dhaulagiri, a mountain I had first heard of from George Lorimer and his climbing companion

On the track to Tengboche Monastery, Ama Dablam on the right

Jimmy Roberts 2 GR, when much whisky had flowed one night when Jimmy had dropped into D Company base in Labis, Johore. In their younger days, before they were in Gurkha Para and dropped together at Rangoon, they had spent over a month trying to recce a route up this formidable mountain. Nawang was able to give us a guided tour of the monastery ruins, recognising the remains of his former abode brought tears to his eyes, the monastery has since been rebuilt. Nawang and I had trekked together before in the West and I had specially asked for him again because he was efficient, a great companion and because of his monastic background. He now lived in Namche where we had enjoyed a dinner of mommos with his wife and children.

After leaving Tengboche the track descends steeply to cross the Imja Khola before climbing up to Pangboche Gompa, another ancient monastery among the last scattered trees below the tree line. On the way we had some good sightings of Kasturi Mirga (Musk Deer), the males with sabre like tusks. Many years before Nawang had been sent by his Rinpoche to Pangboche as “dancing master” (as he called it) to smarten up the monks ceremonial dance presentations. We were well equipped with Kata (white scarves) to present to the various Rinpoches as tokens of respect. Nawang arranged for one of his relations, now a monk himself, to show us Pangboche’s religious artifacts including

their famous Yeti scalp and Yeti hand. It is said that when Lama Sangwa Dorje, the founder of Pangboche monastery, was meditating 350 years ago in a cave, a Yeti brought him food and water daily. When the Yeti died Sangwa Dorje placed his scalp and one hand in the Gompa. Nawang himself talked seriously about Yetis and like other Sherpas we met, assured us they are real and still exist, relating some graphic personal encounters.

The track leading to Phortse is precipitious, high on the mountainside above the Imja Khola. On the way we encountered a large flight of red billed Himalayan Choughs swooping and wheeling in unison and shortly afterwards some fifteen Jharal or Tahr, large Himalayan goats with a ruff of fur round their necks. We ascended a small ridge above Phortse where the track to Gokyo Lakes leaves the Base Camp route and plummets down to cross the Dudh Khosi. Our yaks crossed a very long swing bridge over the raging torrent far below as we waited somewhat apprehensively for our turn. It was reassuring to be told that Swiss engineers had recently replaced the locally made ropes with more reliable steel cables, hand rails and side mesh. We were fortunate to see several families of Chilme (Blood Pheasant) and flocks of Snow Pigeon giving aerial displays. Disaster struck that evening, as we were setting up camp and the yaks were being unloaded, Glynn found that somehow his unopened whisky bottle had broken and

Inside Pangboche Monastery: masks used in the Mani Rimdu festival

300-year-old Yeti scalp and hand in Pangboche Monastery

Swing Bridge on the way to Everest

even though the copious amounts of whisky in the side panier didn’t hide the yak’s very personal aroma, it was obviously a sore loss but worse still was it a bad omen?

We were camped close to a Nunnery and another of Nawang’s relations invited us to attend a late afternoon service with magical chanting and full orchestra. Later, during the cold moonlight night, I heard the sound of footsteps that receded and then returned passing my tent. I had no choice but to prise myself out of my warm sleeping bag to investigate, only to find Glynn in serious pain, not from the loss of the whisky, but from a kidney stone, something that he had experienced years before and so could identify. It was a condition way beyond my medical pack and clearly we were a long way from Kathmandu Hospital! As a very cold dawn broke, however, Nawang announced that, by a little used mountain track that he knew, we were, by great good fortune, only about a six-hour march from Ed Hilary’s first Khumbu hospital, at the small village of Kunde, staffed on an annual rotation basis by a Kiwi or a Canadian doctor. Furthermore, Nawang himself had been born in Kunde, so we set off after an early breakfast with Glynn obviously in great pain.

We arrived at the hospital to be welcomed by the Canadian doctor who believed he could disperse the kidney stone but it would take three days, perhaps more, otherwise advanced treatment would be required in Kathmandu. There was a good campsite below the hospital and I needed a bit of time to think about this problem while the crew set up camp. If we went on the next day, leaving Ray with Glynn and another couple of Sherpas to escort them back to Namche Bazaar in due course, I would be very dangerously short handed if something else went wrong, particularly at this altitude, now 3,800 m and we were aiming to go almost 2,000 m higher. We had already lost two days by back tracking and we were constrained by our flight out of Lukla, where there was often a serious back log of people trying to get out on small aircraft, frequently curtailed by the uncertain mountain weather. Furthermore, we weren’t certain that Glynn would respond to the

treatment as hoped and I would have to find a way of getting him back to Kathmandu, perhaps by one of the only four Nepalese Army helicopters if available or even a lift in a large Russian helicopter that sometimes did a freight run.

I had done this return flight once before from Kathmandu to Kumjung, a strip above Namche, sitting on a pile of roofing iron and general cargo, with magnificent views through the open door. When we put down at various intervening strips the burly Russian loadmaster had to beat back would be passengers when he guessed we had a full load, all distinctly dodgy. Although “Selection and Maintenance of the Aim” had been drummed into my head in another life I decided that in the interests of safety, I had to modify the aim of the trek, the first and only time I had to do so. The rest of the group agreed that we would camp here for a few days to see how Glynn progressed. There were plenty of wonderful walks all round us with minor peaks to climb and river canyons to explore but sadly we wouldn’t get to Gokyo and the World’s highest freshwater lakes.

I had a bit of time to myself as our remaining Sherpas took groups off on day walks to enjoy the magnificent scenery. I had heard that the local Sherpas had erected a memorial cairn on a ridge high above the hospital to Ed Hillary’s wife, Louise, and daughter, Belinda, killed in an air crash flying from Kathmandu to Lukla. I had met Louise when I shared a room with Ed at the Military Attaché’s house in Kathmandu. I climbed up the ridge alone until I found the cairn in a tranquil spot with wonderful views in all directions. Inevitably I thought of my chance meeting with Louise and Ed. I had just returned from my ‘Duty Trek’ in the Annapurna in 1964, when Brigadier Tony Taggart (and my longsuffering wife) had kindly allowed me to escape from my job as his BM and they, plus a Kiwi doctor and his wife, had just come back from fitting out this very hospital in Kunde. That evening we all went to a very lively cocktail party at the British Embassy, where I’m sure we outstayed our welcome and later Ed and I chatted far into the night as he explained

his plan to take two of the new Hamilton jet boats up the Ganges and eventually to the Bagmati and Kathmandu.

As I sat quietly beside the memorial to Louise and Belinda, I thought what a sad waste of life, dedicated, like Ed’s, to improving the life of the Sherpas. I thought of Tenzing and Ed’s magnificent climbing achievement, the first conquest of Chomolungma, which in Sherpa Buddhism is the home of the beautiful Miyo Lungsangma, who rides on a red tiger and is the Mother Goddess of the Earth. The hospitals, schools and bridges which they facilitated the construction of, are a lasting memorial and this simple cairn marks the Sherpa people’s respect and gratitude. For me it was a soothing couple of hours on my own.

The doctor felt that Glynn was improving and should be able to walk out with us to Namche, perhaps after another day or two, so I put the thought of the cranky old Russian helicopter out of my mind. Nawang told

me that a high climbing Sherpa from this very village of Kunde had been killed while climbing with a South Korean team on nearby Cho Oyu, at 8,153 m one of the Himalayan giants on the Nepal Tibet border. He had been checking fixed ropes for the climbers and one had failed and he had fallen to his death. His body had been brought to the Kunde Monastery and 24 Lamas had come in from other Khumbu Gompas, including Tengboche and Pangboche for a service this evening. My group were going to watch and listen from our campsite close to the Monastery.

I donned my down gear and slipped quietly away on my own, a little way up a hill but still close by to get a secluded seat in the shadows. Sometimes the Trek Leader just needs a bit of space before dealing with the next drama, much like a jungle patrol. The valley below, surrounded by mountain peaks was in a snow rimmed basin and the night was utterly still and very cold. Soon the conch shells started calling, assisted by the booming of the Alpine like horns, joined by drums large and small and cymbals, with

Our Campsite below Kunde Hospital

the thigh bone flutes, the clarinets and bells and lastly the deep throated chanting of the 24 Lamas. Flares, burning in front of the Gompa, assisted by the moonlight reflected off the surrounding snow-clad peaks, enabled me to see it all from my solitary viewpoint. I needed no reminding that we had left the West far behind and we were close to the border with mysterious Tibet and that long ago, the Sherpas had come over from Tibet and settled in the Khumbu valleys. I was mesmerized by the chanting and the blend of musical instruments, seeming to echo off the mountain peaks in this sublime setting, it was truly awesome. Alone in my lookout, I thought “the good Lord giveth and the good Lord taketh away.” Being a high climbing Sherpa is a very hazardous occupation but if you have to earn a living in this remote part of the world the options are few and being a mountaineer carries much prestige, but too often at what cost? The music went on long into the night, well after I had taken refuge in my down sleeping bag, thinking about getting my friend Glynn home safely.

The next morning Glynn was pronounced fit to travel albeit gently, so after grateful thanks to our Canadian doctor, surely the only one at this altitude in the whole of the Himalayas and a donation to Sir Edmund’s hospital, we broke camp and moved out back towards Namche, sadly leaving the Gokyo Lakes behind us. Oh well tomorrow is another day but then they also say tomorrow never comes. I just hoped the two ladies I had previously sent back had safely arrived at our special haven, the Kathmandu Guest House in Thamel; so bad for the image if you lose a couple of lady trekkers. On our last afternoon in Namche I mentioned to Nawang that I was sorry I hadn’t seen a Danphe (Impeyan or Monal Pheasant), Nepal’s national bird. He said he could arrange

it and summoned a son who took me off around the hillside at a fast clip. Eventually we took up an ambush position at the top edge of a field and after a while a Danphe glided in. He landed in front of us and displayed in full the nine iridescent colours of his plumage, as if just for my benefit, before rooting around for tubers. Over the next hour I counted fifteen, mainly cocks but with a few hens as well. I thanked Nawang who told me they ate his potatoes and as they are protected he can’t shoot them now.

We arrived promptly at Lukla’s tricky airport where there was indeed a backlog of passengers. We got on first and the remaining seats were quickly filled with anxious people some of whom had been waiting for a week or more. The plane taxied to the very top of this crazily sloping strip to make the most of its barely adequate length. The Nepalese pilot gave it the gun and the plane hurtled downhill. Just before the strip ended in a drop to a river far below, we got lift off, aided I’m sure by all 24 of us taking a very deep breath. Our relief was palpable as we flew down the river valley, gradually gaining height to clear the beautiful, but oh so close, peaks. Perhaps my little pre-trek puja in Kathmandu to Ganesh, the popular God of Good Fortune and of Travellers, had paid off. After a few days exploring the Kathmandu Valley we set off for Chitwan and Glynn was able to enjoy the elephant safaris and jungle walks with the rest of us, but I was glad to be back in Perth and to hand him over to his wife, apparently no worse for wear thanks to our Canadian doctor or perhaps it was the Lord Buddha of the Sherpa faith; always a good idea to have two bob each way.

Neil Anderson

“… AND WHAT’S YOUR VIEW, MAJOR?”

In the spring of 1967, when consideration was being given to the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the raising of our Regiment, 6 GRRA’s Committee consisted of: General Jim Robertson, Brigadier Terence Smith, Lt Colonel HRK Gibbs (‘Gibbos’ – Secretary and perpetual raconteur), and myself co-opted as serving officer member (a student on the Army’s joined-up writing course, also known as Staff College).

At a meeting over lunch in my quarter, it was decided that our Colonel would use his good offices to request permission to hold a reception in St James’s Palace. Over one member’s objections, it was agreed that the five or six 6 GR ORs then in the UK on various courses would be invited, this for me to arrange through the BGLO (whose Assistant I had been for several months in the MOD – Lansdowne House, Berkeley Square – the previous year), and Gibbos would do whatever he normally did, and always with the delightful smile and twinkling eyes which were part of his invariable charm. On the evening itself, when General Jim presented the ORs to the Queen, since I was the only one still drawing language pay, I would translate.

The evening duly arrived, HM came, various people were presented to her including, if memory serves, five Field Marshals. In due course, HM reached my/ our position where I was presented as “... Major Keen, currently at Staff College.” Remember that this was the year of the Israeli Arab Six Day war. “Oh,” said the Queen, her blue eyes bright and directed at mine, “And what does Camberley make of the Israeli tactics of dropping troops behind the enemy’s lines and then pushing the enemy onto those troops?”

