6 GR Journal 98

FAMILY AND EVENTS

JOURNAL

The

No 98.  2018

© Royal Collection Trust

FAMILY AND EVENTS

FAMILY AND EVENTS

CONTENTS REGIMENTAL

ARTICLES

3 5 9 10 17 21 24 36 38 40 42 48

76 Assam, Hannay and the Great Mutiny 83 6th Gurkhas on Everest 87 Himalayan Odyssey 93 Dolpo – Land of ‘Yarsagumba’ 99 The Gurkha Everest 2017 Expedition 104 Provisioning the Platoon – with a smile 106 “Snakes Alive” – Reminiscences of Life in the 2nd Battalion in the 1950’s 109 Tenzing’s Ice Axe

49 50 55 57 60 62 63

The President The Chairman The Editor RGR Newsletters Gurkha Welfare Trust Gurkha Museum Nepal Durbar Gorkha and Lamjung AWC Fishing GBA Lunch and 6 GR AGM UK Durbar Hong Kong 200th Anniversary Celebrations Golf Ramadi 100th Anniversary Lunch Book of Remembrance Ceremony Field of Remembrance Allmand VC Ceremony GBA Dinner Remembrance Day Cenotaph Parade

FAMILY 64 Members’ Newsletters (Redacted) 65 6 GRRA 2018 Diary of Events 66 Obituaries

END PIECE 112 Book Reviews 121 Minutes of the AGM 125 6 GRRA Income and Expenditure Account

Front Cover: Lieutenant Chris Boote, 2 RGR, on the summit of Everest, 16 May 2017.

Inside cover: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on her Coronation Day, 2 June 1953, by Cecil Beaton. She is wearing the St Edward crown which is the crown that adorns the 6 GR cap badge.

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OFFICERS OF THE REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION President:

Brigadier John Anderson OBE

Vice-President:

Colonel Paul Pettigrew

Chairman:

Lieutenant Colonel Brian O’Bree

Secretary: Major Manikumar Rai MBE

Finance Officer:

101 Kings Ride, Camberley, Surrey GU15 4LJ Email: honsecretary@6thgurkhas.org

Captain Nick Gordon-Creed

Editors Major Rick Beven Editor:

Family News Editor:

Captain Anne Griffith

27 Blenheim Road, Deal, Kent, CT14 7DB Email: rickbeven@hotmail.com griffharu@hotmail.com

Communications Officer: Captain James Herbert Committee:

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Lieutenant Colonel Gavin O’Keeffe, Major David Bredin, Major Khusiman Gurung, Captain Anne Griffith, Captain Gary Ghale

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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Handing out 6 GR 200th Anniversary commemorative badges at the Nepal Durbar, Pokhara, 2017

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his last year we have been privileged to enjoy a unique anniversary – the 200th of our Regiment, 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles. While the unforgettable events to commemorate this are covered in some considerable detail within the Journal, it is worth reminding ourselves of how incredibly lucky we have all been to have served with our soldiers and enjoyed their comradeship. I make no apology for quoting from my speech at the Durbar: “We are a family, we grew up together, served together and are growing old together. Most importantly, we are friends, we trust each other, we need each other. I am happy that my life has been spent with you all, and I thank you for allowing me this honour.”

Our many celebrations were only successful because of the hard work put into the preparation and planning

and our Chairman rightly identifies most of those involved in his “Letter from The Chairman”, but he misses out one vital player – himself. Brian’s unstinting efforts, his attention to detail and his drive ensured that everything went to plan and that everyone had fun. We owe him our gratitude.

This year marks another special commemoration: the 70th anniversary of the official start of the Malayan Emergency. It began on 16 June 1948, when Arthur Walker was shot on the Elphil Rubber Estate by what became known as Communist Terrorists, and other attacks escalated until it bloomed into a full-scale guerilla war that was eventually to claim some 10,000 lives, including 204 of our soldiers. For our Brigade – still trying to rebuild after Indian Independence and the trauma of the difficult division of our Gurkha battalions – this long campaign was to reaffirm the reputation of our men as the most professional, tena-

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cious and dedicated of warriors. On 31 August 1957 Malaya became independent and the insurrection, already on a back foot, lost its rationale as a war of colonial liberation and the emergency was declared over on 12 July 1960 – although 1/7GR were still on anti-terrorist operations in Perak until late 1962. For those of us, who grew up in Malaya at the time, it shaped our future lives, and for many of our soldiers this campaign dominated their careers and was to colour the public perception of Gurkha soldiers for many years.

Our successors, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, continue to work incredibly hard. 1 RGR are now back in UK serving in 16 Air Assault Brigade after some four years in Brunei, where they did much to cement the relationship between the Royal Brunei Armed Forces and the British Army. Under current plans they will deploy to Afghanistan in late 2018, from whence 2 RGR, now happily ensconced in Brunei, returned in December 2016. Our Brigade is enjoying a most welcome period of growth, and over the next few years two additional squadrons of the Queen’s Gurkha Signals and two of the Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment will be formed, while numerous other posts across the Army, and particularly in the training field, will be filled. All this will broaden our capabilities, prevent us becoming too insular and ensure better long-term careers for more of our men: we will have grown by 25% since the lows of redundancy.

Although a full report on the work of the Gurkha Welfare Trust (GWT) appears elsewhere, I think it appropriate here to record a formal vote of thanks to all those dedicated people who work with and for our Brigade’s charity. In the last Financial Year GWT have spent over £21 million, with most going to looking after our old and bold. The provision of medical care, for

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which there is a growing demand, is also changing as more resources are devoted to it. Reconstruction after the devastating earthquakes in 2015 has made a huge difference to the lives of both individuals and communities, and the major donation by our Trust to fund the repairs to the Area Welfare Centres at Gorkha and Lamjung has played an important part in this. The delivery of welfare generally is changing, for many of our pensioners are too frail to travel to the Area Welfare Centres, so now Pensioner Support Teams, which include medical staff, visit them at home. I suspect that in due course history will show that the GWT has been one of the greatest veterans’ support programmes ever, something few of us present at the start could have foreseen.

I noted last year that we needed to address the long-term future of both our Regimental Association and our Regimental Trust, and by the time you read this members of the Committee and Trustees will have seen the detailed proposals. Some may find the proposals difficult to accept, but the reality is simple: fewer members each year support our Association events, membership is declining and finding suitable volunteers to serve on the organisations that run both Association and Trust is becoming increasingly difficult: at present less than 8% of our membership take an active part in Association events. We plan to put endorsed proposals for the future to members at the Annual General Meeting this November, but be assured that there will be no changes made in the near future and decisions will only be implemented with the agreement of members.

Thank you all for your support during 2017 – a wonderful 200th Anniversary we will all remember.

John Anderson

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THE 200TH COMMEMORATIVE BADGE In recognition of their contribution to the Regiment, the 200th Commemorative Badge is given to all who served with 6 GR or to their surviving widows. It was presented to all those entitled at both 200 Durbars in Nepal and in the UK and to some widows and elderly pensioners unable to come to a Durbar.

It is a silver coloured lapel badge pinned to a Regimental colours ribbon as shown.

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If you are entitled to a badge and have not yet got yours, please contact the Honorary Secretary. It will be mailed to you in its small display box.

Those who already have their badge but would like a spare one should also contact the Honorary Secretary.

The cost of a spare is £5 plus P&P. Badges are only for those entitled so please do not give them to anyone else, otherwise the significance of the badge will be diminished.

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN

ast year’s bicentennial celebrations were a great success and enjoyed by the many who took part. We are extraordinarily lucky to have such talent among former members of the Regiment, many of whom selflessly contributed much to the success of the various events during the year. On behalf of the Association, my sincerest thanks to them all, whether mentioned by name or not.

The standard was set at the first event of the year, the three-day long Durbar (four days if you count the ‘Ladies Dinner Night’ at Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge) in Pokhara in February. Gopal, with his hard-working Durbar committee and the many others who helped, produced what many acknowledged as the best Durbar yet. Some 1200 turned up including former officers and their families from as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, China, Hong Kong, USA, Africa as well as the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

Our 200th Anniversary was also marked at the Association’s Annual AGM and Reunion by a 200th

birthday cake at our post AGM tea. As before, we were at RMA Sandhurst alongside the GBA Annual Reunion. Sadly, attendance was down to just 17 members plus wives and guests. As it doesn’t give us enough time to fully enjoy our own AGM and Reunion, the Sandhurst experiment of combining our Reunion with that of the Brigade has not worked well enough.

At the AGM, it was agreed that from this year we should move our Reunion to November and combine it with the Annual Book of Remembrance service at Winchester Cathedral followed by the AGM and lunch at the Gurkha Museum.

The next highlight of 2017 was the second Durbar, held at Kempton Park racecourse, London, in July for the large number of UK-based 6th Gurkhas. Our Honorary Secretary, Mani Kumar Rai, masterminded this with the excellent support of Major Khusiman and his dedicated team. Without any experience of running a Durbar in the UK, they were ‘flying blind’. We need not have worried; the result exceeded expectations with 1650 attending including the Nepalese Ambas-

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Brian presenting the 6 GR Everest flag to the Gurkha Museum at the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Ramadi lunch, September 2017

sador and Defence Adviser with their wives. Even the change of weather in the afternoon did not deter those happily dancing in the rain.

I should add that Major Khusiman even managed to find time to run a very successful 6 GR 200th Durbar Golf competition the day before the Durbar itself.

On 29 September, our 200th was again recognised at an event to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Ramadi, when the forebears of the 14th/20th King’s Hussars and the 6th Gurkhas first fought alongside

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one another. The Gurkha Museum hosted a full house of Hussars and Gurkhas, many of who had been attached to each other’s regiment, for a lecture, curry lunch and a very jolly gathering. At the end of lunch, not only were presentations exchanged between regiments to record the names of those who’d been on attachment, but also, to mark our 200th Anniversary, our President presented the Gurkha Museum with a most striking silver statuette of Bill Slim, the Regiment’s most illustrious officer.

Thanks to the eagle eye of John Conlin, some two

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years ago we became aware for the first time of the existence of the memorial window to Michael Allmand VC in the RC church of St Edward The Confessor in Golders Green, north London. It was most appropriate during our 200th year that members should join the Allmand family for a brief service and ceremony at the church during which Professor Christopher Allmand, brother of Michael, laid a wreath at the eleventh hour.

The Allmands generously hosted those present at lunch in a well-known local former coaching inn.

In 2017, for the first time ever, serving members of the Brigade of Gurkhas summited Mount Everest. In anticipation of their success, our own Regimental flag was given to Lt Chris Boote 2 RGR as the expedition’s advance party came through Kathmandu. We were delighted that Chris was able to carry the flag to the summit himself. And, that it should be done on the 16 May, the exact day of our 200th Anniversary, was the best possible birthday present. Chris handed the flag back to us when we acknowledged his and the team’s outstanding achievement at the Kempton Park Durbar. It was then framed, together with the same photo as on the cover of this Journal plus suitable inscription, and presented to the Gurkha Museum, along with the other presentations, at the Ramadi 100th in September.

All these events are more fully described later in these pages.

Two further appreciations are due for last year’s celebrations. The first, is to James Herbert for his superb professional short 6 GR historical film, produced entirely at his own expense. It was shown to acclaim at both Durbars. In due course, members will be informed

as to how copies may be obtained. The second, is to highlight the part played by our ‘in-house artist’, John Mackinlay. As you may remember from last year’s Journal, it was he who designed our much appreciated 200th Commemorative Badge. Not only that, but the brilliant cover of ‘200 YEARS’, our commemorative historical brochure, was his. Thank you John.

The Association’s committee has seen changes since last year. Mani Rai is to be congratulated on his selection as the Gurkha Brigade Association Secretary.

While Mani will remain our own Hon Sec (as did his predecessor for his Regimental Association), more of his time has been freed up with others stepping forward to take on some of his roles. Nick Gordon-Creed, who agreed to join the committee despite his being ambushed at a Cuttack Lunch when his defences were down, has subsequently agreed to become Financial Officer. Anne Griffith has agreed to take on the Social Secretary from 2019 by when she hopes her busy schedule will reduce somewhat. I am grateful to them both. In addition to Nick, we also welcome Gary Ghale to the committee.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our newly scheduled Annual Reunion in Winchester on Saturday 4 November. Please help us fill the Museum’s dining room capacity of 50 – Bhindya’s delicious curry and ice cold Gorkha beer served in 6 GR silver goblets will make your journey all the more worthwhile. And, at the AGM, you will hear more about plans for the future of the Association.

Jai Sixth!

Brian O’Bree

201 REUNION AND AGM In case you have not picked it up elsewhere in this edition, please note in your diary that in 2018 our Annual AGM and Reunion will be held on Saturday 4 November, together with our Annual Book of Remembrance service at Winchester Cathedral. After the service, we will go to the Gurkha Museum for our AGM and lunch.

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THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE BROCHURE

The very eye-catching cover was designed by John Mackinlay.

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o mark our 200th Anniversary, in addition to the commemorative 200th badge, a brochure has been produced. The one hundred pages cover some of the key events of our Regimental history and highlight a number of individuals who have contributed significantly to the name of the Regiment.

The final pages list the Colonels of the Regiment, Commanding Officers, Gurkha Majors, Queen’s Gurkha Orderly Officers and, for the first time in any publication, the Regimental Association’s Presidents, Chairmen, Honorary Secretaries and Chairmen of the Nepal Branch and a Roll of Honour 1948 to 1994.

There are over 200 photographs, intended to make the brochure of more interest to many of our older

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soldiers who cannot read English. It was designed to be given to all who attended the two Durbars in Nepal and in the UK. However, our Honorary Secretary still has many extra; if you do not yet have one and would like one, please contact him. There will be a charge to cover the cost of post and packing. For extra copies there will be a small charge of £2 each plus P&P. In addition to the softback copy, a very smart hardcover ‘coffee table’ version has been produced as presentations, to be given mainly to those who have made a major contribution both to the Regiment and Association over the years and towards this year’s celebrations. The few that remain may also be bought from the Honorary Secretary. The cost is £30 plus P&P.

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A QUICK NOTE FROM THE EDITOR I mentioned in last year’s Journal that 2 RGR were going to carry a 6 GR flag on their Everest 2017 expedition, saying that if they were successful it would provide the cover for the 2018 Journal. I do not think any of us envisaged that they would summit on the exact day of our 200th anniversary – 16 May 2017 – and that the 6 GR flag would be carried by a young British Officer, Lieutenant Chris Boote, who had struggled with altitude sickness for much of the expedition.

Everest and the historical role that 6 GR played in the early expeditions is everywhere in this year’s Journal. There is a famous Thomas Hardy poem that describes how man dies but his essence passes on from generation to generation. It is so with Regiments and the spirit that the RGR and the wider Brigade of Gurkhas showed in getting 13 men to the summit at

the very start of the 2017 Everest season is the same flame that our predecessors passed to us and which we passed on.

Thanks to 6 GRRA Trustees the underspend of the Nepal Durbar was passed to Major Andy Todd as a small contribution from 6 GRRA towards the costs of the expedition. It was miniscule in comparison to the total cost but it was paisa handed over in Nepalese rupees and was used to pay the porters for ferrying the expedition’s supplies to Base Camp. Fittingly therefore, 6 GR played a small part in the expedition’s success in allowing the first serving Gurkhas to summit Everest as a wonderful backdrop to our own fabulous bicentenary. As a famous earlier byline went “All this – and Everest too.”

Afterwards – 2 RGR Everest team outside The Britannia, Shorncliffe.

From L to R: Lt Chris Boote, Lt Liam Smith, LCpl Umesh Gurung, Maj Andrew Todd and his father.

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ROYAL GURKHA RIFLES NEWSLETTER

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FIRST BATTALION

T has been another eventful year for the First Battalion – both in Brunei and back in the UK – and our soldiers have been engaged in a huge amount, including military exercises, operational tours, sports and adventurous training.

Final Months in Brunei The last few months in Brunei were focused on strengthening regional relationships with our hosts and neighbouring nations whilst making the most of the training opportunities available. Regular Defence Engagement with the local Lumut based 3rd Battalion Royal Brunei Armed Forces (3 RBAF) included joint training exercises, concentrated study days and targeted capacity building. A combined Officers’ Mess Dinner Night hosted by 3 RBAF was a fitting opportunity to say farewell, for a few years at least, to our Bruneian hosts. The warmth and bonds of friendship evident between the two Messes proof that this important relationship is as strong as it ever has been.

The concluding performance between the Pipes and Drums of both Battalions was particularly stirring.

We have been involved in a wide range of activities across South East Asia. B (Sari Bair) Coy deployed on the battalion’s final regional overseas exercise in Australia – a CT 2 level exercise focussed on conventional war-fighting in the particularly demanding terrain of Shoal Water Bay. Other deployments included Singapore and the Philippines to support training and delivering the second combined Brunei/British Jungle Warfare Symposium.

Despite a congested calendar in the run up to the unit move, space was made for the annual Battalion competitions. The Roberts Cup (shooting competition) had a slightly different character this year with a focus on section attack lanes by day and night, a Close Quarter Battle (CQB) rifle assessment and a service pistol competition. The Bullock Trophy (military skills patrol competition) saw platoons navigating around Brunei’s various jungle and coastal training areas to complete a number of military stands. The

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competition culminated in a blank firing platoon attack by night followed by a two mile run into a shooting competition. After 48 hours hard slog the battalion re-grouped and went into a planning cycle before conducting an insertion through the jungle at night and into a deliberate battlegroup attack on the urban training village in Penanjong; a suitably demanding end to four years of excellent training in Brunei.

The overall Champion Company competition was decided by the Wallace Memorial Trophy, which saw company teams competing in cross country, football, basketball, volleyball, golf and a surprisingly competitive swimming gala. It all came down to the closest of finishes, a split second separating the A and C Coy in the final Team Relay. Following a review of the video footage the win was awarded to C (Mogaung) Coy and they were crowned Wallace Memorial Champions and overall Champion Company 2017. The competitive spirit, professional excellence and josh shown throughout the competitions were particularly impressive.

The battalion celebrated its 23rd Birthday in Brunei this year with a full programme of exhibitions, demonstrations, traditional sports and food. The Officers’ Mess just managed to hold on to the annual Tug-OfWar competition and rather unexpectedly a young officer won the ‘chello’ competition.

The year has seen a number of high profile visitors to the battalion, the most notable of which being a farewell visit from His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei, who appeared to be in rude health; piloting his own Blackhawk helicopter to Tuker Lines before challenging the Commanding Officer to a quad bike race along the beach.

Back to the UK Following the unit move back to Sir John Moore Barracks in Folkestone the Battalion is transitioning to life in16th Air Assault Brigade. This includes re-training and re-equipping for our role in air assault and air

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1 RGR Everest 2017 Mountaineers

land operations, supporting the civilian authorities in homeland security and providing support to training throughout the UK. The programme is busy. B (Sari Bair) Company deployed on Ex SWIFT RESPONSE, a divisional level, multinational exercise in Germany, and A (Delhi) Coy, with support from C (Mogaung) Coy, deployed to Kenya to support 3 PARA’s ASKARI STORM. 1 RGR managed to secure another Gold Medal on this year’s Cambrian Patrol and were instrumental in training and supporting a team from the

Nepal Army who achieved their first ever Cambrian Patrol Gold. Despite the tempo we have celebrated Dashain and Tihar in proper style and the families are settling quickly into UK routine.

Battalion HQ was put to the test during November with a CAST exercise in Catterick Garrision in preparation for our upcoming deployment to Kenya.

This was the first time that the battalion has trained to conduct air manoeuvre operations since HERRICK.

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With a near-peer enemy scenario provided by 16 Brigade, Battalion HQ had their work cut out for them.

Capt Babindra and WO2 Tarjan Gurung did an outstanding job as our air cell and much of the success of our planning was down to their hard work.

In January, Recruit Intake 17 from A and B Companies deployed on their first exercise. It was an opportunity for the recruits to be introduced to battalion SOPs and shake out after leave in Nepal. A morning of Advance to Contacts in the driving rain was followed by both a day and night navigation. The next few days allowed the platoons to practice different operations such as FIWAF, FIBUA and night infiltrations, as well as obstacle crossing at the platoon level.

The final attack was preceded by a smoothly conducted company obstacle crossing, and also allowed the command group to see the new ORBAT of a separate MG platoon in action. The final urban area cleared, the stage was set for the climactic AFT which followed the fresh breakfast and an address from the CO.

Operational Deployments The battalion sent individual deployments to Kenya and Somalia and provided instructional and operational support in Afghanistan at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy. After the unit move the battalion now plays a constant role in providing military assistance to the civilian authorities at short notice.

Corporal Gyanendra Rai deployed to Gabon to train a large intake of Gabonese Rangers who protect their threatened elephant population from poachers.

Sport and Expeditions The shooting team won an unprecedented 12 out of 14 competitions in the Army Operational Shooting Competition (AOSC) at Bisley, winning the Army and Infantry titles and a number of individual prizes. Notably, Corporal Ashok Thapa was awarded the Queen’s Medal as the overall best shot. Four members of the 1 RGR shooting team were also selected to compete for the British Army. 1 RGR snipers won the1 UK Division sniper competition, and both pairs were selected to compete in the tri-service sniper competition.

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2017 saw a range of sporting successes for the battalion. The running team retained the South Downs Trailwalker trophy for the fourth consecutive year. The volleyball team won the Army Volleyball Championships for the sixth consecutive year, with players subsequently selected for the Army Volleyball Team.

The Battalion football team came from behind more than once to win the Nepal Cup at Brigade week.

At the Army Tennis Championships, Lieutenant Scott Sears won the Men’s Singles and teamed up with Lance Corporal Taraman Gurung (GSPS) to win the Men’s Doubles. Rifleman Bibek Karki succeeded in securing the Army Table Tennis championships and goes onto compete in the inter-services. Rifleman Sujan Limbu came second in the U25 Army Sports Climbing Championships; he was subsequently selected for the Army Climbing team and came second in inter services competition.

Outside of sports Rifleman Rakesh Sunwar finally achieved his dream of summiting Mount Everest as part of the Gurkhas on Everest Expedition for which he has trained rigorously for years. Lieutenant Scott Sears became the youngest person to walk, solo and unsupported, to the South Pole. He also managed to raise over £30,000 for the GWT in the process.

Despite the snow-capped mountains of Nepal skiing isn’t a typical ‘Gurkha’ sport; however, 1 RGR’s Alpine Ski team had an excellent time in Val D’Isère on Ex FROSTED BLADE. The team of 12, despite having never skied before, achieved an impressive four Gold medals, four Silvers and one Bronze.

1 RGR has returned from a hugely rewarding tour of Brunei in good form. We maintain our regimental character as a professionally focused, family oriented and an overtly adventurous organisation. We continue to strive for excellence in all that we do and are eager for the next challenge: with a Battalion test exercise in Kenya in early 2018 and an operational deployment to Kabul later in the year we have much to look forward to.

Jai 1 RGR!

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SECOND BATTALION

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T has been a year of constant change for The Second Battalion. The return from Operations in Kabul in December 2016, re-subordination to 11 Infantry Brigade from 16 Air Assault Brigade, the Unit Move to Brunei, a re-focus towards Jungle Warfare from Air Assault and a plethora of short term training teams in East Africa have kept the Battalion busy. As ever, maintaining readiness remains at the very fore of all activity. Nevertheless, the year has also seen triumphs on Mounts Everest and Denali, a ski team at the Infantry Championships in Val d’Isere, a gold medal at Cambrian Patrol; all alongside the usual sports competitions across the Brigade of Gurkhas.

Following the return from Kabul, March saw the Medals Parade take place in the splendour of Buckingham Palace. Medals were presented by the Colonel in Chief, HRH The Prince of Wales and his son HRH Prince Harry. It was a fitting event to mark HRH’s 40th anniversary as Colonel in Chief 2 GR, and latterly RGR. The Battalion was fortunate to be joined for the occasion by Brigadier Ian Thomas, former Commanding Officer and Commander British Forces Afghanistan during the tour. The event also provided an opportunity to present Colour Sergeant Raj Rai with the Prince of Wales’ Kukri for his outstanding work as an Instruc-

tor at Cambridge University Officer Training Corps and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, as well as his constant commitment to the Recce Platoon.

After a quick turnaround from the ceremony of Buckingham Palace, the Battalion soon found themselves on Salisbury Plain for 16 Air Assault Brigade’s Exercise JOINT WARRIOR. With the experience of using Foxhound protected mobility vehicles on the streets of Kabul fresh in their mind, C Company successfully demonstrated their utility in the Air Landing role. This was to be the Battalion’s last major exercise with 16 Air Assault Brigade, until the next rotation back to the UK in 2020. Since 2 RGR stepped back into the British Army’s premier Brigade in June 2015, the rejuvenated relationship has brought success and progress, with the Battalion demonstrating its adaptability and suitability to the high readiness and operational roles asked of it.

The publication of the Operational Awards list in April saw continued recognition of the Battalion’s role on operations, this time more personally with two Queen’s Commendations for Valuable Service (QCVS).

Corporal Mahesh Gurung was recognised for his work protecting NATO mentors while they delivered

Lt General Nick Pope CBE visits JLC in Brunei

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valuable mentoring at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy. The second was awarded to Major Ed Oldfield, as Officer Commanding the Kabul Protection Company, where he was instrumental in delivery of the force protection for NATO advisors across the congested and volatile city.

May and June brought news of continued success

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and achievements from across the globe. First, the Brigade of Gurkhas team successfully summited Mount Everest, including two officers and one soldier from 2 RGR. The team had been ably led and supported by the Expedition Leader, Major Andrew Todd MBE, the Battalion’s Second-in-Command. The news was swiftly followed by more climbing success, this time on Mount Denali. Lieutenant Oscar Goldfinger (B

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The Medals Parade inside Buckingham Palace

Company) led a team of 11 soldiers through arduous conditions to the summit. The latter achievement was all the more remarkable as the team had together gone through extensive training from relative novices to success on the highest peak in North America.

With announcement of the Queens’ Birthday honours list, the previous Gurkha Major, Major Prembahadur Gurung received an MBE for his exceptional efforts

in support of the response to the Nepal Earthquake, Gurkha 200 events and the operational deployment to Afghanistan.

In August, the Unit Move to Brunei was formally completed with 2 RGR taking command of British Forces Brunei (BFB), and re-subordinating to 11 Infantry Brigade. Subsequently, the Companies have been busy

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Junior Leaders Cadre training on Tutong Beach

refreshing their knowledge of jungle tactics with a series of low-level exercises. During this time, A Company delivered a Junior Leadership Cadre for Intakes 13 and 14, which was visited by Lieutenant General Nick Pope CBE, Colonel Commandant Brigade of Gurkhas, along with the Army Sergeant Major, WO1 Glenn Haughton and Colonel James Robinson, Colonel Brigade of Gurkhas. Support Company completed their rebalancing with reinforcement cadres across the Platoons. All this took place against the backdrop of support to HM The Sultan of Brunei’s Golden Jubilee, including a visit to BFB by HRH Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex, and Princess Sophie, The Countess of Wessex. The Battalion were also delighted to welcome HRH The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall during their regional tour of Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and India in November 2017.