Well, to be honest, the only person at Camberley to mention the war was Lt Colonel Sammy Albeck, a fellow student who had taken two weeks leave to go back to his battalion, hitching a ride on a Boeing 707 loaded with Centurion spares, and arriving in time to participate in the battle for Jerusalem. After which, just as he had promised the Staff College Commandant, Major General ‘Tubby’ Butler, Sammy returned to his studies on the 14th day of his leave. (By the way, on eyes, General Tubby had one blue and one brown. When I mentioned this later to General Sir Peter Hunt (we knew each other well from his time as DOBOPS), at a pre-Staff College entrance exam course I was running at HQ Singapore Dístrict, he thought I was taking the mickey. “Would I?” I asked indignantly. “Yes, you would,” was the then three stars’ reply.

Anyway, my immediate reply to the Queen was that I didn’t think the DS at Camberley had quite got their heads around it but they probably would fairly soon, after which we would doubtless discuss it. (We never did). Our gracious lady then asked me, “And what’s your view, Major?”

To this I recall saying, somewhat nervously, “Ma’am, on the principle of ‘boldness be my guide,’ it seems a rather good tactic to me.” With that she seemed satisfied and we moved on to presenting the ORs to her. She, of course, put them at their ease with a number of apposite questions with her inevitable display of great interest in the replies. A very happy memory for them and for me, I’m sure.

Jack Keen

LUNCH WITH THE QUEEN

28 October 1971

Our lunch with the Queen was a most wonderful experience from start to finish and we felt very privileged to be present at such a small and intimate gathering.

It was a really perfect day and we couldn’t really believe it was us as we sailed through the gates of Buckingham Palace and swept up to the glazed-in entrance porch. Here three footmen appeared and opened the car doors – we were ushered into a vast entrance hall, where the very new and young Royal Air Force Equerry met us. He took us upstairs to a small sitting room, where we were introduced to the Duchess of Grafton, who is Mistress of the Bedchamber, and Lt Colonel Sir Michael Adeane who is the Queen’s Private Secretary. Both very charming and easy to talk to. Both had been with the Queen on her visit to Nepal in 1961. Some minutes later, the King

and Queen of Nepal were ushered in by Lord Plunkett and accompanied by Lady Susan Hussey, who is a Lady in Waiting. We felt there was a faint surprise at their arriving in this little room and guessed that the Queen was a bit behind schedule and not quite ready for them. They are both charming, but hardly utter a word except to say yes and no. The King wore large dark glasses throughout, so remained a somewhat enigmatic character as it was impossible to tell what he was feeling or thinking.

Eventually they were ushered into the Queen’s presence and then ourselves. Prince Charles was with his mother. My curtsey was a very poor effort compared to those of the ladies in waiting, etc. The Queen was wearing a very pretty turquoise tweedy dress, with jacket to match. The Prince had on a dark brown suit. She has lovely colouring and is very spontaneous and easy. Almost immediately she

Picture, copyright: The Gurkha Museum

Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by King Mahendra, reviews Gurkhas at Buckingham Palace, 19 October 1960

turned to Prince C and said “Will you do something about drinks, Charles?”, and when everyone asked for sherry, gave a shriek of horror and said they had had a crisis in the Palace and had run out of all their decent sherry! We were ushered into lunch and the Queen did all the seating – there were no place cards. Pat found himself on the left of the Queen with the Queen of Nepal on his other side. I had the King of Nepal on my left and Sir Michael Adeane on the right. Sir Michael is elderly and we had met before on the occasion of the 6th Gurkhas parading at the Palace to be presented with new Pipe Banners.

We felt quite certain that we had been asked to help with conversation as regards the King and Queen of Nepal, though our Queen was quite wonderful the way she kept talk going – it must have been very hard work. It was most interesting hearing about her recent visit to Turkey. The Nepali Royals had been to the Shah of Persia’s celebrations, but it was very difficult to dig anything out of them.

We had a delicious lunch, eaten off beautiful, solid gold plates – also gold knives and forks, cruets, etc. Claret and port were served at appropriate moments. We started with a large dish of baked eggs in a cheese sauce. Then little rounds of lamb, with mushrooms, courgettes and tiny ball potatoes. Caramel custard, sauce and cream. Large variety of cheeses and celery. We ended up with a selection of gorgeous fruit – grapes the size of plums; I am sure from the Royal greenhouses.

The Queen kept a careful eye on proceedings and rang a little bell when she wanted the butlers to appear. She always had to wait for Prince Charles, who took vast helpings, having said at the beginning of lunch how marvellous it was to be home again and have some decent food! He had passed out of his course at Dartmouth that morning and flown up in one of the red Royal Flight helicopters – landing on the lawn at Buckingham Palace as we arrived. We didn’t think it sounded as though he had enjoyed the course very much. I also heard him saying that he was very disappointed not to be going on the Queen’s

Far East tour and he did think he might have been on duty in one of the escort vessels.

After lunch we returned to the beautiful drawing room for coffee. It had long, low windows which looked down onto the beautiful grounds and lakes. Of course, there was not time to take in half the things one wanted to; especially as I found myself having a lone conversation with the Queen – I got straight onto the subject of Benenden and horses and we were well away. She told me that she had just sold 4 of her racehorses for £11,000 to the Japanese. They will give almost anything for a good horse, as they are trying to build up some really good studs.

We wondered how it would be obvious when we should leave. The Queen soon settled that point by graciously advancing on the Nepalis and saying “It has been so nice to have you to lunch to meet again – thank you very much for coming.” They were then escorted away by the Duchess of G and Sir Michael. We then did our goodbyes and bobs and bows, etc. and were gathered up by Lady Susan Hussey as we got to the door and escorted out of the Palace. She was very anxious to hear how things had gone. A charming person – quite young. She told us what a fearful time the Queen has with domestic staff. No sooner is someone trained up than he is whisked away by an American, who offers thousands a month pay.

All in all, it was a really marvellous and unique occasion and we felt very lucky to have been asked. I may say we felt full of patriotism and would have run through anyone who had criticised the Queen!

Jean Patterson

Postscript: The occasion in 1971 was an unofficial visit of the King of Nepal, Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, and his second Queen (the first one died in 1950), Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Devi. Prince Philip was not there, Prince Charles taking his place, plus HM’s PPS, a lady-inwaiting, a mistress of the bedchamber and another lord with Major General Pat and Jean Patterson there as the only other guests; an unusually intimate occasion. Pat was Director Army Training in UK at the time, having been GOC 17 Gurkha Div and MGBG beforehand, and obviously had met King Mahendra before and spoke Nepali.

THE GANDARBA WHO LOST HIS VOICE

The first time I met Surendra he was sitting cross-legged outside the front gate of my compound in a smart residential area of Kathmandu playing his sarangi. The sarangi is a musical instrument, common in the mountains of the Himalaya, that is half-way between a violin and a banjo and is played whilst being held upright, the musician using a small bow of horsehair or plucking the strings of the instrument with his hands.

The sound of the sarangi is like the sound of the wind in the pine trees or like water trickling down a mountain stream. It was this music that intruded on my consciousness one Sunday afternoon whilst I was playing with my daughter in the front

room of our home. As it happens, I am very fond of sarangi music and the two of us went out to see who was playing. Surendra was singing outside my front gate with his family clapping time in a semi-circle behind him.

Surendra told me he was a gandarba from Gorkha District in the hills of central Nepal. Gandarbas are a caste of wandering musicians, similar to the troubadours of medieval Europe, who wander from village to village in the hills, playing the sarangi and singing songs in exchange for money or food. They are extremely popular at parties and during the large festival of Dashain, when they are known to sing all night. Many of their songs are Hindu epics that are thousands of years old but they also sing contemporary ballads of modern-day Nepal and are like wandering newspapers in the hills, where television is

Untiled linocut by the Indian artist, Chittaprosad

still unknown and even radios are a luxury that few can afford.

The war between the Maoist rebels and the government had forced Surendra, like many thousands of others, to leave his home and migrate to the safety of the city. Instead of wandering from village to village he now went from tea shop to tea shop or to the quarters where people from the hills had settled in the city. Surendra told me life was much more difficult in the city. City people did not know about gandarbas or the tradition of providing food and lodging in exchange for music. And everything was so expensive.

I listened to Surendra sing a few songs. He had a nasal, grating voice that suited the sad melancholy of the ballads that he sang. His voice contained the bitter sweetness of the constant struggle to live amidst the overwhelming beauty of the hills.

After that, Surendra and his family often came to sing at our house. They would sit on our veranda, his wife breast-feeding her baby, whilst Surendra sang my favourite ballads, accepting our hospitality with the quiet dignity of professional musicians, whilst my two-year old daughter watched spellbound from the doorway.

Then for a while we did not see Surendra or his family. I thought he might have returned home after the ceasefire between the insurgents and the government.

Several months later I returned from work one day to find Surendra and his family sitting patiently outside my house. Surendra carried a large envelope with an X-ray photograph in it and I guessed straight away what had happened. Tuberculosis is endemic in the hills and cities of Nepal and its treatment is long and costly. Surendra apologised that he was unable to sing due to his health and asked for some money to help pay for his medicines.

Although Surendra was unable to sing he still had to feed his family. The next time he came to our house

he played the sarangi whilst his young daughter sang the traditional ballads for him. She sat by his side shouting out the words as if she was afraid she would forget them. The Nepalese are a kindly people and it touched many peoples’ hearts to see the young girl trying to help her frail father. However, this did not stop many of them hurriedly paying Surendra to move on rather than having to listen to his daughter’s painful singing. Paradoxically, Surendra informed me, the family was earning more than they had when he had been in good health.

Surendra never abused our hospitality. He would arrive once or twice a month to play at our house. As the months passed, Surendra slowly recovered his health and began to sing one or two songs before allowing his daughter to take over. I noticed that her singing had improved; she no longer hurried

through the ballads as if she was afraid of forgetting the words. Indeed, her young voice had developed a power and emotion that caused many passers-by to stop, entranced to see a young girl singing the traditional ballads of the hills. In the mountains of rural Nepal gandarbas are, without exception, men.

As the year went on and the peace process deepened and brought hope to people all over Nepal, Surendra’s visits to my house became less and less frequent. The family did not look any better off but it was clear that they had weathered the crisis of Surendra’s illness. Their eyes and bodies had a more confident look about them than the year before.

One day just before Dashain, Surendra arrived at my house to tell me that the security situation had improved enough for his family to return to their

home. Although his voice had been weakened by the TB, his daughter was now good enough to help him with his singing. He thanked me for my help when he was ill, said “namaste” and left.

I thought of how Surendra’s story is a reflection of Nepal during the war; of the movement of people from the hills to the cities, of their many hardships and the new identities they had forged over the last ten years. I wondered how these new identities would fare when Surendra and his generation returned to the hills.

I also realise that this is not so much a story about a gandarba who lost his voice, as about a daughter who found hers.

Rick Beven

Untiled linocut of musicians by Chittaprosad

RED LETTER DAYS

In a pretty average military career, I had two major highlights. The first was being adjutant and part of the street lining party for the Silver Jubilee of Her Majesty the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The second, by a pure accident of the weather, to be closely involved in the visit of Her Majesty to Church Crookham in 1978.

By way of background, I should confess to being the

least elegant officer of 6 GR on the parade square. Although my mentor was John Anderson, who taught me much about an Adjutant’s duties, drill did not figure much in Cassino Lines in early 1976.

When we knew that we were very much in line for ceremonial duties in 1977 we all dusted off our drill manuals. From memory a Ceremonial Quarter Guard was mounted three times a week and drill parades took over from exercises in Sai Kung, Border duties permitting.

The preparation for street lining was quite intense. Academy Sergeant Major Huggins at Sandhurst lent us two Colour Sergeant drill instructors from the Household Division to show us the drill involved.

To brief all I used my surveying contacts to obtain a map of Fleet Street and the Strand showing the names of all the retail outlets. The RSM, Gurkha Adjutant and I went early one morning and marked left and right markers for each company and the position for each company commander.

As in all things commanded by London District there

had to be an early morning rehearsal. Not the best planning. 5am on 5 June, the day after Scotland had beaten England at Wembley. The day found Trafalgar Square full of over-refreshed Jocks who were bemused to see a Regiment of Gurkhas complete with Pipes and Drums marching to our pitch in the Strand.

When we were forming up in Savoy Place and Adam Street, just behind the Strand, one Company Commander, who shall be nameless to protect the guilty, thought it would be wise to pump ships before the March Off. He retired to Victoria Gardens and a convenient bush. Midway through he was surprised to face a very angry tramp who had received an unwanted early morning shower.

When all were in place, I had urged the soldiers closest to me to give it their best for the Royal Salute when Her Majesty halted at Temple Bar. They did not fail. The crack of SLRs when they presented arms frightened the lead horses for the State Coach so much that they took off, hung a left turn into Chancery Lane and took some pulling up.

The debrief afterwards was interesting. All the main players were in the Major General’s office in Horse Guards around the table that Wellington used before Waterloo. I then discovered how the Master of The Queen’s Horse could see the carriage sorted out at Buckingham Palace and then be ready to greet Her Majesty at St Paul’s. He had a very competent Police Motorcyclist on standby, and would, nursing his bearskin and sword, be raced around the Embankment to arrive before the carriage at St Paul’s.