Defence Engagement with the Royal Bruneian Armed

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Forces (RBAF) remains a key activity for BFB. Activities have ranged from formal audiences with Commander RBAF, through conceptual lectures delivered to their Combined Staff Course, to the delivery of Public Order and Urban training packages. In wider Defence Engagement and capacity building efforts, the Battalion have continued to have an operational output from Brunei, deploying short term training teams to the Lebanon, Gabon, Kenya, Canada, Cyprus and Saudi Arabia.

The last year, while presenting many challenges through change, has once again shown the Battalion and its Soldiers to be adaptable and resilient. The many achievements and awards set a high standard, which the Battalion looks forward to meeting again in the next twelve months.

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THE GURKHA WELFARE TRUST “Gurkhas Living Out Their Lives with Dignity”

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he last year has been a transitional one for the Trust. We saw a change of Chairman, the conclusion of our earthquake response programme and a review of the way we help our pensioners live with dignity.

Conclusion of our earthquake response Last year saw the conclusion of the Trust’s earthquake response; a project which consumed much of our time and resources over the last two years and brought huge benefits to veterans and widows in the hills of Nepal.

In total, following the widespread destruction of homes in 2015, we rebuilt over 1,000 homes to a new quake-resistant standard, in addition to schools, community centres and water projects that were damaged. Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) John White MBE

worked as Head of our Earthquake Response Team last year: “While I was taken aback by the scale of the devastation the earthquake caused, as a former officer in the Brigade of Gurkhas, I was not at all surprised at the forbearance and stoicism of the Nepali people.”

“Our pensioners, their widows and communities had no expectation of help, but rather displayed a grim determination to pick themselves up and get on with life as best they could. I can assure you that your support has brought, and continues to bring, relief to a people who have suffered so much, yet ask for and expect so little.”

Fundraising Throughout the year we were continually amazed

92-year-old widow Manisara Thapa outside her new quake-resistant house

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at the incredible effort our supporters have gone to in helping Gurkha veterans, their families and communities in Nepal. We’ve witnessed runs, cycles, swims, dinners, treks and much more. Unfortunately we can’t mention them all though we extend our sincere thanks to all of the Trust’s supporters.

April saw a very special day for Trust supporter and current serving Gurkha Private Jiban Tamang. After training vigorously for the London Marathon last year, he was downhearted to have to pull out with a knee injury shortly before the event. At the time, he said:

General Pope on a visit to Nepal

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“This is a huge disappointment for me. I was proud to be representing my Brigade and to raise funds to help my country and fellow Gurkhas recover from the earthquakes.”

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On 23 April 2017, he was back with a vengeance and completed the race in an amazing three hours and 46 minutes. His efforts raised the Trust £2,995.

“Our absolute priority is ensuring that our Gurkha pensioners are safe, secure and as comfortable as possible. We won’t rest until everyone is accounted for.”

“Running a marathon is something I’ve always wanted to do. This is my first marathon and I feel so honoured and privileged to represent the Trust.”

We were fortunate that there were no fatalities amongst the communities we support though many required extra support and emergency materials in the immediate aftermath.

New Chairman Mid-way through the year we had a change of Chairman. General Sir Peter Wall GCB CBE DL came to the end of his tenure with the Trust and was replaced with Lieutenant General N A W Pope CBE in June.

In his first Samachara newsletter as Chairman, General Pope commented: “I want to begin by paying testament to the achievements of my predecessor, General Sir Peter Wall.

Throughout his tenure, he gave the Trust his undivided attention. And the charity flourished under his assured stewardship. He has left us well set to exploit opportunities as and when they arise.

I was lucky enough in January to revisit Nepal and see first-hand the incredible work that our field staff are doing to implement the many initiatives that your support has made possible. Our long established and respected presence in Nepal means we’re in a fantastic position to reach Gurkha veterans in some of the most remote and difficult terrains in the world. For 200 years the Gurkhas have fought valiantly alongside us. Now, we fight for them.

Prince Harry celebrates our work We saw out 2017 with a Remembrance Dinner hosted by His Royal Highness Prince Harry at Kensington Palace.

The event was attended by some of our long-standing supporters and major donors, who very kindly made a significant contribution to the Trust in order to attend.

Also present at the black-tie fundraising event were GWT Vice Patrons Joanna Lumley OBE and Field Marshal Sir John Chapple GCB CBE DL. Making a speech before the dinner, His Royal Highness said: “The men of the Royal Gurkha Rifles are some of the most dedicated, caring, humble and courageous soldiers I have ever had the privilege to meet. They are an inspiration to me and to anyone fortunate enough to meet them. I am honoured to call them my friends.”

“The Gurkha Welfare Trust provides the most incredible support to these men, their families and the communities in which they live; the charity doesn’t pretend to have all the answers but listens to what its beneficiaries need and provides it in the most efficient I am proud to be your Chairman and will commit ‘heart way possible.” and nerve and sinew’ to help to take the Trust forward in the years ahead.”

Our year in stats (16/17): • We paid a Welfare Pension to 5,798 Gurkha veterans and widows across Nepal.

Floods In August our staff faced an altogether different chal- • We provided advice or treatment for over 130,000 medical cases. lenge when Nepal faced its worst monsoon season • The Water and Sanitation team built 70 new in 15 years. We worked quickly to support those projects for villages across Nepal (34 in the East affected by the subsequent flooding. and 36 in the West).

• Our schools programme benefited over 40,000 chilAt the time, our Deputy Field Director in Nepal, Maj dren.

Hemchandra Rai MBE BEM noted that:

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the widows of those who served as a Gurkha in the British Army but did not reach the 15 years required to receive a British Army pension. Instead, as you’ve read in these pages, we pay them a monthly allowance to enable them to live their lives with dignity in Nepal.

Over the next year our work with our pensioners will change slightly. Following a detailed review of how we need to deliver welfare to these ageing and increasingly less-mobile people, we’ve decided to focus more on bringing aid to their homes as opposed to them having to travel to receive things like medical care or pension payments.

We’ve recently launched our Pensioner Support Team model. These teams journey into the hills to visit our pensioners and are made up of drivers, doctors, other medical staff and welfare staff. By operating in this way we’re confident we’re acting on the changing needs of our beneficiaries and adapting to the everchanging environment of Nepal.

CHANGES TO OUR MEDICAL SCHEME

Prince Harry celebrates the work of The Gurkha Welfare Trust

• Our two Residential Homes housed 57 veterans or widows.

• We hosted six medical camps which treated 10,514 people.

• We employed over 400 staff across Nepal.

• We advised over 600 Gurkha veterans and widows as they relocated to the UK.

Changes for next year PENSIONER SUPPORT TEAMS

Since our inception as a charity almost 50 years ago, Welfare Pensioners have been at the heart of everything we do. These are the brave veterans or

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We’ve recently teamed up with International SOS, the world’s leading medical and travel security assistance company, to help us to develop and improve our Medical Programme. On their recommendation, our brand new medical clinic in Pokhara is establishing a whole new standard of care in a country that has always suffered from inadequate healthcare provision.

To continue our efforts to improve healthcare access, we will refurbish a further four clinics by June 2018, equipping them with everything from medicines to lifesaving equipment so that Gurkha veterans and their widows can receive a high standard of medical care.

We will also recruit additional medical staff to better address the needs of a less mobile and ageing beneficiary population. Our aim is to improve the delivery of primary healthcare and in doing so reduce the need for hospital admissions.

Adam Bentham

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Brigadier John Anderson presenting a statue of FM Viscount Slim to the Director, Gurkha Museum

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GURKHA MUSEUM

his year has seen the full operation of The Gurkha Museum working under its new governance structure. From 1st January, Mr John Bulbeck, Mr Steve Maslin and Colonel William Shuttlewood were appointed as new Trustees, each bringing new specialist skills to the Board. Major Chandrabahadur Pun, as OC Gurkha Company (Sittang), became an ex-officio earlier in the year. Mr Martin Brooks, as Chairman, is currently leading the Board in developing new strategies for the Museum to ensure a strong, long-term, sustainable future. I am also delighted to report that Lieutenant General Nick Pope has joined Field Marshal The Lord Bramall, Field Marshal Sir John Chapple and Colonel Denis Wood as a Vice Patron of the Museum.

Staff and volunteers At Christmas last year our Collections Officer left to become Curator of The RAPTC Museum and in

April this year the Shop Manager left which left the Museum short staffed over the spring and summer months. However, it gave the Museum the opportunity to restructure its staffing posts. As a result Mrs Charlie Martin joined us in August as Commercial Manager to oversee not just the shop but all income generating activity and Douglas Henderson joined as Collections Officer in December. I cannot praise the Volunteers highly enough for the many hours they devote to helping at the Museum.

Education and outreach We began the year with a visit from teaching staff and Himalayan Studies students from the School of Oriental and African Studies. In February, the Museum participated in a multi faith seminar on Indian Army soldiers during the First World War, held at the Minna ul Quran Educational Centre in Forest Gate, London.

We were delighted to have been a contributor to the

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Army of India Medal with an Ava campaign bar. The Medal used to be displayed in the 6 GR British Officers’ Mess and was gifted to the Gurkha Museum in 2009

2017 Bi-Centenary Exhibition in Kathmandu run by the Nepal Art Council which ran for one month in April.

The temporary shortage of staff has curtailed our educational visits but we have still hosted three school visits including one from a local special needs school.

Winchester’s Military Museum Group, which includes

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our Museum, has an Education Officer who has also organised five visits from local schools during 2017.

Seven U3A and Probus groups have visited the Museum or been visited by myself for lectures on various heritage and cultural topics. We also hosted twelve Brigade unit visits and responded to many requests

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for assistance with heritage projects and battlefield study days. Visits included the 270 Gurkha recruits who travel from ITC Catterick as part of Exercise Tesro Kadam. Of particular note was the assistance given to us by QOGLR in support of our Armed Forces Day Event on 18 June. In May, Mr Kamal Purja once again brought over three hundred Gurkha veterans and their families on the annual Maddhat Shamua visit to the Museum and the nearby Chautara Memorial at Romsey.

Commercial and communications

Lectures

Acquisitions

In April Major Mike Tickner gave a well-researched talk on the role of the British and Indian armies during Indian Independence in 1947. This was followed in June by an excellent talk by Lt General Sir Peter Duffell entitled “A Gurkha Odyssey”. In October the renowned photographer Lt Colonel Johnny Fenn presented a well-illustrated photographic perspective on life in Nepal. The Museum hosts six winter lunchtime lectures on behalf of Winchester’s Military Museums on various military topics which receive good local support. We hosted two Sirmoor “Armchair Battlefield Tour” lectures given by Major Gordon Corrigan, who was again lecturing at the joint Royal Gurkha Rifles and King’s Royal Hussars’ Affiliation event here at the Museum, marking the centenary of the Battle of Ramadi.

There have been a number of donations of archives of personal papers, books and photographs from families of former and retired Gurkha officers. We have added to the insignia collection with the acquisition of a fine 7th Gurkha Rifles piper’s plaid brooch and an early Gurkha cross belt plate. At the Ramadi centenary event referred to earlier, 6th QEO Regimental Association presented to the Museum a fine silver statuette of FM Viscount Slim as Commander 14th Army in Burma and the 6 GR flag which was carried to the summit of Mount Everest in May.

GBA and GWT Regular use of the McDonald Gallery has been made

by Regimental Associations and Trusts for re-unions and meetings. These include the annual re-union for 9th Gurkha Rifles still held here each year in April.

GBA, HQBG and GWT have all booked this valuable asset which helps raise awareness of each facet of the Brigade. Throughout the year, the Museum has supported GWT events in Salisbury and London and other Association events such as the 6 GRRA Bicentenary Durbar at Kempton Park in July. We thank 6 GR Regimental Association members for their help and financial support for the Museum.

Mrs Charlie Martin has already set about sourcing new product ranges, particularly from Nepal and to heed the requirements of Gurkha Welfare Trust Branches which seek stock to sell at local fundraising events up and down the country. A new illustrated mail order brochure has been produced in time for Christmas trading. This year we produced a Museum brochure in Nagri script for the growing number of Nepalese visitors.

Friends of the Gurkha Museum Friends Membership is down slightly on last year and stands at 617. Membership is affordable and I would urge all to join and enjoy the benefits of free entry and many discounts. At the Friends’ AGM and Tea in May, Jason Askew unveiled his painting of Kalunga by Jason Askew which the Museum had commissioned last year. This painting will be hung in the McDonald Gallery.

Legacies We have received two financial legacies. I would once again encourage all with a wish to support the Museum and to protect and promote the heritage of 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles and the wider Brigade of Gurkhas for future generations to consider leaving a legacy to The Gurkha Museum Trust.

Gavin Edgerley Harris

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200TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS – POKHARA 23-27 FEBRUARY 2017

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DURBAR 2017

uring the 2013 Durbar gathering people were very enthusiastic and overjoyed at seeing long lost friends in the quiet and serene environment of BGP Camp. During the bhela I happened to overhear Brian talking with one of his old sathis about the possibilities of a further Durbar.

The idea began to grow and pretty soon began to take root. By the end of 2014 the seeds for the 2017 Durbar began to germinate.

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The first couple of meetings took place at Gurkha Haven Hotel after which we were able to select a working Durbar Committee. Our meetings entailed committee members travelling from all over Nepal every time a meeting was held. Quite a few were on active GWS service and we had to ensure that the meetings were scheduled on Saturdays to ensure the participation of those on GWS service. The following were finally selected as the Durbar Working Committee:

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Honorary Captain Kulbahadur Gurung MM, 5/5 and 3/6 GR, presenting commemorative badges to senior officers

• OIC Seating: Lieutenant Thamansing Gurung • OIC Security: Sergeant Tekbahadur Gurung • OIC Accommodation: Sergeant Suman Gurung From within Pokhara Camp our main contact and pillar of strength for the entire operation was Colour Sergeant Kamal Nepal MBE.

• Coordinator: Major Gopalbahadur Gurung MBE • Deputy Coordinator: Captain Kamalbahadur Gurung • Advisor: Major Gyanbahadur Gurung • Chairman Regimental Association Nepal: Captain Bhuwansing Gurung • Vice Chairman Regimental Association Nepal: Major Chandrabahadur Gurung MVO • Secretary: Lieutenant Purnabahadur Gurung • Assistant Secretary: Captain Pimbahadur Gurung • Editor: Major Lalit Dewan MBE • Treasurer: Colour Sergeant Jaibahadur Gurung • OIC Food: WO2 Prembahadur Gurung • OIC Decoration: Captain Dholbahadur Gurung • OIC Drinks: Captain Balkrishna Gurung • OIC Transport: Lieutenant Arjun Gurung • Asst OIC Transport: Rfn Bhobar Gurung • OIC Entertainment: Sergeant Moti Gurung

The working committee met once a month and updated each other on the problems and suggested ways and means of combating the various obstacles that surfaced. In essence the modus operandi followed much of what we did with Durbar 2013 with the exception of the following aspects: 1. We decided to print camp entry ID Cards to prevent gate crashers which we had in 2013. This idea was proposed by the Secretary and was well received by all. This prevented gate-crashers from entering under false disguises and in the end proved to be of great value for the command and control on the main day and for the beating of the retreat.

2. The reception party, normally held at Gurkha Haven, would be held at The Grand Central Hotel in Pokhara as the space at Gurkha Haven was not going to be big enough.

3. 24 Feb 17: All those attending the Durbar reported

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at AWC Kaski and were registered and issued with ID tags. Later on in the same evening a reception party was organized at the Grand Central Hotel in Pokhara to welcome all he British Officers, their families including all the Gurkha rank and file who came from the UK for the gathering.

During the Dubar of 2013 the Gurkha element was excluded which caused minor dissatisfaction. The change of venue from Gurkha Haven to the Grand Central was unavoidable due to the lack of space.

4. 25 Feb 17: The Main Day. 5. 26 Feb 17: Beating of the retreat would be held. This was preceded by a golf match in the morning which was held at The Himalayan Golf Club. Our thanks goes to Major Rambahadur Gurung MBE for allowing us to use the club for our competition.

Those who had nothing to do were taken around Pokhara valley for a sight seeing tour. Lieutenant Arjun Gurung organized this trip exceptionally well and every one had a very enjoyable tour. The Beating of The Retreat and the Pokhara tour were additional aspects for the 2017 Durbar.

6. 27 Feb 17: Dispersal.

A separate programme, in the form of a modified dinner night, was organized by the British Officer elements at Tiger Mountains on the evening of 23 February 17. The lack of a piper to play during the dinner caused some concern but the initiative taken by the AMA Major Dhanbahadur Gurung from the Embassy saved the day and we have much to be grateful to him for this. Naturally the diners had to bear the travel cost as well as the ED pay. Marcus Cotton kindly gave him free accommodation for the night.

I will only cover the main Durbar on 26 February 17 and The Beating of the Retreat on 27 February 17.

The setting within BGP was completed in a typically 6 GR style and kaida. A grand and regal gate was completed by Captain Dholbahadur Saheb and his men. The panche baja group from The Magar Group was ready to play by the gate. As soon as you entered the gate there were tables for checking ID tags and

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The Nepalese Army Pipes and Drums

The Golf toli with their prizes

further tables for issuing the 6 GR hats. Amidst gaph saf, hello, are kasto chha etc. people entered the camp. Light standing breakfast was issued to all and people slowly made their way to the football ground where the commemorative badges, so nicely designed by none other than John Mackinlay, were presented to all. Senior officers were detailed one to each rank.

Rachel Mackinlay was requested to give the badges to the widows. After the presentation a fit and spritely ninety six year old Subedar Major and Honorary Captain Saheb, Kulbahadur Gurung MM of 5/5 Gurkha Rifles and the father of Sergeant Gokul Gurung (Int Sect) presented the badges to the senior officers. He was in the 3/6th prior to partition.

The group moved slowly back to the main arena of the Chautara where the President, Brigadier John Anderson OBE, The Coordinator and The Chairman of The Nepal Branch gave short speeches. Thankfully all speeches were short and to the point.

It will be wrong of me not to mention General Ray Pett (sadly Marie could not be with us), General Sir Richard Shirreff and his other half Lady Sarah Jane.

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All will remember General Richard as a young dashing Captain from 14/20 King’s Hussars who was with us in Gallipoli Barracks.

The rest of the day was spent meeting long lost friends and talking about the past. Lunch was followed by nautch, ably organized by Sergeant Moti Gurung (Pipe Major) and after a very enjoyable day the old and bold left BGP happy and content.

The following day, 26 February 17, people were taken to places of interest. This was conducted in a round robin fashion and people, even from Pokhara, had a very enjoyable day as they had never been to these places.

The Beating of The Retreat was held in the evening.

The Committee was a little concerned regarding the performance by the Pipes and Drums of The Nepal Army but we need not have been worried because they presented a fabulously entertaining programme lasting for an hour. The girl pipers made it interesting.

The playing of lively Nepali tunes were particularly well received by the Buros. The attendance was far greater than expected but we coped with the seating.

The pipes and drums were all invited to drinks and bhaat after their performance and talking with them afterwards it was obvious that they were never treated like this elsewhere after their performance. A very memorable evening for us all.

the Durbar. The planning from beginning to the end went smoothly only because I received full support from all my committee members. The whole process involved ideas being thrown in the middle and selecting the best option, not you will do this my way. I was fully backed by John Anderson and Brian O’Bree from the Association which made me feel tension free throughout.

There are faint writings on the wall of yet another Durbar post 2021? I wonder if the writing on the wall will become legible in time to come. We can only keep our fingers crossed.

In ending, I would humbly like to thank my two brothers from the UK for their help, assistance and wilco attitude, and all my committee members who went out of their way and beyond to execute their responsibilities so very well.

Jai Sixth!

Gopal Gurung

Earlier during the day the golfers flexed their muscles at The Himalayan Golf Club where we had a very enjoyable game. Jack Furtado managed to finish the game with plenty left in reserve. The golfers were treated to a sumptuous dal bhat after the prize distribution.

Gerald Davies and a few others were taken by Major Balkrishna Gurung MBE to his fishing club and despite not having caught any fish the anglers had a very enjoyable day. Balkrishna Saheb must have forgotten to issue a warning order to the fish telling them to be cooperative!

As the coordinator I have very happy memories of

Durbar’s End – Gopal and Bhuwansing planning the next reunion

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49 years on

Tim, Julian, Jules, James, Alex and Guy

A happy face in the crowd

Drinks after Beating of Retreat

Bhuwansing Saheb, Rachel and John Mackinlay, and Gyan Bahadur Saheb

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Major Bhuwansing

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Time for a beer…

Kushiko nautch

…and bhat

Dawn Breaks

Rachel Mackinlay

General Ray Pett

Pim, Purna, Kamal and Chandra Sahebs

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NEPAL BI-CENTENARY DURBAR 2017 A PERSONAL VIEW

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s soon as it was clear that there was to be a bi-centenary Durbar in Nepal we signed up and organised our lives so that we could be there. We had attended the first Nepal Reunion in 2005 and had a wonderful time, had also attended the 2013 Nepal Durbar and had an even better time; there was therefore a concern that 2017 might not be quite as good. How foolish to even think of it; the 2017 Bi-Centenary Durbar was yet better again; it was simply excellent in every way. The four days, with two full days for the main events allowed lots of time for meeting old friends, and the organisation and bandabast were outstanding.

For many from the Association, the Reunion began with the Durbar Dinner on Thursday 23 February at Tiger Mountain organised by Marcus Cotton. It was essentially a British Officers and Families affair, and wonderful to meet up with so many that we had not seen for so long. It was particularly nice to see so many who one might not have expected to be part of the celebrations. Richard and Sarah-Jane Shirreff; no longer so tied up with matters of state, talked so positively about their time with the Regiment in Hong Kong, swapping memories of life in Sek Kong village.

Three generations of Neil Anderson’s family supporting him after his serious surgery, who had come all the way from Australia and New Zealand. Anthony Vosper, the grandson of Colonel Phipson, Linda and Ian Dilks, Anne and Lorne Campbell and Paul Gilham, all adding significantly to the occasion. Marcus laid on a superb supper, so similar to the ladies’ guest nights that we remembered, complete with a piper who managed to play Black Bear much to the delight of the guests; particularly the noisy ones.

On Friday, after a gentle day exploring the Pokhara bazaar there was the welcome party for the UK Members of the 6 GRRA, held this time at the Pokhara Grand Hotel and hosted by the officers of the Nepal Branch. So many old friends; we had all grown a few years older, but the same old spirit was

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still there. It was so nice to sit and chat in such a relaxed atmosphere and catch up with the lives of colleagues that we had spent so many years service with. I particularly enjoyed talking to Chinti who I had not seen since 2005. The hotel had provided a large room; drinks and some tasty tipan tapan followed by a delicious curry buffet in the adjoining dining room.

All too soon it was time to face the drive back to Tiger Mountain through a Pokhara that I barely recognised as it had changed so much.

The day of the Durbar itself dawned fine but cloudy; a pity that we had no views of the mountains, but ideal for the Durbar as it was cooler than 2013. On the ride from Tiger Mountain, with priority given to those with replacement joints, I wondered how many old friends

Reunion of Rinchen Wangdi Lepcha and Duncan Briggs after 35 years

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Duncan Briggs with Minbahadur Gurung and Badre Thapa, Corporals in his 1969 Recce Platoon

I would meet and how many names and numbers could I remember? For me though, this was the main attraction of the day; particularly the opportunity to meet those from my early years of service, who, when they had gone on pension or redundancy we never expected to see again.

The reception at the British Gurkha Camp was so efficient and so well organised; clearly a huge amount of background work had been done. Our hats and individual passes on lanyards were presented, plus our copies of the 200th Anniversary Commemorative Brochure. What a production that was! It was only later that one could really appreciate what a truly wonderful job Brian O’Bree and his team had done. It was a most imaginative and comprehensive presentation of the history and life of our Regiment; something to really treasure. Onto the football field to see our Gurkha comrades lined up in four ranks; what a magnificent sight it was, with the less fit sat to one side and widows on the other side. They then each received the beautiful commemorative badge and ribbon designed by John Mackinlay, from John Anderson our President, Brian O’Bree our Chairman, Gyanbahadur the past Nepal Branch Chairman, Bhuwansing the current Nepal Branch Chairman and the ‘less fit’ from Colonel Neil Anderson, the oldest serving British Officer present and the widows from Rachel Mackinlay.

Again, like the Brochure, the badge was just perfect!

Not a medal, but beautifully made and something to be worn with pride. We British Officers also lined up and received our badges, this time from Kulbahadur Gurung, believed to be the oldest serving Gurkha present and one who fought closely with Tulbahadur Pun VC at Mogaung in 1943. Interestingly, he was guided by his son Gokul, who retired as a Warrant Officer and who I had known extremely well since he was a rifleman. What a privilege to meet his father.

Numerous speeches followed, generally short and to the point, but John Anderson’s included a lovely touch; a presentation of a unique regimental flag to Gopal, the coordinator of the Durbar.

The bars opened and with beer in hand I abandoned my wife and made my way around the gathering. I had so many memorable moments; far too many to cover, but I will include a few. I met Pahalsing, who had been RSM on amalgamation in 1969; I had not seen him since 1970. I met up with Rachhebahadur, Minbahadur and Badre who had been the sergeant and corporals of my Recce Platoon in 1969-70; my first command; such a special moment. I talked for some time with Hon Lt QGO Sanbahadur who had been CSM HQ Coy when I was MTO, then RSM, but had also been our Sirdar and organised all the porters for our Annapurna South Peak Expedition in 1976. I also

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Mountain, but not before we caught up with John Cross on our way out. He was looking as young and sprightly as ever and as always was fascinating to chat to. We were quite exhausted; what a day it had been; so much excellent organisation and hard work to provide the experience of a lifetime. So much to talk about over tea on the terrace.

Duncan and Ria at the Golf Day

met Rinchen with whom I had climbed Annapurna South Peak all those years ago. I had not seen him since 1982, it was so nice to catch up and learn of his life in Darjeeling. I am afraid that there were plenty of “you don’t remember me saheb do you”, and they were correct; but after a bit of prodding, we always got there. We were all quite a bit older, usually fatter in the face and the midriff, but that lively sparkle in the eyes and friendly good humour were still there.

One such meeting was particularly special for me; I could not recognise the face, but recognised the voice; just the same as years ago, Rifleman Rasbahadur, who had been my orderly in the MT Platoon in Brunei in 1972-3. What a lovely man he was and it was wonderful to see him again after over 40 years!

It was so pleasing to see so many old friends and so many that I did not know, both former soldiers and their wives, sitting at the many tables having lunch and drinks, chatting away and clearly having a wonderful time. While wandering between the tables I saw snippets of what looked to be a fascinating film about the Regiment produced by James Herbert.