To be involved on the day itself was a great privilege. Amazing crowds who were delighted to see our soldiers. Some so delighted that they stuffed notes with their telephone numbers into the Riflemen’s pockets. Being an ugly Brit, it didn’t happen to me!

In early Summer 1977 Her Majesty made a visit to Northern Ireland. The Scots Guards were sent to provide additional troops in the Province. 6 GR were

The State Coach to the west of Temple Bar with 6 GR route liners beyond

tasked to take over the Public Duty commitments of the Scots Guards. The first problem we had was lack of our Pipes and Drums, who were committed to engagements in Scotland and Wales and the unavailability of Green Jackets or Light Infantry bands. We would have to march à la heavy infantry.

Ever resourceful we made the effort to march at 110 paces to the minute and rehearsed in detail on the square at Church Crookham. Once again we were helped by the Academy Sergeant Major from Sandhurst and the Band of the Grenadier Guards who were then based at Pirbright.

I think the Battalion clocked up something like 23 Queens Guards and it was a great privilege to have been involved. The weekend guards could be tedious but, to break the monotony, Officers of the Queen’s Guard were entitled to use the RAC Club and the Army and Navy Club providing one was in uniform. George Lys and I spent a very happy Saturday swimming in the RAC and then a most luxurious Turkish bath. Well set up we then marched round to

the Army and Navy Club for a couple of warmers into the bank.

Another perk on a Sunday was the ability to arrange a private view of the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Happy days despite some savage mess bills.

Some time during 1977 the Brigadier Commanding 6 Field Force (Previously 16 Para Brigade) visited the Battalion. The visit took the normal pattern including a full Battalion Parade. After the bugle call the Regimental Flag was unfurled. Horror of horrors, it was upside down. Working on the Guards principle of right or wrong – stand still we carried on as normal and then marched off at the end of the parade. As Adjutant I marched off with Bob R A and Support Company. We could best be described as rather portly officers and Beth R A called us Tweedle De and Tweedle Dum.

Colonel Mike Wardroper was not impressed with our flag drill. I expected that I, the Gurkha Adjutant and the RSM would be placed in open, if not close,

2nd Lieutenants Gordon-Creed and Lys, Captain Patterson and Captain (QGO) Dalbahadur Gurung wait to board their coach after Street Lining

arrest. In the event, not many noticed and I think we were forgiven.

The sequel which sticks in my mind was, whilst the CO, Brigadier and GM were having the normal drinks in the WOs and Sergeants’ Mess, we trooped off to our mess. We were met by Mike Whitehead saying, “Well gentlemen we all seem to be at sixes and nines today.” Many a true word spoken in jest. Mike had the driest sense of humour and, along with John Anderson, was a great mentor to me.

Early in 1978 I had to attend JDSC (junior scribblers) at Warminster. When I heard that Her Majesty was due to visit the Regiment I formed up to the Commandant, Colonel Peter Inge – later Field Marshall and Gordon Corrigan’s bête noir – asking for permission for a day off. He knew that I was a fan of National Hunt racing and warned me that he would be watching the racing on that Friday to see if my excuse was genuine.

Come the day I turned up at Church Crookham at 0800 and the rain was coming down in stair rods. Mike

Whitehead flagged me down outside Bn HQ. “Have you got No.1 dress here?” When told that it was in the Mess he said, “Get changed as quick as you can and report back to me.” The brief for myself and Henry Hayward Surry was to stand by with golf umbrellas and accompany the Royal party throughout. In the event Her Majesty’s Private Secretary Robert Fellowes told us that Her Majesty preferred to carry her own umbrella as she was fed up with getting a wet neck from many Nos 1 on the umbrella who proved to be useless. As a fairly clumsy Officer I was relieved.

The day went well and our photographs made the front page of the Telegraph.

The following Monday, in front of the whole course, Peter Inge apologised for doubting my excuse for a day off. Not many have seen the great man make an apology.

Through the mists of time Church Crookham in 1977 and 1978 were truly memorable times.

Jim Pearce

The Queen meets Honorary Lieutenant Tulbahadur Pun VC, Church Crookham, 1978

HER MAJESTY’S VISIT TO CHURCH CROOKHAM, 1978

5 May

After a reign of seventy glorious years our Queen is no longer with us and memories of her visit to us at Church Crookham in May 1978 crowd back, and it is difficult to remind oneself how long ago it really was. She has been so much a part of our lives that some of us will have no recollection of any other monarch and

it seemed as if she would be with us forever. All of us present on that day will have their memories but some of you may like to hear how it came about, and of some other things that went on behind the scenes which remain as clear to me today as ever.

It must have been in February when I mounted guard

at Buckingham Palace for the second time. On one of the days there an investiture was to be held and on such an occasion it is customary for the Captain of the Queen’s Guard to meet the Queen in the Music Room as she comes from her private apartments, and then escort her through for the investiture.

On that morning I was taken there by a footman to wait for Her Majesty to come and after she arrived we were left alone for quite a while, probably ten to fifteen minutes. Some refreshments had been set on a side table, coffee I think, and I can remember thinking that I must not spill any!

The Queen came in smiling mentioning my name as she came, for she had been well briefed. I was at once struck by the aura of her presence but her manner was so disarmingly natural that I quickly felt comfortable talking with her. She was obviously well used to meeting a shaky new Guard Commander.

During the course of our conversation she asked after the men, how they were getting on in England, did they have all they wanted, about their families, and those who were unable to have them here with them. She laughingly mentioned that often when Gurkhas were mounting guard how the children

Lt Colonel Michael Wardroper escorts

Her Majesty The Queen as she inspects the Guard of Honour

enjoyed peeping out from behind the curtains overlooking the courtyard to watch them. I cannot recollect exactly how the subject arose, except at some stage I managed to say something along the lines of how marvellous it would be if she could visit us while we were in England to which she indicated that perhaps something could be arranged.

I thought nothing more about this afterwards until about a week or so later I received a call from her Private Secretary who said: “Now, about HM’s visit, would 5 May suit?” He followed this by telling me not to tell anyone about this until I heard through official channels! Some time later, perhaps a couple of weeks, an excited MOD official phoned to say he had wonderful news – we (meaning the MOD) had been given another visit by the Queen and that she was to visit us on 5 May. Of course, I expressed my complete surprise and delight!

I was told that this extra visit that had suddenly been slotted into her busy schedule would normally be planned well ahead and was most unusual. Added

to this, it was no ordinary visit as it was to take the better part of a whole day. Right from the beginning the Palace stressed that the Queen wished it to be as informal as possible with the minimal of ceremonial, though a Guard of Honour would be appropriate, with plenty of time for Her Majesty to see the battalion and to meet the men and their families.

In some ways this was more difficult than it sounds, and no doubt some offence was taken among the local Army hierarchy who wanted to be included. However, the Queen’s Private Secretary was most helpful over this.

She came with little fanfare, in her new maroon Rolls Royce, an open state Landover, one lady-in-waiting and an equerry, both of whom kept very much in the background throughout – the police escort came only as far as the Guard Room. The Palace saw no need for any special security arrangements while she was with us.

And that was how it was that the Queen came to visit us.

When the day came the weather let us down and we had intermittent rain showers, though it certainly did not dampen spirits. Her Majesty came well prepared! On arrival having inspected the Guard of Honour I accompanied her throughout and cannot stress enough how easy she was to talk with, at times I had to remind myself who she was, she laughed, asked questions and was not put off by the rain, quite unfazed – when it rained she insisted on carrying her own umbrella, and she had come well prepared with mac and boots. Throughout the day her wonderful smile shone out and she gave every impression of thoroughly enjoying herself, her sense of fun and interest in everything was infectious.

On one occasion when it rained too hard to move in the open Landover her Rolls Royce was called forward and for a moment I wondered where I should go, she heard me asking about this and immediately said: “with me, come and sit with me.” When seated with her in the back of the car she

Captain Gerald Davies explains the reason for stripping weapons blindfolded

drew my attention to some new technology and said something like: “here look, let’s press some of these switches and see what happens.” Various electronic devices had been fitted with which she was not yet familiar, or so she pretended, probably to put me at ease!

Later she surprised me by saying, and I think I have the exact words: “I am worried about Mummy, would you ask someone to check to confirm she has arrived safely because she will insist on flying in bad weather?” For a moment I was stumped as to who “Mummy” could be! At the time the Queen Mother was flying by helicopter on a visit to Devon.

When planning lunch in the Officer’s Mess the Army Catering Corps wanted to do a splendid lunch “fit for a Queen” but the request we had from the Palace was that she wished for a meal similar to what the men ate, so a bhat it was, apparently the Queen was quite specific about this. I don’t think she had a second helping but she certainly had something of everything offered and ate it all.

After lunch my wife, Angela, was asked to take the Queen through to the ladies powder room (which had been specially prepared). She says that she almost felt as if the Queen was taking her, as if she was saying: “come along, don’t be nervous.” On the way through the Ante Room the Queen stopped by a window overlooking the Mess car park where her Rolls was parked and stopped, saying: “listen, can you hear my driver, he is always whistling?” And there he was whistling away beside the car.

As we left the Mess the Queen signed the visitors book, and when she picked up the pen she heard someone in the background asking if the pen had black ink in it, she looked up with a broad smile and said: “it’s royal blue of course!” I am not sure now whether it was, if so I think it should have been black. Later, at the WOs and Sgts Mess the Gurkha Major, Major (QGO) Toyebahadur Chand, presented the Queen with a small silver replica of a 6 GR piper, showing it carrying her pipe banner, on behalf of the regiment.

When the time came for her to leave the rain had cleared and she was able to travel in her open state Landover from the Dushera Ghar, through the

Major Gordon Corrigan and Captain (QGO) Jaibahadur Gurung, OC and 2IC B Coy, hosting Her Majesty The Queen

Her Majesty The Queen with the silver piper statuette presented by Gurkha Major Toyebahadur Chand

ARTICLES

battalion lines to the Guard Room from where she departed in her Rolls Royce. As she left the Dushera Ghar, she had been garlanded and presented with a bouquet by Major Gopalbahadur Gurung’s young daughter, Sangeeta.

The route through the battalion was lined and as the Landover moved slowly along led by the pipes and drums, the men quite spontaneously waved, cheered and threw flowers that soon carpeted the floor of the landrover. It became an unexpectedly emotionally charged drive. I don’t think any of us were quite prepared for this. I was standing so close beside Her Majesty I was aware of how moved she was but she managed, with some difficulty I think, to keep her emotions under control, her smile never wavered.

When she drove away we were left with a strange mixture of elation and yet sadness at her departure. She had brought such brightness and joy. Now that she is no longer with us these memories become ever more poignant.

Michael Wardroper

Thank heavens we had a rehearsal

A short extract following Her Majesty’s visit to Church Crookham from the 1979 Journal:

Honorary Lieutenant Tulbahadur’s VC medals are kept in the Quarter Guard. For the Queen’s Visit and the rehearsals Tulbahadur wore them. For the Dress

Rehearsal Angela Wardroper was the Queen. Having inspected the Guard of Honour, she moved along the line of spectators, was introduced to Tulbahadur and said: “Where did you get your VC?” Tulbahadur replied unexpectedly “From the Quarter Guard.”

Boom boom!

The Battalion bids farewell to Her Majesty, presenting flowers as she drives out of the barracks

HER MAJESTY’S VISIT TO CHURCH CROOKHAM, 1989

24 February

One of life’s continuing mysteries is that I was chosen to command the Guard of Honour on the occasion of Her Majesty The Queen’s visit to Church Crookham on 24 February 1989. The weather lived up to the forecast and it poured (and it poured and then poured some more).

Much against Duncan Briggs’s (Commanding Officer) better judgement, I kept the entire Guard, for as long as I possibly dared, in the dry of the Cookhouse given HM’s schedule of arrival was for 11:00 hours. We bailed out from the warmth and comfort of the bhansaghar in the nick of time to get formed up, as she duly arrived with her entourage to the nanosecond – by which time everyone was completely soaked and the days and hours spent on bulling of boots and pressing of uniforms might just as well have not taken place; we looked like soaked rats.

None of this was wasted on HM however. For having gone through the rigmarole of presenting arms and

the attendant palaver that goes with these parades, the Queen turned to me as I escorted her around inspecting the men and said:

“Do you know Major Harman, if I’d known it was still going to be like this I’d have come with my bikini and flip flops…”

As can be seen in the photograph, Commander Tim Lawrence accompanied HM as her Equerry; he had yet to marry Princess Anne.

The only other point of interest from the day is that lunch was served in the Mess with bhat and the perennial fruit salad on the menu. In between courses, HM got her compact out of her handbag and, looking in the small round mirror in its lid, proceeded to ‘do’ her lipstick...! It was in many ways a complete accolade that she felt sufficiently comfortable in our presence to be able to do that.