I finally reached the lunch tent and enjoyed the delicious curry that had been laid on. After lunch we sat and watched the cultural show performed by a local professional dance troupe with real girls! They were extremely good, and even performed some of the old traditional songs and dances like Resham Phiri Ri for the old folks like us. Finally, some time after 4 pm we said our farewells and made our way back to Tiger

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Sunday 26 February saw an early start to get ourselves to the Himalayan Golf Course for our bi-centenary round of golf. A very quick breakfast, a welcome from Gopal and briefing from Chandra saw the really good turn out off to their various start points all complete with caddies, cards etc; so well organised once again. Ria and I were paired up with Chandra, a very old friend, and armed with plenty of spare golf balls we drove off into the gorge. As ever, the scenery was stunning even with the huge earthworks linked to the new airport in Pokhara. Our golf was surprisingly good, considering how difficult it is to practice while living on a sailing yacht, and with Chandra’s knowledgeable and sympathetic guiding we had a wonderful morning. The course was as challenging as ever, playing back and forth across the river, but despite the wayward golf, with the amazing caddies we only lost one ball between us. Finally, we arrived back at the clubhouse for a drink, some lunch and a chat. It was good to see John Conlin properly dressed in the “old” 6 GR polo shirt, plus a number in the striking bi-centenary polo shirts organised by Gerald Davies and Richard Morris. Of course none of us could compete with Jack Furtado in his “jilly milly moja” as previously worn by the mess bar orderlies, but how wonderful to see Jack easily completing such a challenging 18 holes!

It was a wonderful morning’s golf, so perfectly organised but in a relaxed way, and our sincere thanks to Gopal, Chandra and their team.

Late afternoon; it was back into the regimental blazer and tie for the final event of the Durbar; the Beating of Retreat. We sat in the comfortable chairs on one side of the football field at the Camp with the beautifully painted 6 GR backdrop, plus both regimental and company flags. What a wonderful idea to include a beating of retreat. Sitting there, it brought back so

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Beating of Retreat in British Gurkhas Pokhara Camp

many memories of similar evenings in Hong Kong, Brunei and Belize. After a final briefing, the Nepalese Army Pipes and Drums marched on. They looked splendid in their tartans and uniforms and included a number of lady pipers. They put on a superb display of marching and counter marching and played many very familiar tunes plus a number of Nepali ones; it was all very well done. Finally, the lights dimmed and the buglers sounded Last Post as the Regimental and Company flags were lowered. In the silence a lone piper played a lament from a distant balcony and then the buglers sounded Reveille and the flags were raised once again. The band then marched off at rifle pace to “Yo Nepali”, a stirring finale. It was a most memorable retreat, the band were extremely good and the buglers were excellent.

British Gurkha Pokhara Camp for the two days, it is such a wonderful setting and the Regimental Associations, both in UK and Nepal had provided an occasion worthy of a bi centennial celebration. That the attendance was over 1,200 people of all ranks, from a regiment effectively disbanded 23 years previously seemed to me the ultimate proof of the spirit of the regiment we shared.

Jai Sixth!

Duncan Briggs

The following drinks and supper in the camp grounds provided a last chance to meet up with old comrades and I was lucky to meet quite a few who I had missed the previous day. Over supper there were lots of farewells to friends from the UK Regimental Association before we made our separate ways to our hotels and then onto our individual programmes.

What a truly outstanding weekend! Everything had been just perfect. We were so lucky to have the use of the

Durbar’s End

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Rinchen Wangdi Lepcha and Duncan Briggs on the top of Annapurna South Peak, 7,219m, in 1976 with Machapuchhare and Annapurnas II and IV in the background

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Gyan Saheb, Gopal, Bhuwansing and Purna Sahebs at the inauguration of the Repaired Lanmjung AWC

GORKHA AND LAMJUNG AREA WELFARE CENTRES

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Repair and retrofitting

he devastating earthquake of 2015 affected Nepal badly and some of our Area Welfare Centres were also affected. It was also the 200th year celebration of Gurkha Service to the crown.

Following the saying of “strike whilst the iron is hot” the President of The Regimental Association, Brigadier John Anderson OBE, wrote a short paper on how we could assist. He presented three possible options:

3. Option 3: Assist in repairing and retrofitting the AWCs in Gorkha and Lamjung which were affected by the earthquake.

1. Option 1: Create a cell where our ex Gurkhas could report and seek help. This was discarded as AWCs are already in existence and would need to create a separate cell in Nepal particularly for this.

2. Option 2: Assist with the education of ex 6th Gurkha Children. This would be a continuing commitment and would also need a cell in Nepal to select candidates.

Her Majesty, in her royal address printed in the Durbar brochure, mentions our donation towards the repair of AWCs affected by the earthquake. She also makes mention of the 6th as “My Regiment” which indeed is a matter of great pride and honour for us all.

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The trustees meeting, after some discussion, opted for option three and a resolution was passed to this effect. The Regimental Trust donated £48,000 for the repair of both AWCs.

The repair and retrofitting of both AWCs began on 20 March 2016 and was completed on 25 July 2016.

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This was the case with AWC Lamjung but AWC Gorkha cannot be far off. The Gurkha Welfare Scheme completed the task in a very short span of time and without hampering the needs of the ex-servicemen who came to seek assistance. We are thankful to The Gurkha Welfare Scheme.

The inauguration of the two AWCs were carried out by the following: 1. AWC Gorkha: Captain Bhuwansing Gurung, Chairman of The Regimental Association Nepal on 23 May 17. He was joined by Major Gyanbahadur Gu-

rung and the Secretary, Lt Purnabahadur Gurung.

2. AWC Lamjung: Major Gopalbahadur Gurung MBE. Gyan Saheb, Purna Saheb and Balkrishna Saheb, AWO Lamjung, were present.

The Field Director GWS was also present at both inaugurations. Nicely engraved marble plaques adorn both AWCs denoting the assistance provided by 6 GRRA. The Buros are very grateful for our help in getting the AWCs going again.

Jai Sixth!

Gopal Gurung

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A FAREWELL TO FREELANDS

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he 2017 get-together took place on 4 June at Freelands – a day tinged with sadness as it might be the last time that fishing takes place at Freelands given that we have sold the estate.

The intrepid anglers travelled the length and breadth of the country this year (David Bredin from Cambridge; Rick Beven from Deal, Jeremy Brade from Shropshire) with John and Rachel Mackinlay and Gerald and William Davies providing a local presence. Not to be outdone, Charles Blackmore flew in from South Sudan and arrived in time for bhat. Alex Shaw (and sons) and Paul Gilham also joined for lunch which was provided by the consistently excellent Amrit Thapa from Munal Tandoori in Putney.

The fishing was typical for this time of year – the Mayfly had been hatching for a few days so the fish

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had managed to gorge themselves already which meant that they were very fussy about choosing which fly to go after. Jeremy managed to trick a 3lb Brownie into taking his fly and this was the best fish of the day.

Several Grayling and smaller Wild Brown Trout and a Rainbow were hooked and I believe everyone had a fish on the line at some stage during the day although quite a few managed to escape – this is known in the sport as “long distance” catch and release!

It has been great fun hosting the fishing at Freelands over the past few years and I hope that the tradition continues even if we have to switch to a new venue for 2018. Tight lines!

Nick Gordon-Creed

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Gerald with a very nice Rainbow Trout

Jeremy’s 3lb Brownie

John Mackinlay

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GBA LUNCH AND 6 GR AGM Royal Military Academy Sandhurst 10 June 2017 As in recent years, our Annual Reunion and AGM was held alongside the GBA Annual Reunion at the RMA Sandhurst. Because Old College was being used for a course passing out that day, after the service in the Academy’s Memorial Chapel we walked to New College for the pre-lunch drinks and lunch.

As soon as Chairman GBA had finished his speech the twenty-four of us on the 6 GR table escaped upstairs to hold our AGM. This was followed by tea and our ‘Reunion’ in another ante-room. Being our 200th

Anniversary year, this was rather special. Mani Rai had arranged an excellent 200th birthday cake. Helen Hickey, our senior member present, was invited to blow out the candles and cut the cake with a smart kothimora kukri. Brigadier John, our President, then presented Helen and Carol Horsford, as widows of former distinguished officers, plus one or two other former officers with their 200th Anniversary badges.

Brian O’Bree

6 GRRA members posing in front of the 200th Birthday Cake

Which is cut by Helen Hickey

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The 6 GR 200th Birthday Cake from Gary and Radha’s Bakery

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The 6 GR Table at the Lunch

John Anderson presents the 6 GR Commemorative Badge to Carol Horsford

Tul, Dammar, Dai, Gary and Khusiman

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200TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS KEMPTON PARK

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29 July 2017

n a moment of madness at the 6 GRRA Committee meeting in September 2016, I volunteered to run the 6 GR 200th Anniversary celebrations in the UK. Having attended a number of large 6 GR gatherings before and seen the efficient way that Major Khusiman Gurung organised the All Ranks Reunion in Farnborough, I thought, “It can’t be that difficult.”

I started getting concerned when I was drawn in to sort out the commemorative badges (sourcing ribbons, cutting to size, attaching the badge and putting them in boxes) followed shortly afterwards by sorting out the collection and distribution of the Commemorative Brochures, which, by the way remains “work in progress.” This was all before a Warning Order had been issued about the 200th Anniversary celebrations in Kempton Park. My dilemma was putting out an instruction too early and getting members confused about the Nepal event with the UK one. I decided to

delay issuing instructions until after the three-day event in Pokhara.

Having organised the move of an Armoured Brigade out of Iraq by air and sea, I thought Kempton Park wasn’t going to that difficult! When I got to Pokhara for the 200th Anniversary celebrations there, my blood pressure started to rise. The programme that Major Gopal Gurung and his team had produced was absolutely amazing. The detailed planning and organisation that had gone in to it was obvious even before you arrived at the main gate of British Gurkhas Pokhara.

On return to the UK, I quickly organised our first planning meeting. It soon became apparent that organising this event was going to be more difficult than I initially envisaged. All my committee members

L to R: Major Mani Rai MBE (Organiser/Hon Sec), Brigadier John Anderson OBE (President), Maj Khusiman Gurung (Coordinator) and Lt Col Brian O’Bree (Chairman)

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Captain Birbahadur Gurung (Biru) still going strong at 70 plus Left to right: Maj Dammar Sahi, Maj Mani Rai MBE, Brig John Anderson OBE, HE Dr Durga Bahadur Subedi (Nepali Ambassador) and Maj Khusiman Gurung

had jobs which included shift work, which made getting everyone together a serious challenge. With each planning meeting “The Plan” slowly came together.

The biggest test was identifying the number of people

attending. I am deeply indebted to the 6 GRRA Trustees who approved my request for additional funding, primarily for transport costs, which I believe was crucial to the success of the event.

The decision to provide free transport proved to be a game changer. We had estimated an attendance figure of 600, but when we sold 500 tickets at the GBA Bhela alone we became more optimistic. In the end a total 1650 tickets were sold. The £10 “ticket” provided each person with a badge (6 GR Members only), brochure, sun hat, a two-course lunch and entertainment. The biggest attraction was the opportunity to meet old friends and comrades. On the bright sunny morning of 29 July 2017 the Plan was in place. There were still a few small groups working frantically sorting out the decorations before the first “Guests” arrived, but we were ready!

Captain Birbahadur Gurung (Biru) still going strong at 70 plus

On arrival, all attendees were presented with a sun-hat and a 200th Anniversary Brochure before they entered the main hall where food, entertainment and more importantly old friends were waiting for them.

After the inevitable mad scramble for the “goodies” and “Tipan Tapan” the proceedings began. The President, Brigadier John Anderson OBE, and Chairman, Lt Colonel Brian O’Bree, welcomed everyone

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The Nepalese Ambassador and Defence Attaché and their wives are met at Kempton Park Station

Rungi Burungi – 6 GR Wives with Durb

ar Hats

On the Race Course – waiting to receive 200th Anniversary Commemorative Badges

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Brigadier John presents a commemorative badge to the Nepalese Ambassador, His Excellency Dr Durga Bahadur Subedi

Above: David Franks, formerly 14th 20th King’s Hussars, makes a presentation to the oldest 6th Gurkha present

Taking a break aft

er the presentatio

n of commemorativ

e badges

Musical Support by the UK Gulmi Band

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1991 HQ Company reunion: Rick, Balkrishna Saheb and Tim

to the event and thanked the event organisers for their hard work. This was followed by an address by the Nepalese Ambassador, His Excellency Dr. Durga Bahadur Subedi, who emphasised the need to maintain the strong bond between Britain and Nepal.

After the speeches a few presentations were made to Members of the Committee and others.

As the drinks flowed, old comrades reminisced about the good old days in Malaya, Brunei, Hong Kong and Church Crookham. The hot humid days on exercise in Lantau, field firing at Castle Peak ranges and mosquito infested ambush positions on the Border were

recounted and relived as if they had taken place only a few weeks ago. The wives renewed old acquaintances and talked about the Family Lines in Tam Mei, Burma Lines and Queen’s Hill Camps. The hubbub of conversations in the Main Hall was punctuated by the sound of the Nepalese Cultural Band, amongst whom was our own Captain Birbahadur Thapa (Biru) – still going strong at over 70. The Gurkha Museum display of 6 GR’s heritage items was well received but what seemed to attract people was the Gurkha memorabilia on sale. Gavin Edgerley-Harris, The Director, said that “business was brisk” – well done and thank you, Gavin.