Mark Harman

Mark Harman escorts Her Majesty The Queen to inspect the Guard of Honour

Lieutenant Patterson briefs Her Majesty

HĀMRŌ RĀNĪ VISITS  PLATOON, B COMPANY

After 6 GR returned to Church Crookham, I commenced my commission and one came to know that in due course our Queen would visit. In time, towards the end of the tour, we were told the date and the visit format was promulgated. Each Company was to deliver a suitable spectacle, planned, timed and rehearsed to an exemplary whole. Seasonal wet weather was probable.

In B Company a Queen’s Visit O group ensued. The OC’s eyes swivelled benignly and fixed on me with a fated click. Dismissed in a state of funk, I went bleating to the Platoon Sergeant, who was expecting me. Reassuring, knowing and rather pleased, he offered the khaini dubha, mentioning en passant an idea he’d been shaping. His tone, had I the wit to interpret it, said, “Don’t panic, I’ll show you. I’ve done this before.”

After lunch the collective management of 4 Platoon gathered and set off across the damp playing fields to a distant, shadowy, unfamiliar grove. Under the trees was a little 50 m assault course. The others recced the ground swiftly and purposefully. One section commander returning, indicated a spot on the grass.

“We’ll put the tent here Sahib,” he said decisively.

“What tent?” I said sulkily.

“The VIP tent Sahib,” said the Platoon Sergeant, joining in. “QM Sahib will provide all. Problem chaina.”

Offering a khaini dubha and indicating with lips, he put in my mind’s eye a 9x9 tent, chairs in rows within and 4 Platoon’s glittering exhibition of physical elan over the sylvan assault course in front.

“This side will be open, Hāmrō Rānī will sit here, you will stand here and brief Hāmrō Rānī.”

said, swallowing. “But what will I brief? What’s going to happen? I’m not sure it’ll work huzoor.”

4 Platoon, the Platoon Sergeant clarified confidently, would provide the best spectacle of the whole Queen’s visit and I would uphold the honour of the Regiment, delighting, impressing and entertaining Hāmrō Rānī with the best of briefs. The exhibition would consist of two teams racing over the course, picking up stretcher cases and racing back again. Simple! Exciting!

“Sajilo Sahib! Don’t worry!”

A time of rehearsals gradually ratchetted the Battalion forward. The windy, chiso mausam set in. Having listened, observed and no doubt communed telepathically with the Platoon Sergeant, the OC was satisfied with our plan. I recall being less worried by the time the Gurkha Major’s and the Battalion 2IC’s rehearsals happened. I was however racked about the cor blimey contours of my beret. A transfer to the Parachute Regiment was offered. Inclement weather continued and the rain soaked into the turf.

9x9 tents are very good things in their way. Strong, weather resistant, they have solid, socketed frames. When securely pegged down and closed, no light gets in or out. They have many remarkable features; wooden pegs a foot long, numerous guy ropes, little windows, and what not. Apparently they could defeat Mk1 SA 80 bayonets. If you open one side towards a spectacle you can sit 12 people in rows, more or less under cover. However, if it’s a gusty day and you’ve your open side to the weather and no reciprocal aperture, and if the turf’s soaked… well. Parachutists who land in evil winds know this. 4 Platoon was not familiar with parachutes. Experience they say is the wisdom you get two seconds after you actually needed it.

“Yes...really? Are you quite sure? Can it be done?” I

4 Platoon’s thambu gaji-maji could have happened at any time during that drumbeat approach to the privileged moment. It didn’t though. Maybe we had

the thambu closed down most of the time, opened momentarily for rehearsals and packed away again.

On the day of the Queen’s visit we were out early and waiting; the rain fell and the wind boxed the compass. The thambu was open, seats in order. We were ready, monitoring Hāmrō Rānī’s progress on the Battalion net. The weather was poor, but we had a pukka phauji thambu

Then nemesis hit us. A strong gust entered gulah khane thambu and wouldn’t come out again, just as the Signals wallah said, “Rānī tholi inbound, your location figures 30.”

Honestly, taken in the round and broadly addressed, it was nobody’s fault. I heard a horrible pop-snapwhirr. VIP thambu was now airborne, uhrerra harrayo, 20 feet up, rotating hideously, spinning, shedding vital bits and bobs, landing, rolling and slashing down the playing field, like a mine-clearing contraption. I saw serried chairs, undisturbed, like head stones, and

then 4 Platoon’s management plus, raced pell mell downfield in pursuit of Hāmrō Rānī ko thambu.

The Horror, would now concatenate.

Struggling back like typhoon survivors, carrying jilli-milli cordage, soiled canvas, poles and pegs, the Platoon Sergeant began orchestrating the recovery. The Radio Op. called out timings just as one overheard exclamations, invocations, curses, oaths from within the partially resurrected thambu. One of the frame’s three-way pole sockets had sheared. We had 20 minutes till HM hour. I began to think very rapidly.

The Military Appreciation process, a confusing, baffling rigmarole inimical to the instinctive combat savant, did I remember, mention: AIM.

I knew what my AIM was: to evade the Gurkha Major’s retribution at all costs.

Her Majesty meets 4 Platoon

Courses Open?:

Course One (force majeure) meant only one thing: Flight.

(Bhagyo down to Dover, skip over to Calais sharpish, sign on and lie low in the Legion).

Course Two Hunting up a Course Two, goggling the Platoon Sergeant’s darting efforts; his options must have looked similar for he’d just ordered a rifleman to take Course One. The soldier was sprinting away. I imagined 4 Platoon about to bomb burst. Sauve qui peut! But nothing happened and everyone relaxed, grins, even a giggle.

The Platoon Sergeant, indicating the escaping rifleman and offering a khaini dubha said, “Problem chaina Sahib, QM Sahib will provide arko thambu socket wallah.”

“Will he though. Will he?” I whinnied, dribbling tobacco juice into the wind and glaring at my watch. “He doesn’t like me at all.”

Minutes passed, the Platoon Sergeant assuaging my terror and giving advice on how to co-opt grasping store wallahs. The cheetah-swift rifleman came into view again, clutching the replacement part.

We were ready in time. A close-run thing though. Rānī tholi appeared and made its careful, buffeted way towards us. Across the very ground the tent had crash landed through, almost “Red with the wreck of a square that broke.”

Arrival. The thambu was solid, the Rānī tholi cheerfully damp and in good order, the seats allotted and occupied. 4 Platoon’s display began and finished swiftly. I stood in place and explained woodenly what was happening a short distance away, clearly visible to Her Majesty, obvious to all but a booby. (There’s a picture of me somewhere, shifty, hunched, clutching my hands like a loo attendant hoping for a tip).

The final act. 4 Platoon’s spectacle and even my brief, had started, progressed, and finished with exactitude

– and without further heartache. The Burrah sahibharu seemed pleased. All that was needed now was the two teams to fall in and be commended by Hāmrō Rānī

With a ‘Move. Now’ glance from the Platoon Sergeant and my gobbling encouragement, Hāmrō Rānī stood up. She began advancing the few yards to the line of cheerful 4 Platoon heroes. I, left flanking, a half step rear, the steely Lady in Waiting, likewise right flanking.

Two steps out, twenty more yet to the soldiers, I began inwardly screaming, growling and snivelling. Between Hāmrō Rānī’s shoulder blades, stuck fast to the shoulder cape of her raincoat, was a frightful blob of mud. Every part of me wanted to make a cursory explanation and swipe it off. I baulked, I hesitated. Perhaps some eager swine, secreted in the shrubs this last 24 hours would slot me if I suddenly grabbed at Her Majesty’s back. Unmanned and bowel-less, I was aware that Lady in Waiting memsahib had seen the mud-limpet too. Perhaps she expected me to effect removal? I did nothing. Dreadfully.

L.i.W. memsahib huffed audibly, blazed mental tracer rounds at me and gently said, “ just a moment your Majesty, let me just adjust..Ugh!..horrible! (at me) there we are. Done.” Neither she nor the Queen broke step.

We reached the soldiers. Platoon Sergeant called them to attention and took over escort as Hāmrō Rānī greeted him and them in turn. Platoon Sergeant and I saluted. She thanked us, bade us farewell as the rain continued, and disappeared with the entourage. The GM Sahib sidled past, gave us a smile and a “shabash ketaharu!” to the soldiers. And then they were gone.

I stood preserved but mystified, dumfounded by the provenance of the mud-limpet. A viable theory emerged as 4 Platoon began cracking on around me, preparing our withdrawal.

Sean Patterson

ADVENTURE TRAINING AT ITS BEST

Au service de la légion étrangère française au Cambodge

At UN Headquarters an immaculately turned-out Punjabi officer (regimental cravat and all) asked me if I spoke French and noted I was from a Gurkha Regiment. Before I could answer he said: “so you will be attached to the French Legion, report to Captain Riom on arrival in Sector 6.”

So, began my deployment, the origin of which was an international peace agreement formerly ending 13 years of civil war in Cambodia, signed

in Paris in 1991 by 18 governments and the four warring factions. This had paved the way for what at the time was the most ambitious and expensive operation mounted by the United Nations (UN). The UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) mission was essentially to bring about disarmament and ensure political stability in preparation for elections to create a Constituent Assembly in 1993. It was in March 1992 that the P5 nations were asked to provide 47 military observers. A Current Operation Group (COG) was set up in the MOD to oversee MODUN operational policy for both Bosnia and Cambodia; the latter entitled ‘Operation LECTURER.’

The Legion base camp was dug in around an old, abandoned temple: sangers and a mortar line with interconnecting trenches and cleared fields of fire out across dry paddy ranged between 400 to 900 meters to forest. Generally, the sector’s terrain comprised of dense evergreen forest, small hills with rounded summits, flat paddy plains and rugged mountains, their peaks generally ranging between 800 to 1,300 metres. Streams were mostly swift and 50 to 400 meters wide.

Having suffered two decades of civil war Sector 6, like most of Cambodia, was bereft of law and order with its infrastructure in tatters. Banditry was rife, carried out by disaffected, under-employed and unpaid faction troops, whilst life for those of Vietnamese extraction was particularly hazardous.

The Khmer peasants in the countryside fared little better and a succession of failed rice harvests provided little optimism for the future.

The UN Military Observer (UNMO) concept of operations attempted to utilise the varying military experience of the observers and the UK element was widely viewed as perhaps the most valuable contributor. Operating unarmed (officially), the UNMO’s strongest asset was their neutrality when operating with the various factions; this factor was demonstrated by the low number of UNMO casualties in comparison to the other military and police elements across the UN force throughout the deployment.

Our tasks covered, but were not limited to, monitoring

Typical terrain in Sector 6, Cambodia

and investigating cease-fire violations (CFV), ‘other incidents’, as well as the provision of information (the UN euphemism for intelligence gathering) to HQ UNTAC. The Headquarters definition of a ‘quiet day’ was one in which there were fewer than 15 CFVs and for most of the widely dispersed UK contingent based up country, shelling and shooting incidents became a normal part of life in Cambodia.

I found out later that my British colleagues in the other Sectors pretty much ran their own shows either by design or default but always to the UN directives. My experience was different: the French mandate (perhaps due to being the former

colonial power) whilst broadly aligned, was loosely interpreted and on occasion applied with Gallic flair.

I was introduced to my ‘escort’ of four Legionnaires: a huge German, a Serb, an American and a Briton, all of 2e Régiment Étranger d’Infanterie. They made me most welcome and advised that all would go well providing I complied with their OC’s wishes. Then after further introductions to the officers and NCOs it was off to supper. Even on operations, whenever possible, freshly-baked bread, wine, and cigarettes compliment the daily rations. Before the meal, because it was a Sunday, they all sang Anne Marie – chant du 2e régiment – in the slow, deliberate

My escort

Legion style. All eyes then fell on me so I sang a very sombre, sincere and equivalent slow version of Jham Jham pareli because to do otherwise would likely in their eyes have been deemed frivolous. It seemed to do the trick because for the first time the OC Captain Riom smiled.

The next day I joined Riom and a strong contingent that included elements of the 1er Régiment Étranger de Cavalerie to meet up with the local NAKD (Khmer Rouge) warlord, a man named Rin. They were part of the same Chinese-backed neo-Marxists who between 1975 to 1979 had accounted for about one in eight of their countrymen through starvation, disease and execution. This particular group had come down from their base up in the near mountains to parley.

The preamble to these meetings involved both sides jostling for the best tactical ground. Each party would arrive and then proceed to surround the appointed place with consecutive rings of their respective troops; it was very tense for the first hour

until Riom and Rin actually met and lit up their fags, whereupon everybody would settle down eyeing each other with fingers on triggers. Rin and his men were a very surly, hard group. Nearly all of them were suffering from wounds. Indoctrinated, tough and self-disciplined, until recently they had ruled the Sector. However, now things were slowly turning they were increasingly cornered and they knew it.