Numberis gather whilst the spectators fill the stands ready for the cultural display

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in the “Khusiko Nautch�. Work, the rain, the cold and age related aches and pains were all forgotten as mature gentlemen swayed and stomped to the beat of the madal and Nepali songs.

The highlight of the event was the presentation of 6 GR 200th Anniversary commemorative badges. Past 6 GR Commanding Officers, manned the presentation points as members of 6 GR proudly marched forward to receive their badges. The badge is a reminder not only of their service in 6 GR, but also of friends they made and shared experiences.

Major Khusiman Gurung receiving his Commemorative badge from Lt Colonel Duncan Briggs

The 200th Anniversary historical video produced by James Herbert, played on the huge screen in front of the main stands, as well on the many TV screens through out the hall. Instead of thundering hoofs and brightly attired jockeys the screens showed the crack and thump of artillery, mortars and small arms fire following the footsteps of our forbearers as they made history and added to our battle honours. After the historical video the Nepalese Dancers took to the stage. The light drizzle did little to dampen the spirit of the dancers and even less so of those who joined

For the finale, the Piper, who having played in the main hall, led everyone out on to the stands for the closing event. The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and the Committee for all their hard work in making the event such a success. As the sun began to fade and the drizzle became heavier, the 6 GR flag was slowly lowered to the sound of Last Post being played by the Bugler.

It was hard work and I could not have done it without the tireless efforts of Major Khusiman Gurung and the other members of the Committee – Thank you to them all.

Jai Sixth and Jai Gurkha!

Manikumar Rai

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200TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS HONG KONG

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12 August 2017

he annual 6 GR Association Hong Kong branch bundo took place on 12 August 2017, organized by Captain (QGO) Tara Prasad Gurung, Chairman, 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association, Hong Kong Branch. Lt Colonel Nigel Collett and Captain David Ollerearnshaw, representing the BOs, were guests of honour and a fine time was had by all.

David Ollereanshaw

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6 GR 200 GOLF DAY 28 July 2017

The 6 GR 200 Golf Players

BRIGADE GOLF DAY 2017

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Sherfield Oak Golf Club 14 September 2017

he 2017 GBA Golf Day took place on Thursday the 14th of September at Sherfield Oak Golf Club. The day was superbly organised

by Major Dammarbahadur Shahi from Headquarters Brigade of Gurkhas. As many of you know Dammar Saheb started his Army Career with 6 GR.

As you can see from the photo the 6 GR contingent did well with four out of the six players winning prizes as either winners or runners up in their division.

At the prize giving Col BG, Colonel James Robinson, indicated that the annual GBA golf day organised by Headquarters Brigade of Gurkhas, if agreed, could reThe competition was an individual stableford competi- place the Golf Days currently organised by individual tion in three divisions according to handicap. Some 30 Associations as it was becoming increasingly difficult golfers took part, evenly split between BOs and QGOs for the Associations to organise these events. and of course Jenny Roe. Paul Pettigrew

Dammar Sahi, Khusiman Gurung, Prakash Gurung, Paul Pettigrew, Budhabahadur Gurung, Gyankaji Gurung

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THE BATTLE OF RAMADI ONE HUNDRED YEARS ON

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29 September 2017

he Battle of Ramadi is not well known. But it should be. Fought over 29-30 September 1917 in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) between the multinational forces of the British Empire and those of the Ottoman Empire, it was in many ways a remarkable feat of arms. It was a fine example of combined arms integration and tactical manoeuvre, which stood in stark contrast to the grinding attrition of the Western Front. More significantly – from a parochial Regimental perspective at least – it was the first occasion that the men of the 14th Hussars (14H) fought in concert with those of the 6th Gurkhas (6 GR). None could know at the time that this relationship would mature through the course of the WW2 Italian Campaign and become the unique and

invaluable affiliation we know and cherish today.

It was fitting, therefore, that representatives of the antecedent Regiments’ Associations (6 GR and 14/20H) and serving officers from current Regiments (Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) and the King’s Royal Hussars (KRH)) should gather at The Gurkha Museum on 29 September 2017 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle and celebrate the enduring relationship between Gurkhas and Hussars.

Gordon Corrigan and John Smailes (surely the most dynamic duo of thinking woman’s crumpet since Batman and Robin) gave a tour de force tag team presentation. Their entertaining brio rapt the attention

An Exchange of Gifts – 6 GR and RGR to 14/20H and KRH; Brigadier Gez Strickland presents a kothimura kukri to General Sir Richard Shirreff

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Kut – Baghdad – Aleppo to pre-empt the anticipated Turkish “big push” from what is now Syria into Iraq, once enhanced military aid from Germany enabled this. However, the Turkish garrison at Ramadi blocked the intended Allied axis of advance and so had to be eliminated. The terrain around Ramadi greatly favoured the defence. The Tigris and Euphrates water systems, the treacherous soft sand sabkha (those who served on Op GRANBY will know all about this) and the dense vegetation of this fertile zone all combined to canalise movement and constrain manoeuvre.

In the Order of Battle, 2/6 Gurkhas were alongside 1/5 Moreover, the dependence of the Allies on the waterand 2/5 Gurkhas and 4 DORSETS, in 42 Brigade which ways for troop movement and logistic support (most particularly for drinking water for man and horse) was a constituent part of 15 Division. 14H was part meant their line of advance was tied to the course of of 6 Cavalry Brigade alongside 21st and 22nd Indian the rivers and was thus very predictable.

Cavalry; the brigade also comprised four armoured cars, horse artillery, engineers (Bengal Sappers and Set against this, the plan devised by Brooking, the Miners) and a logistic wagon train.

General Officer Commanding 15 Division, was imagiThe overall Allied intent was to advance on an axis of native. Deception – and the surprise this conferred of the audience even in the somnolent environment of the Museum library which might otherwise have done for many men of a certain age. They succinctly placed the battle in its historical and operational context before describing the plan of attack and how the battle unfolded. They spiced the narrative with “military factoids” which added colour and which brought to life the experience of the ordinary soldier. Weapons and artefacts relevant to the battle were also circulated amongst the audience, keeping many on their toes.

An Exchange of Gifts –14/20H and KRH to 6 GR and RGR; General Sir Richard Shirreff presents a cavalry plunger to Brigadier Gez Strickland

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– was central to its design. He sought to reinforce the enemy’s pre-conception that the Allied advance would come conventionally along the line of the Euphrates from the most obvious direction. Having fixed the enemy’s attention to his front, elements of the force would conduct a shallow envelopment (Infantry) and deep envelopment (Cavalry) to the south of the Turkish Main Defensive Position (MDP) and attack it from the flank and rear. The Cavalry would penetrate deeply to establish blocks on the Aleppo Road to ambush and cut off the Turkish line of withdrawal and to interdict any Turkish reinforcements. The Infantry brigades were to attack two-up into the guts of the Turkish MDP – 12 Bde on the left (east) and 42 Bde on the right (west). 42 Bde’s attack would fix the enemy whilst 12 Bde would turn his right flank.

The Infantry and Cavalry battles were separate in geography but linked in time and purpose. 2/6 Gurkhas led the Infantry advance to seize the key terrain of a relatively dominating feature (Aziziyah Ridge 165 ft).

The limited moonlight and barren, almost feature-

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less, pebbly terrain made navigation a challenge. It was SOP for navigators to pass one pebble from the left to the right pocket every 100 yards to try to keep track of progress. The direction from the forward assembly area was on a bearing of 265 degrees for 2300 yards. 2/6 duly reached its objective and further secured a passage over a dam to allow the Cavalry to exploit into the enemy rear. A and B companies of 2/6 then supported 1/5’s attack on Ramadi Ridge. Once firm, they were subjected to enemy MG fire which prevented any further progress since artillery support to neutralise this was unavailable. Eventually, it was realised that there was little to be gained in holding this exposed position once the 12 Bde attack was succeeding elsewhere. A withdrawal was ordered.

During the fighting men of 2/6 were subjected to enemy air burst shrapnel munitions. Fortunately the fuses had been incorrectly set to explode the shells too high above the troops; nonetheless, they still caused casualties. On a positive note, men of 2/6 at one stage ended up in a field of watermelons and in possession of some 50 errant sheep…

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Gordon on the Ottomans

Meanwhile in the Cavalry battle, 14H conducted their wide encircling move having crossed the dam secured by 2/6. They used the cool of the night to move to best effect and crossed the Aziziyayah Canal at 0830 as the heat of the day was rising. The canal was almost dry but with sheer sides of 20 feet in places it was a formidable obstacle and caused delay. The Bengal Sappers and Miners prepared crossings. 14H with V Battery RHA (13 pounders) sent patrols forward to scout enemy positions and subsequently to cut the Aleppo Road. The earlier Infantry attack had drawn forward Turkish reserves denuding the defensive picquets on the Aleppo Road, the principal Turkish line of communication (LoC) and escape route. The Hussars dismounted and “dug in” (at least in Cavalry terms anyway). The Turks attempted to dislodge them but V Battery broke up the attacks and neutralised the Turkish artillery being fired from barges on the Euphrates. The Hussars also cut the Turkish telegraph line, disrupting communications and sowing confusion in the Turkish chain of command.

The Turkish MDP was now surrounded on three sides with the Euphrates to their north and their escape route westwards along the Aleppo Road firmly blocked. 14H deployed standing patrols to maintain “eyes on” the enemy and provide early warning of a Turkish attempt to break out. In one such attempt, the Vickers and Hotchkiss MGs of the Cavalry Brigade decimated the surprised Turks, but they still pressed home the attack. Under pressure, 14H consolidated on the Aleppo Road. There was some “leakage” of Turks who infiltrated through the small gap between the road north to the river. But 14H held firm despite the unhelpful presence of the moon rising behind them silhouetting their positions to the enemy. Ultimately, the Turks withdrew and as dawn broke on 30 September it was clear that, aside from desultory sniper fire subsequently silenced by the MGs, the Turks had conceded the battle.

Overall, as well as opening the Allied route to Aleppo, the Victory at Ramadi resulted in the capture of 3,500 Turkish prisoners, 10 artillery pieces and immense

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Richard Shirreff, Ian Thomas and B Sqn HQ 14/20H with War trophies, Iraqi Desert, March 1991

quantities of combat supplies. In the scale of Great War battles, the casualty bill was relatively light. 14H suffered 11 KIA and 16 WIA; whereas 2/6 lost three KIA and 82 WIA (mainly due to shrapnel).

With a serious appetite stoked by tales of derring do, all decanted to the McDonald Gallery for a truly superb bhat. During lunch various presentations were exchanged between Associations and Regiments.

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It was a fabulous opportunity for many to catch up with old friends. The event reflected a sense of style, mutual respect, generosity of spirit and relaxed friendship which has long distinguished the unique bond between Hussars and Gurkhas. A “Special Relationship� indeed. Long may it endure.

Ian Thomas

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BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY Winchester Cathedral 4 November 2017

The group before the service

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he group photo should say it all but in fact the photographer was Gavin Edgerley-Harris and John Mackinlay was in the Cathedral searching for a bible for his reading.

So in total there was a goodly gathering of 23 including Robert Jones and his wife. Robert, as many will already know, is the artist who painted the “Beyond the Cuttack Legion� picture showing our Regimental

The piper plays a lament in the Cathedral

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Lunch in the Gurkh

a Museum

Above: Drinks before lunch in the Museum’s McDonald Gallery

Right: A photo with Robert Jones who sculpted the new Slim statuette, his wife and Paul Gilham, whose initiative the Slim Statuette was

dress throughout the ages and recently sculpted the silver statuette of Field Marshal Bill Slim.

In addition we had LCpl Roman QOLGR (kindly organised by Paul Gilham) to pipe for us both in the Cathedral and again after Lunch in the Museum. Lunch was a most enjoyable curry served in the McDonald Gallery with Gurkha beer in our silver goblets and our silver on the table. Joining us for lunch was Canon Richard Lindley who has conducted our Services for many years but sadly is finally retiring.

So successful was this mini Reunion that our Committee are planning to make this event the occasion for the 6 GRRA Reunion and AGM this year. Please therefore note your diaries with Saturday 4 November 2018 and be there. Not only is the short Service in the Cathedral a good way to show our respect for our fallen and indeed all who served in battle but the lunch afterwards is always an excellent chance to renew old acquaintances and embellish Regimental stories you told in previous years to those who understand what you are talking about, if not the exactitude of your tales!

Richard Morris

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FIELD OF REMEMBRANCE

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9 November 2017

very November on the Thursday morning before Cenotaph Sunday there is a ceremony in the garden of Westminster Cathedral to honour the war dead. Every unit of the British armed forces is represented, as well as a good number of Commonwealth and Allied forces. Small wooden crosses are placed in the ground in memory of individuals in plots arranged by units. The Brigade of Gurkhas always has a prominent stand a short distance inside the West Gate.

After GBA members recite the Gurkha prayer crosses are driven in the Gurkha plot by representatives of all the British and Indian Army Gurkha rifle regiments and current Gurkha corps. Everyone is shortly thereafter called to order for the two minutes silence, lead by a trumpeter of the Royal Household playing the Last Post. The silence is honoured by the bus, taxi and other vehicular traffic coming to a halt on the adjoining roads until the trumpeter plays the Reveille.

Prince Harry meets General Sir Garry Johnson and the QGOOs

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Brian O’Bree laying the 6 GR wreath at the Slim Statue

A member of the Royal Family always attends and then does a walk-about. Some of us remember the Queen Mother and the Queen attending a number of years ago, together with the Duke of Edinburgh, the latter as recently as last year with his Grandson, Prince Harry. This year it was Prince Harry alone, who always meets and chats with the Queens’ Gurkha Orderly Officers at the Gurkha plot. The Orderly Officers flank a member of one of the regimental associations who is introduced to the Prince. All units take this honour in turn and this year it was General Sir Garry Johnson of 10 GR. After the Garden of Remembrance ceremony is over we move to the Gurkha Statue on Horse Guards Avenue at noon. There regimental wreaths are laid around the statue, the Gurkha prayer is read and a Gurkha bugler calls for the two minute silence, during

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which a Gurkha piper plays “Flowers of the Forest.”