Over a series of meetings, Riom was trying to convince Rin that it was in his people’s interests to come down from the mountains, disarm and join in the UNTAC plan as directed by the Khmer Rouge higher leadership. Rin played along with this over the months that we met but it was never going to happen as there were just too many old scores to settle and he knew the local government factions wanted their revenge. Rin not only had his own neck but also his men and their families up in the mountains to consider. Each meeting was observed by other factions from a distance. On one occasion when they got too close there was an unsavoury

Khmer Rouge guerrilla

Legionnaire

moment when Rin produced a bound individual who he said was a government spy. This poor soul had been mishandled and despite Riom’s best effort he couldn’t secure his release. They kept their distance after that.

A couple of months later saw us on an extended patrol up in the mountains. On the edge of a cliff overlooking flat plains with the coast in the far distance, we came across a burned-out solitary casino formerly owned by Prince Norodom Sihanouk. The Legion position within was a strong one that flew the French tricolour from the highest post. The usual sky-blue UN flag, whilst it did feature, was small and well-down the flagpole. This group kept as their mascot a sun bear cub they’d found whilst on patrol in the forest. At night-time it was chained to a post but during the day roamed freely around the base.

At a meeting with a separate Khmer Rouge group in this area, their commander whom I had often met before asked if he could have my water bottle and metal mug. I gave it to him and he passed me a small package wrapped in newspaper. I thought he was handing me drugs because we were near to the Thai border and this was a form of currency in the area. I put the package away in my pocket without checking, concerned it may have been a set up. Later at camp the men wanted to see what I’d been given and I was taken aback to find a handful of sapphires. The Khmer Rouge still held on to most of the areas in the south and east where precious stones were mined. I later had the sapphires mounted in a bracelet and gave them to Jackie as a wedding gift.

Christmas time for the Legionnaires is a sacred holiday, the Legion being for most men their only family. Whether in barracks or on operations no one goes on leave as the entire unit celebrates together. In Cambodia, each platoon went all out to create the most inventive nativity creche in their trenches and huts which were judged by the Regimental Commander. On Christmas Day the officers gave out presents to all their men and served them at messing. My escort were most generous, giving me a copy of their regimental history, wine and a collection

of badges and pins. Riom and the officers presented me with membership of the Cercle national des Armees (the French Officer’s Club) in Paris.

At New Year, the senior British officer visited and told me he was concerned that I was ‘going local.’ He considered my reporting favoured the French line –which was true, though I denied it – and so I was told to return with him to the capital and take a week of leave in country. At the Hotel Royal reception desk I consulted my MOD List of Useful Khmer Phrases: “Khjoom joung ban bantuop deil meen teouk phka chouk” says I, which translates as: “I want a room with a shower.” The receptionist smiled gently in the typical Khmer fashion and in perfect English responded that he would ensure I got the best shower in the hotel. I got my shower but alas no connected pipe for water and so went down to the bar. As luck would have it, I got chatting to an Austrian officer who very kindly invited me to stay instead at the German field hospital Mess – hot showers, cold lager and a decent bed.

A super week passed too quickly and following a debrief at UN HQ, I was ordered to catch a lift back to Sector 6 with a new observer team consisting of a Pole, an Algerian and a Malaysian. The SOP was that there was to be no UNMO movement during dark hours.

Neil with the Legion’s mascot

We had nearly made it to our overnight base when dusk rapidly turned to pitch darkness and our vehicle came under fire. We dived out each side; myself and the Algerian to the left, the Pole and Malaysian to the right, all of us in to the paddy fields either side that we knew were mined. It went quiet and then a flare went up, another long burst and the Pole and Malaysian on the other side from us started screaming. It was pitch dark and all rather sobering stuff at this point, the Algerian and I crawled around the rear of the vehicle not knowing what to expect as we could hear both of our colleagues moving and moaning in a ditch. Medical pack at the ready, we found them and asked where they’d been hit; the Malaysian for some unknown reason was shouting in Khmer “khjoom reak, khjoom reak” meaning “I have diarrhoea” – I only knew this because the phrase was included in my trusty ‘MOD List of Useful Khmer Phrases’.

Utter confusion reigned as another burst landed too close. We grabbed the Pole and asked where he was shot. He shouted at us and said he was not hit but that that the pair of them had both dived headfirst into an ant hill and of course the poor ants on being rudely disturbed had gone for them. To cut a long story short,

the Legion eventually rescued us. Sitting in the back of the APC, our two colleagues looked a sorry sight, their heads swollen to the size of basketballs.

On reflection, I think I had a rather cushy tour compared to my compatriots. The official UK post operational report noted that “at the time, Cambodia was an exceptionally unhealthy place to be. Most personnel struggled to cope with the inherent isolation of their appointments; the risk of, or actual, NADK attacks; the traumatic treatment of minecasualties, as well as the first-hand experience of contracting malaria or dengue fever.”

True, life was rarely pleasant for most UK personnel up country, nonetheless, it was also the case that few returned from Cambodia other than with a sense of satisfaction and achievement. Towards the end of our tour a small medal ceremony was held at which the then HM Ambassador in Phnom Penh commented: “I cannot overstress the transformation which one sees in young officers after six months in Cambodia. It is adventure training at its best and most responsible.” On balance, I thought he got it right.

Neil Stevens

Christmas creche Legion style

PRESENTATION OF LOYAL GREETINGS TO HM QUEEN ELIZABETH II

11 December 2013

AMarch 2013

John Mackinlay managed to persuade all the Old and Bold to sign a beautifully decorated scroll to convey Loyal Greetings to Her Majesty The Queen on the occasion of the gathering. Some 740 of those present added their names and the resulting 25-foot-long document was rolled-up and placed in a bamboo tube chased with silver (called a ‘Dhungro’).’

Getting an audience to present the scroll to Her Majesty was no simple matter, with normal procedure being simply to hand-over such items to the Equerry. However, in a letter to the PPS I explained how we had been the only regiment in the British Army to bear Her Majesty’s name and that it would mean a great

John Mackinlay with the signed scroll

John Mackinlay’s sketch for the ‘Dhungro

deal to our old soldiers if these Loyal Greetings could be handed over in person. Much to the surprise of some of the Palace staff the plea worked!

It was suggested that I be accompanied by one of our men, and I asked Major Dammarbahadur Shahi, then GM 2 to accompany me: he was the senior serving ex-6 GR soldier and was delighted to join me.

On Wednesday 11 December 2013 we arrived at the Palace. After a brief wait we were ushered into the Audience Room and I explained to Her Majesty why we were there: at her request we opened the dhungro, unrolled the scroll and read the Message of Loyal Greetings. Her Majesty much admired John Mackinlay’s painting at the top of the scroll and was amused to hear that those

over 80 signed in red: she told us that the Scroll would probably be kept in the Library in Windsor Castle. We explained why Major Dammarbahadur was present and she was surprised to hear that R before we became RGR –the more so when we told her that one of her present QGOOs, Captain Sureshkumar Thapa, was the most junior serving ex-6 GR soldier.

Her Majesty spoke of her visit to Nepal in 1986 and then thanked us and we took our leave.

After the Audience Major

Dammarbahadur recalled how, as a young soldier, he kept the 6 GR Regimental History Book on his pillow, how delighted he was to meet Her Majesty after all these years, as he had missed her visits to the Regiment, and how amazed he was that she knew RGR had just moved from Brunei.

This was a special day for us, and for

6 GRRA ITALY BATTLEFIELD TOUR 2022

April 16, 2020 was the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Medicina and nearly 30 members of 6 GRRA were ready to travel to Italy to commemorate the battle and the liberation of Medicina. Hotel was arranged, flights booked, etc. and then – Covid 19. The province of Emilia Romagna was particularly badly affected and even before UK went into the first lockdown, it was abundantly clear that the trip would have to be postponed. 2020 and 2021 passed without the opportunity to travel. Finally in 2022, nine members of the Association and six members of Medicina Company 1 RGR assembled in Ravenna

to pick up where we had left off two years before and take part in the 75+2 or 77th commemoration of the battle, as well as visiting other notable battlefields in the area. The 6 GRRA party consisted of Duncan and Ria Briggs, Brian O’Bree (our guide and mentor) and Ciska Roselaar, Charles and Tina Blackmore, Ian Thomas, Anthony Vosper and Hugh Patterson. From 1 RGR were Captain Robert Weale, Corporal Rajen Gurung, and Riflemen Binod Ale Magar, Dibethang Rai, Sudan Pun and Sabin Pun Magar. Throughout the trip we were conveyed in great comfort by the genial Mauro and his coach. I think I can speak for my fellow battlefield

John Anderson and Dammerbahadur Shahi Major Dammarbahadur Shahi

tourers when I say that the visit made a profound impression. There is nothing like getting out on the ground to fully appreciate what our forebears were dealing with.

When the coach pulled onto the dusty verge of a busy road just outside the resort town of Rimini, I don’t think that any of us were expecting to walk under an arch and into the beauty and tranquillity of the Rimini Gurkha War Cemetery; as always maintained to the highest standard by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Sad though it is to see the headstones of so many Gurkhas, young and old, it is uplifting to be in the peaceful surroundings in which they have been laid to rest. Here and for the rest of the day, we were lucky enough to have with us Dottore Danieli Cesaretti, a dental surgeon from nearby San Marino, who when he is not extracting teeth, is one of the leading experts on the Gothic Line and other battlefields in Italy. Danny was a charming companion and his input throughout the day added greatly to our understanding of the various battles. Before we left the cemetery, Duncan as Chairman of the Association laid a wreath at the base of the main memorial

with the simple but heartfelt message “We will remember them.”

The next surprise was when the coach turned right off the coastal plain, with its motorway and ribbon development and headed up into rolling countryside, with small farms, flowering cherry trees and as it became more mountainous, stunning views of hills and valleys, with villages perched atop the former. For us in our coach, it was idyllic. For the soldiers of 8th Army and in particular for the Gurkhas of 43 Brigade, advancing across the rugged countryside through the worst winter in living memory, it was more a case of “one damn hill after another;” each one with the Germans dug in on top. As Brian pointed out, this was why they were there. 8th Army suddenly realised they were going to be fighting in the Apennines and would need mountain troops. Who are the best mountain soldiers in the world? Gurkhas. They sent for 2/6th and other Gurkha battalions from the Middle East and at Santarcangelo, Montecodruzzo and Monte Chicco the men of 6 GR more than justified the decision of the top brass. At the farm at Monte Chicco, which had been at the centre of the battle, we were greeted by Rino Battistini, the

6 GRRA Members with the local Carabinieri Association, Medicina

farmer. He had been seven years old in 1944 and remembered the Gurkhas and the way they had despatched the enemy. His daughter in law, Barbara took us up into the orchard at the top of the hill to show us where the fighting had mostly been and the place where the family had dug themselves a shelter to hide in. From this point we could look down onto the flat land of the Po valley, where we would be the next day. Rino was delighted with the 6 GR plaque Duncan gave him; as was Massimo Monti, the restaurateur where we had lunch in Montecodruzzo. For you history buffs; at one point in the advance 6 GR crossed the Rubicon – going in the opposite direction to Julius Caesar!

On 16 April, the date of the battle, we drove into Medicina on the route followed by the 2/6th 14/20th battlegroup. The only difference being that as we turned right into the main street, in the tracks of Major ‘Bodge’ Brown’s Sherman tank, there wasn’t a German 88 mm gun pointing at us from the far end of the road. Between them the cavalry troopers and Gurkha riflemen made short work of that and the other German defences in the town, securing it before nightfall, with light casualties. After walking the scene of the action, our party repaired to the Town Hall for a ceremony when the kukri of the late Major Harry Watson MC was presented to the Mayor of Medicina, Matteo Montanari. This kukri had been carried by Harry Watson at the battle of Medicina

Duncan Briggs lays a wreath at Rimini Gurkha War Cemetery

and at the Gaiana Crossing, where he won his MC. His daughter agreed with Brian’s suggestion that presenting it to the town would be a better future for it than being in the Gurkha Museum. Brian arranged for major cleaning and restoring to be done. It was at this moment that those of us who had not been there before began to appreciate the warmth of feeling that the people of Medicina have for their liberators and how pleased they are when representatives of the two regiments and their successors come to remember with them.

After a revivifying lunch at the local Osteria, we left Medicina to go to the Gaiana canal, the next objective for 2/6th on 17 April 1945. Once again, we were received with interest and friendliness. A local farmer, Bruno, in whose yard we were to park, came out and said he had spoken to his neighbour and she had agreed we could cross her land to the canal. Bruno accompanied us on his bicycle to make sure all was ok. In this way we were able to walk up to the canal. This is little more than a deep ditch with a stream at the bottom, but on either side the Italians had built bunds (dykes) for flood protection. Now

grass covered mounds 15-20 ft high, you would hardly notice them if walking past. From the top, when we turned round to look across the billiard table flat ground over which 2/6th had to advance, we realised how completely dominating these bunds were. With a competent and determined enemy (and German Fallschirmjaeger were certainly that) well dug in and supported by positions on the far bank, the Gaiana Canal feature was a very formidable obstacle indeed. Unfortunately, so it proved. The battlegroup was ordered to take the canal and cross it in a coup de main operation – very little by way of a preparatory artillery barrage and “keep moving forward.” 2/6th and 14/20th did their best. Under a withering fire the Gurkhas debussed from their Kangaroo personnel carriers and attacked the German positions. Through incredible gallantry, some managed to cross the canal, establish a bridgehead and occupy a building on the far side, but it soon became clear that the situation was untenable. In the evening the battalion was withdrawn having lost 33 men. The battle honour Gaina Crossing was awarded, and men of B and C Companies received 3 x IOMs, 3 x MCs and 4 x MMs as a fitting tribute to their courage. The following

With the Mayor and Council members in Medicina. Brian O’Bree holds the kukri of Major Harry Watson MC

The Presentation of the kukri in Medicina Town Hall

day after an aerial bombardment and substantial artillery barrage, 2/10th GR and 2/8th GR successfully took the canal. This battle over 2 days for the Gaiana turned out to be the last major action in Italy before the German surrender on 25 April.

Back in Medicina again, it was time to put on Regimental blazers and ties (and the Durbar jungle hats) and form up in the town square for the Liberation procession. Here we found ourselves somewhat the centre of attention with people wanting photographs with us, especially with the serving RGR Gurkhas. Then the band struck up and we set off round the town, stopping to pay homage at the various war memorials. The serving Gurkhas were in the position of honour, directly behind the mayor and very smart they looked. The burro Sahebs of the Association came staggering along behind the 6 GR flag, which rather unwisely they had allowed the two Green Jacket seconded officers (Blackmore and Patterson) to carry. Charles recalled that the last time he had shared flag carrying duties with another ex-6 GR officer was when he and Jon Titley streaked at the Hong Kong Sevens! On return to the Town Hall, the Mayor and Duncan Briggs both laid wreaths

and made speeches; well received by the crowd. Unlike some larger commemorations, Medicina has managed to keep its events at a very human level; children running beside the procession, people coming out of bars to smile and wave and Blackmore silencing a noisy local with the most piercing wolf whistle (hilarity in the ranks). And again, the warmth of feeling towards 6 GR was palpable. They really like us and want us to be there with them.

We were blessed by a number of things; beautiful weather throughout, immaculate organisation by Duncan, Brian and Ciska, who translated speeches into Italian and acted as our local guide and tracker and the charm and friendliness of all the Italians we had dealings with, particularly Lorenzo Monti, the Medicina councillor responsible for organising our visit. Add to this some excellent meals and delicious wine, seeing old friends and making new ones and the chance to see the stunning mosaics in the Basilicas in Ravenna. I think that all those who took part would agree that Italy 2022 was a great success. Roll on 2025 and the 80th Anniversary!

Hugh Patterson

The Mayor of Medicina, Matteo Montanari, and Duncan Briggs pay tribute at the 6 GR and 14/20th Memorial Plaque

FAREWELL TO HER MAJESTY

Iwas privileged to meet Her Majesty four times. The first time was when she visited the battalion in Brunei in 1972, when I was OC HQ Company 6 GR; then when she visited us in the UK in 1978, when I was OC B Company; in 1989 when I was Battalion Second-in-Command; and finally in 1976 when she invested me with the MBE. I also had two opportunities to view her in closeup: when I and my company formed the street-lining party at Temple Bar for Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee in 1977; and when she attended a race meeting in Hong Kong in 1986.

When I heard of Her Majesty’s death on 8 September 2022, I was in the middle of briefing passengers on the Hebridean Sky, sailing off the coast of Portugal for a tour of the 1809 Battle of Porto the following morning. I have to admit that my normally very stiff

upper lip trembled. I arrived back at Heathrow on 17 September and, following the journey home, a rapid shower, a change into a dark suit, medals and bowler hat – Imogen ditto, less bowler – we set off for London to view the Lying in State of Her Majesty.

We arrived at the end of the queue in Southwark Park at 2219 hrs and were issued with our numbered wrist bands. Just after 1030 hrs on Sunday morning we entered Westminster Hall after a twelve-hour tramp through parts of London we had never seen (we had been told the time would be 13.5 hours so we were lucky). The distance from start to finish is only 5.5 miles but we covered 12 miles, due to considerable zig zags and chicanes to accommodate the numbers, but the queue moved slowly with regular stops at bottlenecks and to check

Gordon escorting Her Majesty The Queen, Church Crookham, 1978

wristbands. The organisation of the queue was first class. Marshals all along the route, lots of water stations, purveyors of tea and coffee, lavatories and first aid tents. We did not partake of any, but they were there for the weak of bladder or will. Fortunately there was no rain and the only rather chilly period was when the queue was halted for an hour and twenty minutes for cleaning of the hall and rehearsals: fair enough, it was our bad luck to be by the river with nowhere to get out of the wind.

Despite the many thousands of people in the queue it was remarkably good humoured, with people chatting to complete strangers and much sharing of sandwiches and chocolate. A number of people approached Imogen and me to say how smartly we were dressed, and here is my only criticism: most participants wore scruff order with very few suits and

even fewer ties, which we felt was inappropriate for the occasion, but at least they were there. They were mainly the young, which bodes well for the future.

I was told I was the oldest taking part that night (I’m sure I wasn’t) but then youngsters think anyone over 40 is in the first throes of senile dementia. I suspect that I was mistaken for someone of much greater eminence than I, for policemen on duty along the route insisted on shaking my hand. I was very tempted to agree with one civilian questioner (adult) who thought my MBE was the Victoria Cross, but I resisted and told her the truth, explaining that the army frequently had to decide between preferment or court martial.

It was good to see a number of young soldiers from 2 RGR helping in various capacities. They had no idea

Imogen and Gordon on route to Her Majesty’s Lying in State

who I was but recognised my regimental tie, and I think they appreciated a few words in Nepali telling them they were doing a good job.

Once one reached the environs of Westminster Hall there was a rigorous security check, and here one jobsworth made Imogen remove her scarf which had small Union flags on it and which she was wearing under her coat, on the grounds that flags weren’t allowed. Her inquiry as to whether the Union Flag was no longer that of the UK received the usual ‘not my decision.’ It was noted however that Union Jack hair ribbons and bow ties were acceptable.

Once in the Hall the mood changed from cheerful stoicism to a hushed reverence. Not a sound could be heard as people filed past, bowing or genuflecting to the coffin on the catafalque. It was a most impressive

layout, with officers of the Household Division and Yeomen of the Guard at the four corners and, somewhat incongruously but meaningful nevertheless, two members of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at arms or the Royal Company of Archers at the foot. Her Majesty’s coffin was draped with the royal standard with the Imperial State Crown on a purple velvet cushion, and the orb and sceptre upon it. I halted, faced the coffin, stood to attention and bowed my head, Imogen curtsied and crossed herself.

I swore an oath to Her Majesty in August 1960, as did Imogen in October 1975. We both felt that we had to pay our last respects to a great sovereign. It was a profound experience and a day that we shall always remember.

Gordon Corrigan

In the Queue

SCHOOL PAYO!

Part one

Close to the end of the pre monsoon period of 1964 the late, much lamented, Pat Robeson and I were authorised to make a duty trek west of Pokhara. Our planned route was northwest from Butwal to Nigalpani (high in the hills of what was then called Char Hazar Parbat; maybe it still is), then east to Ghandrung, ending in Pokhara itself. Nigalpani, of course, was the birthplace of Kulbir Thapa Magar, the first ever Gurkha VC – and uncle of my Company 2IC, Captain (QGO) Chandrabahadur Thapa. The latter, later MVO, then on inter-tour leave, had himself been mentioned in despatches as a young soldier in

the Burma campaign. (Incidentally, during his tour as QGOO (Queen’s Gurkha Orderly Officer) Chandre Saheb stayed twice with my parents, including Christmas 1965. He called my mother and father ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’ as, of course, did my much younger siblings; they liked that. After his visits, my father – twice wounded in WW2 and an exchanged PW, wrote to me saying, “If ever I have to fight another war, I want Chandrabahadur beside me.” My reply, “Sorry, Pa, he’s my 2IC!”

In our time in the village Pat and I learned that it had no school. Instead, children had to go to a school in

The village of Nigalpani, with Dhaulagiri (8167 m) in the background

another hill village, some distance from home. This involved a daily uralo descent of 1,000 feet or so, followed by an ukalo ascent of another 1,000 feet to reach the school. In the afternoon, while the light lasted, children had to make the uralo/ukalo journey home. Good for the legs, perhaps, not so much for tired minds and bodies. If ever a village needed its own school, it was Nigalpani

On leaving the village, Chandre Saheb* – one of the two best GOs among many excellent officers with whom I served – came with us as far as Baglung, regional capital, where, we were told, the District Commissioner was visiting. Hearing of a couple of foreigners in the town, he wanted to see us. So, of course, we duly presented ourselves to Makkrabahadur Rai, DC. To our astonishment he said his father had been Gurkha Major of a battalion of 6 GR, and asked if there was anything we needed. More importantly, he invited Chandre Saheb to call on him the following morning. Excited, Pat and I said, “Ask him for a school!” Our Captain demurred, saying, “Ma sakdaina.. DC Saheb thulo manchhe hunu huncha, ma sano manchhe ho. . .” (“I can’t… The DC Sahib is an important man and I am a small man”) I said, “Hernuhos Saheb: tapainlai mauka cha! Tapain Gurkha Captain hunu huncha, MiD pani paunu bhayo. DC Saheb sanga kura garna saknuhunna bhane, kasale garnu sakcha?” (Look Saheb, you have an opportunity here! You’re a Gurkha Captain, you have been mentioned in dispatches. If you can’t talk to the DC, who can?”) It took a little time but, between us, Pat and I finally persuaded him. Next morning we left, leaving Chandrabahadur to talk to the DC. *(Technically this should be Chandra. But, in 2nd/6th, BOs referred to him as Chandre Saheb, and I’m sticking with that. Apologies to anyone offended.)

Some months later, my 2IC returned to 2nd/6th and to C Company. As is customary, and as ever immaculately turned out, he marched into my office, saluted, and said, “Aipugyo hajur!” As I stood to shake his hand, his broad face broke into a huge smile, and he declared, “School payo!” He and the DC had cut a deal: the government would pay for a school, which the villagers would build; it would also pay for

Kulbir Thapa VC, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles

The Gurkha Museum

a teacher, whom the village would accommodate and feed. It was a beginning for a school which now has 300-400 or so pupils from Nigalpani and villages wari pari, plus more teachers, in a two-storey building.

Part two

Fast forward to 2020… My younger son Jason, who made his first Nepal trek at age nine, and was present with his wife Kristin at our Durbar in 2013, asked if I could suggest a charity he could sponsor in Nepal. Immediately and without hesitation, suspecting that after 56 years it may have been neglected, I said, “Nigalpani School,” and explained the background.

Under advice from John Anderson, I contacted Anne Griffith, once Assistant Adjutant of 6 GR, now Nepal Programme Director for CAIRN (Child Aid In Rural Nepal), an educational charity operating under the aegis of the Thomas’s Foundation (David Thomas, ex 2 GR and wife Joanna). Once Anne had outlined a first Five Year Proposal, focussing very much on a Library, teacher training and parent/school management

committee participation, movement took place. By the end of 2022 the Library had been opened with almost 2,500 books; coincidentally local government has improved existing classrooms, built a second storey as well as new, gender-based lavatories. Some teacher training has already taken place and, while those from Shree Bhanu School, Nigalpani, were behind others at the course beginning, such was their hard work and commitment, that they were specifically commended at the course end. GWT(N) has donated new furniture for the entire school so that children of all ages are seated comfortably and appropriately in their classrooms – with none sitting on floors. Much support and encouragement has come from the VC’s family and, of course, Chandrabahadur’s family, too. The School Management Committee has a new lease of life and to say that great progress has already been made is to understate. To all those who have contributed so far, financially or otherwise (and there have been some remarkable donations, including – through a fortunate conversation with Gary Ghale – from the Gurkha Memorial Project and Jason’s parent company – happily called Everest),* we are immensely grateful. *(Everest is hidden from Nigalpani, but the seventh

Two of Chandrabahadur’s children: Chutrakala and Basantabahadur

Above: Before, Classroom in Shree Bhanu School, Nigalpani

Below: After, with new desks and chairs supplied by Gurkha Welfare Trust (Nepal)

highest mountain in the world, Dhaulagiri 8,167 m, is not, being clearly visible to the north.) Meanwhile, as this is written, in January 2023, we are about £25,000 short of our £55K target for achieving the first phase. A second appeal in March 2023 may see this shortfall reduced, and there are still two years to go to fulfil the commitment. But more remains to be done. So, turning to the future. . .