On the way to the Gurkha statue we pause briefly on Whitehall to lay a wreath at the Slim statue. Brian O’Bree laid the wreath for 6 GR and Bob Couldrey did so for 7 GR. Usually we have Colonel John Slim, 2nd Viscount, in attendance, recalling his service with 6 GR, but in his 90th year he was unable to attend this year.

Any member of 6 GRRA who has not attended these ceremonies should do so at least once. Attendance is somewhat restricted and a security clearance is needed but usually there will be no problem, even for next year, the centenary of the end of the Great War. Check with Mani Rai next year as the date approaches.

John Conlin

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The Kohler Painting of Michael Allmand VC that hangs in the College Library at Ampleforth (By kind permission of the Librarian, Ampleforth College)

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THE MICHAEL ALLMAND VC MEMORIAL WINDOW CEREMONY Golders Green, 11 November 2017

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he Catholic church of St Edward the Confessor, at Golders Green in North London, had been the place of worship of the Allmand family from the time it moved into the area in 193637. A little while after the end of World War II, a plan was mooted by the parish priest of the day to erect what was intended as a window of thanks-giving for the church’s survival of a near miss from a German bomb. It was also decided to remember Michael, not by name but by the badges of the two regiments in which he served, first the 6th Duke of Connaught’s Own Lancers, followed by 6 GR (for what were to be the last two months of his life). In addition to the central figure of St [King] Edward, the depiction of four saints (Alban, George, Michael and Martin), all associated with conflict, temporal or spiritual, may have reflected the particular respect in which the armed forces were held at the time.

Two years ago, John Conlin and Richard Morris visited the church and laid a wreath beneath the main window. As part of this year’s commemorative events, it was decided to repeat this act of respect to my brother’s memory, and to make it the final event of the two hundredth anniversary of the regiment’s foundation.

On Saturday, 11 November, 2017, at 10.55 we, along with a few parishioners, assembled before the altar, and five minutes later we observed the traditional minute’s silence out of respect for those killed in war.

Then, bearing the wreath given to me, and flanked by Brian O’Bree and John Conlin, I moved forward and placed the wreath where it could be seen beneath the memorial window. Then I stepped back (but not backwards, as those accustomed to this procedure normally do!} to re-join my supports. In all this we

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able to mix socially over refreshments. Bernadette and I were particularly gratified to have spoken again to a number of people with whom we had visited Myanmar (including Mogaung and the Taukkyan War Cemetery, Yangon, where Michael lies buried) late in 2015. On the way to the pub some were able to see his name, added to (one might say superimposed As we left, I asked myself what it was that we had upon) those of local people killed on active service just done. Was there significance in the lack of any personal name on the memorial window, which made in both World Wars, carved in the war memorial not it difficult for casual observers (other than those famil- many yards from Golders Green underground station.

If I write ‘added’, it is with good reason, for Michael’s iar with regimental badges) to identify the person(s) commemorated? Perhaps it reflected the wishes of my name had originally been omitted from the list prepared for the stone mason, an error noticed and parents who, although intensely proud of their son, fought shy of any ‘glory’ which the appearance of the rectified only after the monument had been unveiled. family’s name on the window might bring.

It is with genuine feeling that, on behalf of Bernadette My father, who had served in the Cheshire Regiment, and myself, and members of our extended family, I wish to thank the 6 GR Association for not having forgothad been awarded an MC. He had lived through ten one of its number. I like to think that the Victoria the horrors of World War 1, but had never spoken Crosses awarded to him and to Tul Bahadur Pun for about them. More likely (or so it seemed to me) he outstanding bravery in the same action at Mogaung in had preferred the memorial without any names to June 1944 constitute important evidence of the spirit bring to mind all who had died in these conflicts, of cooperation without which no organization can work ‘whose names are known to God alone’. It was their unrecorded names, rather than that of Michael alone, effectively, the very same which has bound Europeans and Nepalese together since they first joined forces which the window could be said to honour. and were incorporated into English service two hundred years ago. May that spirit long continue to thrive.

The day ended with us moving up the hill towards Hampstead where, at the ‘Bull and Bush’, a pub of Christopher Allmand eighteenth-century origin, twenty or more of us were had been accompanied by the current parish priest, Fr. Tony Convery, who concluded the short ceremony with a prayer. All that remained to be done was to record the event photographically for the interest of past, present and future members of the regiment.

The Allmand Family with John Conlin, Richard Morris and Brian O’Bree

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GURKHA BRIGADE DINNER 9 November 2017

The 6 GR Table at the GBA Dinner in the Evening

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he Gurkha Brigade Association dinner at the Army and Navy Club provides an opportunity for a different type of remembrance: this an occasion when former colleagues from all Gurkha units can meet and mingle over drinks and dinner to recall the past and chew over the future. Sadly, in recent years attendance by members of our Association has been limited to a stalwart few regulars; however, this year we succeeded in achieving the largest table in the room, squeezing 11 around a table designed for 10. It is important that our Association is well represented at this occasion, and it is hoped that more will make the effort to be there in future.

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The evening followed the established format – briefings by HQBG, the Gurkha Museum and the Gurkha Welfare Trust, followed by drinks and then Dinner. At the conclusion of dinner the Chairman of the Gurkha Brigade Association traditionally invites all to toast the Queen, the Republic of Nepal and the Brigade.

This year tradition was broken by the GBA Chairman who additionally requested those attending to raise their glasses and drink the health of 6th QEO Gurkha Rifles, in recognition of our 200th Anniversary – a very much appreciated gesture by those on our table.

Mike Channing

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REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY CENOTAPH PARADE

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12 November 2017

unday 12 November dawned bright and clear, but with an increasingly brisk and cold wind which blew the length of Whitehall, for the National Remembrance Day Parade. The security processes this year reached new heights: the event was a ticket only occasion for those marching, and the pre-clearance that that involved resulted in a very easy access to the assembly area on Horse Guards Parade. Such was the police presence that one might have believed that the Met’s entire force, including armed police, were on duty, affably wishing all marchers “good morning” as we went by.

The eventual march past the Cenotaph and back to Horse Guards passed without incident to the usual public acclaim; it has to be said, however, that over the years our drill has suffered from lack of practice (‘could do better’ was a less than adequate assessment of our performance) and from the fact that there were on occasions four of the contingent calling out the step, but rarely in unison and at varying paces.

Next time perhaps we should identify just one authorised pace maker! That said, it was a memorable occasion, with a gratifyingly large contingent of our old and bold Nepalese on parade.

From our perspective, the new-found efficiency fell apart on Horse Guards, however: the Gurkha Brigade Association had been issued with tickets in Column E, but on arrival at that column we were re-directed to Column F, where our Marker was found (on which we were allegedly known as unit E10!). Over the 45 minutes or so prior to ‘march on’, an increasing number of bewildered wearers of Hats Felt Gurkha could be seen making their way through the gathering throng in search of our place in the column. The great benefit of our relocation was that we were now placed one group from the front of the first column to march on – a very fitting outcome for 6 GR, who provided almost half of the total GBA contingent, to celebrate our 200th anniversary.

Following the march past the Earl of Wessex, and dismissal on Horse Guards, the majority of our contingent marched to Smith Square nearby where they were royally entertained to lunch by Dai and Elizabeth Hitchcock in their home. During lunch Colonel David Hayes, Chairman The Gurkha Brigade Association, presented Dai and Elizabeth with a suitably inscribed GBA plaque as a token of appreciation for their very generous hospitality enjoyed by many of us for several years now.

Mike Channing

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DIARY OF EVENTS 6 GRRA DIARY OF EVENTS – 2018 GBA Memorial Gate Ceremony, Constitution Hill

12 March

6 GRRA Committee Meeting

27 April

Cuttack Lunch

27 April

RGR Reunion and Army v Navy Rugby, Twickenham 6 GR Fishing Day GBA Memorial Service and Reunion Lunch, RMAS The Patcham Down Indian Forces Memorial GBA Bhela, Queen’s Avenue, Aldershot 6 GR Clay Pigeon Shoot, Wells All Ranks Reunion, Oak Farm School, Farnborough GBA Golf Competition

5 May TBC June 9 June 10 June 7 July 18 August 8 September 13 September

6 GRRA Trustees Meeting, Gurkha Museum

1 November

6 GRRA Annual Reunion and AGM, Gurkha Museum, following Book of Remembrance Service, Winchester Cathedral

3 November

GBA Field of Remembrance Service, Westminster Abbey

8 November

GBA AGM and Dinner, Army & Navy Club

8 November

NMA Gurkha Chautara Memorial Service

11 November

Remembrance Day Parade, Cenotaph

11 November

Cuttack Lunch 6 GR Shoot

7 December (TBC) January 19

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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.

CUNNINGHAM Dr. David, who died on 19 July 2016.

FISHER

Mrs Jean, widow of Lieutenant Colonel Tony Fisher, who died on 6 March 2017.

GURUNG

WO2 Rajesh, who died on 27 July 2017.

NEATH

Mrs Margaret, widow of the late Lieutenant Colonel Roger Neath OBE, who died on 23 November 2016.

REYNOLDS

Mrs Primrose, widow of Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Reynolds, who died on 10 January 2017.

ROBINSON

Lieutenant Colonel Vyvyan MC, who died on 2 February 2018 (obituary to follow in 2019).

ROSS-HURST Mr Edward, son of the late Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth and Mrs Cecilia, who died on 7 March 2014.

SUTTON

Major Nick, who died on 11 October 2017

DR DAVID CUNNINGHAM David Miller Cunningham was born in Glasgow Scotland on July 21st 1928. He died two days before his 88th birthday on 19 July 2016 after a short illness.

David graduated in Medicine from the University of Glasgow in March 1951. Following this he was a resident medical officer at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

He also ventured into Glasgow’s darker corners, including the Gorbals, while practicing medicine as a young graduate. He would carry his own light globe and often had to deliver babies in very difficult circumstances.

Attending to the victims of razor gang fights was a regular Saturday night occurrence. David recalled that the medical staff on duty knew which gangs were about by the type of injuries inflicted. However, doctors and nurses could walk around safely at night without being harmed in any way.

From 1953 to 1955 David served as Regimental Medical Officer with the 1/6 Gurkha Rifles during the Malayan Campaign.

Following is part of a testimonial written by Lt Col A.E.C. Bredin, Commanding 1/6th Gurkha Rifles, upon David’s retirement from the Army.

“He fulfilled his duties as regimental officer with the utmost zeal and efficiency and he has earned the trust and the liking of all ranks, British and Gurkha. He has had to look after over 200 Gurkha families, a big task in itself. This has meant the supervision and running of a families medical hospital in addition to the normal unit medical centre; and, with the assistance of two Gurkha midwives, as well as a W.V.S lady, the bringing into the world of a large number of Gurkha babies and their subsequent medical care. Here again Captain Cunningham has won the esteem of a large number of Gurkha families.”

“Over and above all, he has been very much an

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1955 until 1957. David would often entertain his family with stories from his days as a ship’s surgeon. He was very good at storytelling because he never embellished anything. Yet he did so with great humour.

In 1951, on one of his voyages with the merchant navy, David sailed into Sydney Harbour for the first time. He knew almost immediately that he hoped to one day settle in this beautiful city.

He emigrated to Australia in 1957 and his parents followed him soon after. David joined a medical centre in Merrylands, Sydney before setting up his own practice.

He quickly embraced the Australian way of life and appreciated the qualities of the quintessential Australian character; their straightforward and friendly manner, their honesty and their humour. It did not take long for David to build a rapport with the locals, even though many of them could not understand his Scottish accent. David told his family that, at first, the community used to say, “There is a new doctor in town and you can’t understand a bloody word he says.”

Dr. David Cunningham in Malaya in September 1954

officer of the battalion, taking part in many of it’s activities; and unusual for a doctor – he has been a keen shot and has been out on a number of patrols in the jungle at his own request. Sometimes of course, he has been in, either on foot or by helicopter, to attend to wounded or injured men.”

David really enjoyed his time among the Gurkha community in Malaya. They always held a special place in his heart and memory. On ANZAC Day each year, he would march alongside the Gurkhas in Sydney and attend the luncheons that followed. His last march was in April 2016. The Nepalese/Gurkha community paid tribute to David during their luncheon in 2017. In fact, several members of this community travelled from Sydney to lay a wreath at David’s funeral service.

David’s family were deeply touched by this gesture.

Following his time in Malaya, David was appointed Senior Surgeon with the P&O Shipping Company from

On the other hand, David had to become accustomed to Australian slang. Initially he found it a challenge when patients described their symptoms in a manner he was unfamiliar with. By the time David retired in 1994, he had treated three generations of some families.

David met his wife, Joy, in Australia and they married in 1960. They enjoyed 54 years of marriage. There is a certain chaos that comes with four children under four and running a busy medical practice. In the early days, patients used to ring the home phone at all hours of the night. David would do house calls as well as conduct his hospital duties at Guildford Private Hospital and the orthopaedic ward at Liverpool Public Hospital where he worked as an associate orthopaedic surgeon from 1958 until 1992.

After working very long hours attending to the needs of others, David would often change and feed his own babies.