Shree Bhanu takes children to Level 8 in Nepal’s system – about equal to 14-year olds’ standard in the UK: and stop. This is not enough to prevent migration to foreign lands and employment, often in dire conditions (about which we have heard plenty quite recently). The need is for further education to our equivalent of A level and, in some cases, beyond: to benefit Nigalpani and Nepal. So whither next?

It is unlikely (though not impossible) that Shree Bhanu will become a secondary school in the short term, so alternatives must be found for the brightest, most deserving of its pupils. There are secondary schools in Burtibang, down the steep hill to the main road, then not far northwest and, of course, further away in Baglung, to the southeast. In any case, to fully benefit from further education, students would need to reside in the town concerned. That requires money. So the idea – albeit raw at present – is to cost the amount needed to accommodate and feed a student to the equivalent of our A level. Next, within the amount of the likely annual income of the fund, to cost how many deserving students it could afford to support. The word ‘deserving’ is

important; annually, based on results achieved in final year at Level 8, the best and brightest might be granted scholarships to take them to the end of secondary education. The brightest and best . . . and in order to retain their scholarships year on year, students would have to be assessed annually by their results at the end of each of Nepal’s school year, in March. The idea is to provide an opportunity for the ‘scholars’ to seize and from which they can benefit. Failure to progress, as they must, loses the support. Life is both tough and competitive: Life lesson number 1. The fact is that among the 300-400 boys and girls attending Shree Bhanu there must be some very bright youngsters; they deserve further support. Doubters please see YouTube, “Doctor gaun ko katha, Ep 78,” about a Yadav village – not in the hills – where much has already been achieved. It’s remarkable.

Eventually, from Nigalpani over the years, we would hope to see a regular succession of graduate doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, accountants and even – I’ll invoke the evil eye here – lawyers and politicians, shining examples of what can be done. And why not?

Jack Keen

Editor: On the premise that “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit”, Jason Keen’s JustGiving page is at: https://www.justgiving.com/ fundraising/kulbirvc

Left: The new library at Nigalpani School

WELL, SOMETIMES IT HAPPENS… Bisley

9 July 1993

Life got in the way of me tracking down Dharmendra Saheb to ask him to write about winning the Queen’s Medal during Bisley’s centenary year in 1993. Then, flicking through an old copy of The Kukri Magazine (1994), I discovered the story of that epic occasion written by him:

“It was 9 July 1993, the final day for the Queen’s Medal. Due to bad weather, many of the shooters started to shoot worse than expected. I was confident that the day was mine, even though I was well behind the leader, Capt AR McLeod RS, by 18 points and Cpl Ashok Sen, 2 GR, by 15 points. But, as the weather got worse, they started missing their shots while my shooting was not affected by the rain and wind. I managed not to miss a

single shot, putting maximum shots in the bulls eye. At 1100 hrs, Her Majesty The Queen arrived on the range at Bisley and watched the Army’s top 100 shooters competing shoulder to shoulder for the Queen’s Medal. The weather was so bad then that the targets could not be seen properly at 300m distance! Well, sometimes it happens in real situation during the battle! It seemed everybody was battling for the medal. It came down to the last practice of the year.”

Of course, the story does not end there. In 1995

Dharmendra Saheb won the Queen’s Medal for a third time: the first person ever to have done so.

Rick Beven

Her Majesty The Queen presents the Queen’s Medal to Lieutenant (QGO) Dharmendra Gurung, who won it for the second time, Bisley, 9 July 1993

Jon Titley’s granddaughter Juno (aged 10) sketching the stupa at Swayambunath, Kathmandu

THE FORGOTTEN MAN OF EVEREST A BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR GENERAL GEOFFREY BRUCE CB DSO

Alistair Roberts

Colonel Alistair Roberts, step-grandson of Geoffrey Bruce, started this biography as a self-published record for his family, focusing on Bruce’s exploits on the 1922 and 1924 Everest Expeditions. In his Introduction he writes: “Geoffrey Bruce was a reserved man and did not trumpet his achievements. The British were caught up in the romanticism of Mallory’s glorious failure – think Franklin, Scott, Shackleton. Geoffrey did not court any publicity at the time, nor did he receive any outside mountaineering circles; he did not keep diaries, he did not write letters home. Most of the key participants on the 1922 and 1924 Expeditions wrote books, had books written about them or published diaries. I think of him as “The Forgotten Man of Everest,” hence the urge to write this account and set the record straight. Once I started my research, I began to realise what a rich and varied life he had apart from the Everest experience, so I have developed this story to cover his whole life.”

Geoffrey’s early life in South Wales and boarding school in England is covered in some detail. Significant input came from family papers and photographs held by Geoffrey’s daughter Sally, who is Alistair’s aunt; Sally being Sally Izod, a long-standing member of our Association. Geoffrey’s fitness and aptitude for a range of sports shown during his school years was to stand him in good stead later in life.

MC

In 1914, he joined his father’s regiment, the Glamorgan Yeomanry. However, frustrated at little opportunity for action, he transferred to the Gurkhas in 1917. The choice of Gurkhas, and specifically the 6th, no doubt was influenced by his father’s cousin, Charles Bruce, and helped by the use of the latter’s name as a referee in his transfer application. After three years with 3/6th, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion and became Adjutant to Lieutenant Colonel Cecil Allanson of Sari Bair fame. Between 1921 and 1924, not only did he earn a well-deserved MC in action in Waziristan but took part in two Everest expeditions. The difficulties of fighting on the North-West Frontier are well described and make compelling reading. His appointments after Lieutenant Colonel in command of 2/6th and subsequent rise to Major General, both during the war in a variety of theatres and afterwards in retirement, are included. In 1950, Geoffrey became the first President of the 6th Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association and served, also as Chairman, in the two capacities for sixteen years.

Alistair pulls no punches in explaining the difficulties and suffering faced by Geoffrey’s family, of whom he saw little during the war and for the three years beforehand when in command on operations in Waziristan. There is even a chapter on the extraordinary story of the capture of his daughters by the Japanese.

As one might expect, a third of the book is devoted

to the story of Geoffrey’s quite remarkable efforts on both Everest Expeditions. When one considers he was invited to participate in the 1922 expedition as the transport and supplies officer, it is all the more surprising that he was chosen as one of the summit

pairs, which culminated with him climbing to the then world-record height. It is a testament to his supreme fitness and determination. Alistair has gone to great lengths in his research, including copies of rarely seen original letters and diaries written at altitude, to produce a most comprehensive description of Geoffrey’s Everest achievements.

The biography is well illustrated throughout with a large number of photographs, illustrations and maps. We are most grateful to Alistair Roberts for his efforts to produce this superbly researched biography of one of the Regiment’s and the Gurkha Brigade’s most accomplished officers.

Brian O’Bree

The book is available from Alistair Roberts for £15 which includes postage within UK. To secure a copy, please contact him via his email alistair.roberts5@btinternet.com, his home address Hillside Cottage, Hazleton, Cheltenham, Glos, GL54 4EB or by phone 01451 860284.

CHINA COUP: THE GREAT LEAP TO FREEDOM

Robert Garside

University of California Press

Roger Garside joined 1/6th in 1958 as a young National Service officer in Hong Kong during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. His experience during those two short years was to shape the rest of his life. He writes: “I began my China watching on the China-Hong Kong border in 1958, peering through a pair of binoculars. I was commanding a small detachment of Gurkha soldiers in the Sha Tau Kok Observation Post, set high on a hillside overlooking a valley through which ran a flimsy fence of wire netting that divided the British Empire from Red China. In the hills that faced us there was no doubt an observation post where the People’s Liberation Army was watching us.” How many of us who have served in Hong Kong, then and

since, will recognise this?

Following Cambridge University he joined the Foreign Office, learned Mandarin and was posted to Beijing. After twenty years as a diplomat his career included working in the World Bank, Professor of China Studies at the US Navy Post-Graduate School and ten years running his own company advising countries, including Russia, Hungary and Vietnam, in transition from state socialism to the market economy on the development of their capital markets.

His first book on China Coming Alive: China After Mao was written after his second posting to Beijing in 1976-9. He has broadcast for the BBC World Service

Accompanied by Major General Geoffrey Bruce, Her Majesty talks to Lt Colonel HRK Gibbs on the occasion of the presentation of the Royal Pipe Banner to 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles at Buckingham Palace in 1962

and the BBC Chinese Service, reviewed China books for the Economist, the Spectator, Prospect and China Rights Forum and contributed to leading publications.

In China Coup, using his in-depth knowledge of Chinese politics and economics, he argues that, contrary to other views, senior rivals at the top of the party leadership will remove Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, in a coup d’état. A bold prediction.

The book is in three parts. The Coup is a narrated prediction using Roger’s informed imagination. Part 2, Why a Coup? lays out his arguments in detail and covers internal weaknesses of the Xi regime, including: economic slowdown, waning trust in the party, the rise of religion, environmental catastrophes, coronavirus cover-ups and costs, America’s economic rise and increasing mistrust in China, and the need for political modernisation. Part 3, After the Coup, a Revolution, which picks up at the end of Part 1, is Roger’s explanation of why new leadership may move towards democracy.

At the end, Roger adds an afterword — an enlightening career autobiographical sketch which reinforces his authority for reaching his

conclusions. In the penultimate paragraph he quotes Winston Churchill: “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others forms that have been tried from time to time.”

After the Tiananmen incident in 1976, Mao removed Deng Xiaoping from the Politburo. In Beijing, asked by his Ambassador “What do you make of this, Roger?” he replied, “Deng will get back in. He will rule China.” He was right then — will he be right now?

Things are happening in China, is change likely? The book’s final chapter ‘Launching the Revolution ’ is his fictional view of the change he predicts— effectively a blueprint for a prospective new leadership.

Roger’s book is very timely, most instructive, an excellent read, highly acclaimed and thoroughly recommended. China’s future will impact on us all.

Brian O’Bree

(P.S. Roger joined us at the Cenotaph in November 2022, his first contact with the Association since he left. He plans to join us at next year’s Winchester Reunion.)

Present:

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

6th QUEEN ELIZABETH’S OWN GURKHA RIFLES

Saturday 19 November 2022

The President, The Chairman, Regimental Secretary, Pett, Vosper, O’Bree, Davies, Edgerley-Harris, Gary Ghale, Richardson-Aitken, Corbett, Herbert, Groves, Hitchcock, Mani Rai, Biru Thapa, Toyne, Titley, Channing, P Lewis, Gilham, Ruffell, Morris, Corden.

1. Welcome and opening address

a. The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for joining us and their valued support. He explained we had much to cover and so needed to move on quickly but welcomed relevant interruptions if anyone had something useful to say, but before this he invited the President to say a few words. The President (Brig J A Anderson) wished to have minuted a vote of thanks to the Association Team for all their hard work during the year, particularly on the Rules.

b. The Chairman then gave a brief outline of activities in which members of the Association had been involved, showing that it had been a busy and full year. Each was accompanied by a slide depicting the event:

(1) Shooting weekend in January at Nick Fothergill’s Stanford Hall.

(2) Our much delayed battlefield tour and visit to Medicina for which a huge thanks to Brian O’Bree and Ciska.

(3) The Chairman’s successful sponsored visit to Nepal in March.

(4) We provided a 6 GR tent at the Bhela in July.

(5) Joined B Company 2 RGR for their Gallipoli commemorations at Shorncliffe.

(6) Represented the Association at the 14th/20th Hussars unveiling of their Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum.

(7) Regiment was recognised in the Funeral of our

late Queen in that our Queen’s Pipe Banner was carried by the Pipe Major of 2 RGR Pipe Band.

(8) Attended the little known “Gallipoli and Dardanelles International” Service in Kings Lynn.

(9) Our normal involvement in the recent Remembrance events, including Viscount Slim joining us for the laying of wreaths at the Slim and Gurkha Statues and at the National Memorial Arboretum.

Plus many other items including the move of our Book of Remembrance at the Cathedral; we will cover more later in the meeting.

2. In memorium – Jaus and Aus

a. Jaus – a slide showed all those who, as far as we were aware, had died in the past two years, including our late Queen Elizabeth whose name we were so proud to bear for 35 years, and those members and family of members no longer with us. The Chairman asked all to be upstanding and pause for a minute’s silence to remember those listed and others not known to us.

b. Aus – on a happier note the Chairman announced the new members joining the Association which were shown on a slide.

3. Apologies for absence

The Regimental Secretary stated that he had received apologies from:

Wakeham, N Anderson, Rowbottom, Duffacy, Griffith, Khusiman Gurung, Brade, Buckeridge, Anne and John Rose (nee Allmand), Shoesmith, Furtado, Cheshire, R Lowe.

4. Matters arising (not covered in this Agenda)

The Chairman reminded the meeting that the previous Minutes of the AGM held on 20 November

2021 were contained in the last Journal (No 102 of 2022) pages 153 to 158 sent to all Members. There were no questions or comments and no matters arising which would not be covered in the Agenda.

A proposer and seconder were requested to confirm that the record of the Minutes of 20 Nov 2021 were a true and accurate record:

Proposer: Lt Colonel Brian O’Bree.

Seconder: Lt Colonel Tony Groves.

5. Financial report

a. A copy of the key features of the Audited Combined Accounts as at the Year End (30 September 2022) is shown at the end of these Minutes. The Chairman explained that the ‘inflated’ figure in both receipts and payments in the No 2 Association Ac was due to the Memorial Project activities.

b. A copy of the Combined Budget for the forthcoming year is shown at Annex C.

c. There were no comments on either item.

6. Journal report

In the absence of the Journal Editor the Chairman once again expressed sincere thanks to Rick and Anne for producing another outstanding Journal. There were lots of positive comments about it; the Chairman explained that he had been ‘nailed to the bar’ at the GBA dinner by a QOGLR officer saying what a wonderful Journal it was! It is known that it involves a huge amount of hard work by both Rick and Anne and we record our thanks in the minutes. Rick apologised for his absence, but provided a report to the meeting:

a. 350 copies of Journal 102 were successfully distributed to Association members in May 22. Unfortunately, this meant there were no spare copies for new members as there were very few returns this year thanks to a new up-to-date Members’ Directory.

b. Once again, a soft copy of the Journal was emailed to 6 GRRA (Nepal) so they could print their own hard

copies in Nepal. A redacted version (without Family News) was put on the 6 GRRA website.

c. Journal 102 costs were:

Design: £1400.

Printing: £3273.

Postage: £1128.22

Total = £5801.22

d. The Editor would like to thank all those who contributed articles to Journal 102, and particularly Anne Griffith (Families Editor) and Peter Williams (Designer) for their huge contribution to another successful Journal.

e. The original theme for Journal 103 was to be ‘Nepal,’ but the death of Her late Majesty The Queen means that the next Journal will reflect our association with her. However, the Editor still planned to include a number of Nepal articles. Production, printing and distribution costs will probably be 10% more than 2022 costs.

f. Finally, the Editor gave notice that he planned to retire as Editor following the completion of Journal 103, after editing eight Journals. It had been an intensely rewarding experience but it was time to pass on the baton.

7. Website Report

The Chairman explained that James Herbert, who had been financing our website for many years as well as being the ‘Webmaster,’ has now sold his company and so the Association has taken on the financing of the website. Our sincere thanks to James for all his past support. He has kindly persuaded Nicky Prentis, who has managed the nuts and bolts of the website under James’ supervision, to carry on in her role. Nicky is one of our guests at the Reunion today and I would ask you to make her feel particularly welcome.

8. Membership

a. As shown in the ‘Aus’ you will see that we have had a number of new members. One to mention is Cathy Ostler, nee Allmand, who is the daughter of Professor Christopher Allmand and was keen to retain the Allmand family link with the Association.

b. Current Membership stands at:

Full Members: 179

Associate Members: 63

Honorary Members: 80

TOTAL: 322

c. The Regimental Secretary indicated that of the total of 322 there were 27 members who didn’t have e-mail addresses and a further 13 who had chosen not to receive e-mail (MailChimp) updates. There are therefore a total of 40 members who do not receive information via electronic means.

9. Election /Re-election of Officers of the Association

The Chairman stated there were a number of officers who had served beyond their due date to retire and therefore replacements were needed:

Post Current incumbent Due to retire Remarks

PresidentJohn Anderson

Vice President Vacant

ChairmanDuncan Briggs Nov 23Happy to continue – to be re-elected in Nov 23

Regimental Secretary David BredinNov 25

Journal Editor Rick BevenNov 23New Editor sought

Families Editor Anne Griffiths Nov 23Happy to continue – to be re-elected in Nov 23

WebmasterJames Herbert Nov 22Happy to continue in a reduced role –to be re-elected in Nov 23

Non Portfolio Officers: Nick GordonCreed Stepping down Gary GhaleNov 23Happy to continue – to be re-elected in Nov 23

Khusiman Gurung Nov 23Happy to continue – to be re-elected in Nov 23

The Chairman stated that the most pressing matter was to find a new Editor for the Regimental Journal to take over from Rick Beven and to be in place for the next AGM. There was also, in accordance with the updated Rules (see Item 10), the matter of electing a GOR to the committee. All members were asked to consider appropriate persons for these roles and notify the Chairman/Regimental Secretary of volunteers or ideas.

10. Proposed Changes to the Association Rules

The Chairman provided a background to the need for the change:

a. At our committee meeting in May 2022 it was decided that our Rules needed to be updated to bring them in line with current procedures and make them fit for purpose in the electronic and video age. After much discussion and redrafting a proposal including four resolutions, each covering a number of changes, was sent out according to the current Rules to all Full Members. In outline these were as follows:

(1) Resolution 1 – Minor “housekeeping” changes to better reflect what actually happens in the Association.

(2) Resolution 2 – The use of electronic communications including email and video links.

(3) Resolution 3 – Financial matters, in particular, the relationship between the Association and the 6 GR Regimental Trust.

(4) Resolution 4 – Reunions, general meetings and voting.

b. Initially we needed to establish whether we have a quorum. According to Rule 16.3, to amend the Rules we needed a quorum of not less than one third of the Members entitled to vote, i.e. the Full Members. Full members are 179, so therefore we needed at least 60 votes to have a quorum for each Resolution.

c. The returns from this secret ballot have just been opened by the Regimental Secretary this morning in the presence of two scrutineers to ensure full transparency. Before we get into the results does anyone have any questions.

• There were no questions.

d. The Chairman asked the meeting if there were any eligible members present who had not voted in the postal ballot; only two members fell into this category and their views are expressed in the overall result. He further asked if there were any questions; there were none and he handed over to the Regimental Secretary to announce the results.

e. The Results from the Ballot

The Regimental Secretary announced that there had been 99 returns to the request for Full Members’ votes; the results for each Resolution were as follows:

Resolution 19612

Resolution 29603

Resolution 39513

Resolution 49711

In accordance with the Rules the quorum to reach the necessary number of votes has been exceeded in all four Resolutions. Further, the two thirds majority to change the Rules under consideration as stated in Rule 18.2 had been exceeded and therefore the New Rules will come into force on 19 November 2022. The New (amended) Rules will be sent to all members in due course; those without e-mail will be forwarded copies by Post.

The Regimental Secretary thanked the two scrutineers, Captain Jeremy Toyne and Captain Birbahadur Thapa, for their assistance.

11. Memorial Project

a. The Chairman requested a minute be taken that on behalf of all our members he wished to congratulate Mike Channing (Chairman of the Memorial Committee) and his team for seeing this difficult but most important project through. Although only in the margins of what went on, he was clear that an enormous amount of work had gone into getting the Memorial completed and is still going on linked to

the Memorial Book and other linked issues.

b. A full report to compliment those already sent out is shown at Annex D. Mike Channing wished to acknowledge certain people who had a key influence on the Memorial Project, and whose contribution should be noted in the minutes of the AGM:

John Mackinlay – whose vision, concept and oversight the Memorial was; plus whose numerous contacts in the art and graphic design world opened many doors to the professional work that went into the Memorial.

• Purnabahadur S aheb who turned out to be a very effective Project Manager in Nepal once all the work transferred to Nepal.

• Mike Adler, who, as Trust Secretary and manager of our bank account, spent many hours recording the donations as they were received – unravelling the many ‘Gurungs’ listed by the bank and linking them to their donations; not to mention working out the Gift Aid claimable, and claiming it. A professional role for which he charged no fee.

• Rodney Shoesmith, who spent considerable time as financial controller monitoring and reconciling the income and expenditure.

Last but not least, Gopal and his team in Nepal, and the team in UK, all of whom contributed in many ways to achieving the result we have.

c. The Memorial will be formally dedicated on 18 March 2023 in Pokhara with a subsequent Lunch/ Reunion. The Chairman exhorted members to “Come and join us; it may be the last chance.”

d. Questions:

(1) Major Davies asked if there was, for archival purposes, the ‘story’ of how the Memorial was created being recorded. The Memorial Chairman confirmed that a book was being created on the

‘history of the project’; one copy would be sent to HM The King and one to each of the Gurkha Museums. All those who donated would also receive a copy.

(2) Mr Edgerley-Harris explained that a similar record had been made when the Gurkha Statue in Whitehall had been created.

12. The Archive Project

The Chairman reminded the meeting of the very positive reaction to the creation of an Information Legacy Project at the last AGM. A lot of progress with this very important project has been made, including adopting an easier name of “Archive Project.” Brian O’Bree has kindly taken on the Chairmanship of the subcommittee and has pulled together a working committee. The Chairman emphasised though that this is a project for all of us to get involved with; we need to spread the load, so please offer your help to Brian in an area of your interest.

Brian’s report is at Annex E.

13. Forthcoming Events – 2022/23

The 6 GRRA Diary of Events for 2022/23 is attached at Annex F (See page 88).

14. Any other business

a. Geoffrey Bruce Medals and Book. The Chairman explained that recently the family of Major General Geoffrey Bruce very generously gave his medals to the Gurkha Museum through the good offices of the Association. They are on display in the Macdonald Room and are a most wonderful and fascinating collection from our Association’s first Chairman and President (from 1950 to 1966). His step Grandson has also just published a book, The Forgotten Man of Everest, which is available direct from Colonel Alistair Roberts: a couple of copies are here for inspection and one for sale. It is a fascinating, beautifully produced story of Everest, regimental service and family life over the period of Geoffrey Bruce’s service.

b. Membership of the RGR Association. The President explained that there had been some confusion over those who were eligible for membership of the RGR

Regimental Association (RGRRA). He clarified that all Full members of the 6 GRRA were automatically Associate members of the RGRRA and could attend functions and the AGM but were not entitled to vote at the AGM; so long as the 6 GRRA continued to make an annual payment to the RGRRA of £15. This was effective from our AGM on 19 November 2022.

c. Association Ties and Ladies Brooches:

(1) The Chairman reminded the meeting that there is an Association Tie! The Regimental Secretary has arranged for new stock and these are now for sale to any Member. While those who served in the Regiment are entitled to wear the 6 GR tie, the Association tie is one that can be worn by any member of the Association, Full, Honorary or Associated. Ties can be bought on application to the Regimental Secretary; cost will include P&P.

(2) While we were discussing ties, the question of an equivalent for the Ladies was raised. It was felt that ladies rarely wear scarves these days and a brooch was proposed. A silver brooch, similar to the cap badge but with the scroll underneath, about 25 mm /1 inch across. The Chairman welcomed thoughts on the idea of a Ladies Brooch:

• It was generally thought that the idea was a good one subject to cost. A number of comments were made:

Gerald Davies asked if the profits from the sale of ties would go back into Association Funds? This was confirmed. He also asked if the tie could be used as a presentation to some. It was confirmed that in the appropriate situation this would be allowed subject to permission being obtained from the Chairman/ Regimental Secretary.

• The President emphasised that the Association did not have any funds! The Trust had loaned the Association the money for the manufacture of the ties with the proceeds of sales coming back into the Trust. A similar method would be adopted for the ‘brooch project’.

• There were several suggestions from where quotes for a brooch might be obtained:

• Jack Furtado had been instrumental in organising the small silver tie-pin.

• Quotes obtained from Nepal

Paul Gilham had good relations with a silver smith in Winchester.

• It was agreed that the Committee would look into the matter of cost and feasibility of creating a ladies brooch and report back.

d. Lt Col Paul Gilham Ex GTR and Member of 6 GRRA gave an update of a number of initiatives in which he was involved including: the “Ayo Gurkhali Collection” and Johnny Fenn’s sponsored walk in Nepal. Further

details are at Annex G. Further details can be obtained from Paul direct; his details are in the Membership Directory of the Website.

15. Date and Venue of Next AGM and Reunion

a. The next AGM will be held at the Gurkha Museum on Saturday 18 November 2023. It is planned to commence the meeting at 10:00hrs but this will be confirmed nearer the time. This will be followed by the Book of Remembrance Service at Winchester Cathedral and then the Annual Reunion Lunch held at the Museum.

b. There being no further business the meeting was closed at 1pm.

Annexes are not shown in the Journal, but copies can be obtained from the Secretary 6 GRRA.

6 GRRA REGIMENTAL TRUST COMBINED ACCOUNTS

Sangeeta Gurung, daughter of Major Gopalbahadur Gurung, presents a bouquet of flowers to Her Majesty the Queen, Church Crookham, 1978