David enjoyed a very good relationship with Joy’s

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father, Les Hanna, who was with the Australian 4th Light Horse Regiment at age 17 and landed on the beaches of Gallipoli. Soon after, General Birdwood chose Les as one of six Australian horsemen to go to India with him. Les joined the 11th King Edwards Own Bengal Lancers serving under Colonel S.B.M Sarel from 1917 until 1923.

Les was recommended for a VC, however, being a junior officer, was awarded the DSO. This was presented to him by George V at Buckingham Palace. Soon after this Les returned to Australia with his new wife Anne, an Irish nurse, whom he met at Bovington Camp. They were married at Claxton Hall.

During his career, David was also a medico-legal consultant and an honorary clinical teacher for the Faculty of Medicine of the University of NSW from 1984 until 1994.

Other appointments and achievements included; President and Chairman Private of Doctors of Australia 1973-1976. Chairman of the Steering Committee of IATROS, the International Association of Private and Independent Doctors, 1980. Chairman of IATROS 1980-1990 and Australian representative until 1994.

David was well travelled yet he regretted that he was unable to fulfil his dream of visiting Nepal. Sadly a diagnosis of diabetes later in life prevented him from doing so.

In 1994 David and Joy retired to the seaside town of Forster on the mid north coast of NSW. They enjoyed many happy years there. Joy passed away suddenly in November 2014 aged 80. David and Joy are survived by their four children, Sally, Nicky, Lisa and Scott.

David lived a full life and was destined to make his mark on this earth. He was a loyal friend, a caring and dedicated doctor and, his greatest achievement, a devoted husband and father as the most important thing in his life was his family who greatly miss his guidance and constant reassurance, his integrity, his sense of humour and his generous and thoughtful nature.

Sally Cunningham

MARGARET NEATH (The following is taken from the eulogy, written by Sue, Margaret’s elder daughter, and read at Margaret’s funeral on 14 December 2016 by Father Hugh Bonsey

David was elected Doctor of the Year in 1987 by the American Congress of County Medical Societies.

He was Chairman of the Medical Board of Holroyd Private Hospital from 1973-1994 and Chairman of the Diabetic Association of Forster/Tuncurry from June 2005-2007. He was also President of the Great Lakes Bridge Club for several years. He had many hobbies and interests throughout his life including Judo (he was a black belt and instructor), boxing, opal mining, gardening and bridge. He played bridge three times a week right up until his death.

David enjoyed growing orchids and roses and listening to all types of music. He was passionate about carpentry. He made furniture and built model ships.

David devoured many books during his lifetime and he mastered all aspects of the computer. He had a sharp mind and could recite poetry by memory.

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at the Parish Church of St Giles, Great Wishford.)

Margaret was born Margaret Ford to a family who lived in Blackpool, Lancashire, where she was brought up with her younger brother and sister. Her father owned several grocery shops and specialised in selling game. It was a strict Methodist family and her father had a very fine baritone voice. Margaret remembered singing from an early age round the family organ. She inherited her father’s love of music and was also a talented singer winning many competitions in her early days. Younger daughter Honor inherited her lovely voice.

Her teens were interrupted by WW2 and she left home and joined the ATS. When visiting Plymouth in recent years to see Sue and her family she often used to point out the gun emplacements on the cliffs at Down Thomas where she spent long cold nights

FAMILY AND EVENTS

spotting enemy aircraft. After the war, she stayed in the peacetime ATS with an exciting posting to Singapore. It was on the troopship train to Southampton that she met Roger and a ship-board romance ensued. She used to tell the family that before they were out of the Bay of Biscay he had announced his intention to marry her. The outcome was a wedding in Singapore 18 months later after Roger recovered from a nasty bout of polio which she helped nurse him through.

He always said she was the inspiration for his incredible recovery.

Margaret loved her work with the Gurkha families and she supported many young officers and their wives as they moved out to the Far East and faced up to the demanding challenges of living in an army base far from home. Sue remembers the big Christmas lunches in her teens where all the young officers without families were invited to a traditional turkey lunch in the searing heat of Malaysia or Brunei. In return, the Neaths were treated to an exciting boat trip to a deserted island, Pulau Babi, in the South China Sea where, on the beach, mess orderlies laid on a full curry lunch complete with regimental silver and damask table clothes.

Life from then on was a series of postings and house moves – she has Both she and Roger loved in her papers a typed list to travel and the holidays of every house, army rest became epics adventures house and troopship they meticulously planned lived in (or on) between over months and months.

1949 and their final move She kept some wonderful to Beehive House, Great photo albums describing Wishford in 1981. A count in amusing detail the of these comes to nine happy holidays in Malaya, countries, 47 moves and Canada and latterly in 28 houses where they Margaret Neath Europe – as young girls Sue lived for more than six and Honor were taken on holidays that most people months. Here [in church] today is Brian O’Bree – the would only dream of.

Neaths and O’Brees shared a house in Seremban, Malaya for six months in 1955 resulting in a strong Great Wishford provided a wonderful final home from friendship between the two families over the years.

1981; they loved their cottage Beehive House and relished the idea of a permanent home for their retireWith the pressure of constantly moving and setting up home many contemporary army wives would have ment. They were the ideal village residents throwing themselves into village life, the church, the Oak Apple given up travelling and stayed in the UK. However, Club, the WI, NADFAS. Every day brought something she loved the life. Most the time she threw herself exciting until they became frail in the mid-90s and into supporting Roger, finding schools for the two girls (the list of these is also very long) and providing lived quietly there together until Roger passed away in 2012. Margaret’s move to Braemar Lodge in Salisthem with stability amongst all the changes for bury was precipitated by a serious fall and a hospital which they were always grateful. stay. She was very independent and did not relish the

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thought of leaving her home but over the last three years she had wonderful care and support from Alison and her team at Braemar.

She was so fond of her two sons-in-law, Peter I (Burkill) and Peter II (Lowless), who ran the gauntlet of parental scrutiny when they arrived on the scene and have supported her wonderfully through the years. She is remembered by Peter II for “a readiness to embrace whatever culture she was privileged to be experiencing, usually learning the local language to explore its depths, limitless hospitality and quiet enthusiasm.” Beneath this were meticulous logistics, with endless lists, famously in triplicate, for every move. Her most enchanting skill was to take an interest in everyone she met; and to do so with a warmth and focus that most often would draw the other out of themselves and put them at totally at ease. She is remembered by them as a devoted wife and loving mother as well a friend to so many. Losing Honor was her greatest sorrow, something both she and Roger found it hard to talk about but felt incredibly deeply; the close contact Peter II has maintained with her over the last few years gave her great comfort.

The arrival of her four grandchildren in the 1980s was the greatest source of joy in her later years. She was immensely proud of them and her photo albums tell the story of thirty-three years of involvement and adventures with them all. They remember her as loving, intensely interested in their lives and ‘old school’ traditional in her own way but also fun-loving and playful. Finally, having two great grandchildren has been lovely for her. There are some pictures of her with them as babies which we can share with them when they are older to show them how happy she was to meet them both. On 8 October, the whole family was together to celebrate Margaret’s 95th birthday. It was a wonderful day and the memories are now particularly precious.

Sue and the family would like to thank you all for coming today. As Margaret got older and her friends gradually departed it started to seem that today’s service might be a very small and quiet affair. To all of you who have come to remember her, the family

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would like to say thank you for showing her the love and affection today that she in life showed all of us.

PRIMROSE REYNOLDS If I began with ‘Primrose Diana Wilson was born at 12 Caroline Street near Sloane Square on the 2 April at 10.45am’ – I think her mother was keen not to give birth the day before – ‘weighing 7lbs 14 oz’ and if I kept going at that pace we would be here a while, so instead I would like to pick aspects of my mother’s character that I think made her special.

She had tremendous energy and enjoyed being busy. Bridge, tennis, Women’s Institute, the Gurkha Museum, NADFAS, crosswords, quizzes, family drinks parties, friends’ drinks parties, cooking, working on the family tree, reading, Scottish dancing, flower arranging, watching cricket – I am sure many of you knew her in some of these contexts. There were limits: when busyness became podding the umpteenth crop of broad beans Dad had picked, she usually needed the help of Brian Johnston or Dan Maskell, and more cunningly she managed to insert an unwritten clause into her marriage contract that she would never iron one of Dad’s shirts.

She was a devoted wife and mother. Not only were she and Dad married for 56 years, they were a tight unit, with Mum providing the running commentary to aid Dad’s slightly shaky memory – “now, you remember meeting Mrs X at the Y’s drinks in May; she has that little Jack Russell and has just come back from holiday in Mongolia and she’s distantly related to Z!” Their love was born from experiences shared, some sad of course but mostly very happy. I suspect she rather spoiled us as children because it took so long for them to have us – nine years in fact – but childhood was a blissfully secure time for us.

She believed firmly in duty, sadly an old-fashioned concept today, but as the daughter of a Green Jacket there was a natural affiliation to the Gurkhas and she did her best to create a sense of community and in particular as CO’s wife in the 6th Gurkhas she was the perfect support to Dad. On return to Northington

FAMILY AND EVENTS

Primrose as CO’s wife at the Gurkha childrens’ Christmas party in Hong Kong in 1969

she took over roles in the village and further afield because they needed doing and, luckily, she had a gift for getting people together. Who can forget Operation Fruitcake in which she organised hundreds of volunteers to send thousands of cakes to the troops in the Gulf, whether as sustenance or artillery I never found out...

She strove for high standards in all things, great or small, even when she knew the odds were stacked against her. When a teenager, she was squeezing into a ball dress and sighed to her mother, ‘oh mummy I’m fat’. ‘Nonsense dear’, came the comforting reply; ‘you’re just plump’. It was true that mum enjoyed her food and rejoiced when a newspaper article said butter was now good for you again, but she enjoyed cooking and her curries were legendary. She had wanted to be a music hall star and had a superb command of the lyrics of a great canon of songs, but, she wrote in a grandparents book, ‘as I couldn’t keep in tune that was impossible.’ That classic English self-deprecation never became deprecation of others

though. She was warm and welcoming and always tried to see the good in people. This was made easier by the fact that she was such a cheerful person who made others feel good and it is wonderful that there is a Joyce Grenfell prayer in the service today.

Mum was a great planner and loved to travel. Dad’s career took them to Germany and South-East Asia but, on their return to England, every year there would be a family holiday Mum would organise, and once the children were off their hands, these holidays took a slightly surreal turn with visits to war zones like Lebanon just before the Israelis bombed it, to exotic parts of the ‘Stans, and to Ethiopia. When Nigel and I were small we remember being tested on world capitals while in the bath and it seemed as though mum was now keen to visit each one.

Eventually things began to slow for them both. They became devoted grandparents, always keen to know what the boys were getting up to, but were eventually forced to move from their beloved Northington due

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to ill health. It was typical that Mum was brilliant at making friends when she and Dad joined Sheila at Headbourne Worthy, helped by the fact that half of the residents were Northington refugees.

Finally, it is a comfort to us that Mum had a secure faith to sustain her and I am pleased that she is now reunited with Dad. When asked what advice she would give to anyone, there was just the simple: try and make other people happy. For her epitaph she wanted: ‘we will miss her’ – we certainly will.

Giles Reynolds

photograph all the WW2 6 GR War Diaries held there. This took many visits with Ralph in charge of photography and Primrose the page turner. Images of Primrose’s fingers can occasionally be seen on the corner of pages of the War Diaries now bound in the Museum Library.

AND GERALD DAVIES (MUSEUM CURATOR BEFORE GAVIN):

Primrose and Ralph were going strong long before I joined the Museum in 2002. Absolute stalwarts in both Shop and Archives. 6 GRRA archives would be the poorer without their tremendous input over the years.

BRIAN O’BREE WRITES:

We are most grateful to Nigel for allowing us to use this extract from the tribute he read at the funeral, capturing as it does wonderfully the enthusiasm, energy and selflessness of Primrose whom many of us knew and will miss too.

After their retirement to the family home in Northington, Primrose and Ralph remained staunch supporters of both the Association and the Museum, as the following contributions record...

GAVIN EDGERLEY-HARRIS (DIRECTOR THE GURKHA MUSEUM):

I do not recall a time when Primrose was not at the Museum! When I first joined the Museum back in November 1993 Primrose was a regular weekly volunteer in the Shop... She would always engage visitors in cheerful conversation and certainly made their visit more enjoyable. Primrose and Ralph also used to help with the Museum Shop stand at the Wessex Gurkha fundraising lunches run by the Fosters at the Watersplash Hotel in Brockenhurst.

Primrose then moved from being a volunteer in the Shop to being responsible for cataloguing the Museum Archives. She was joined in this task by Ralph and the two regularly came to the Museum to carry out this task for a number of years. It was during this period that Primrose, Ralph and I travelled up to The National Archives at Kew to

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NICK SUTTON Nicholas Sutton, the youngest of four boys was born on June 25 1954. His father was an officer in the Indian Army and his mother was a WREN who worked initially in Bletchley Park, decrypting Japanese war messages prior to being posted out to Malaysia.

Nick was born in Dusseldorf, Germany, but the family soon moved back to Wimbledon in London where they stayed for some time. Nick was sent off to boarding school but his final two years were at Brentwood School for his A levels. Amongst his class were GriffRhys Jones and his comedy partner Mel Smith.

Nick was not an academic but he was popular and loved sports, especially cricket. By his own admission, once he was in sixth form, he loved having his own study where he spent too much time listening to music loudly and not enough time studying.

He did pass his A-Levels though and while he was keen to pursue a career in film, one day when he was 17 years old, he cut out an ad from the Daily Telegraph where the British Army was advertising for recruits.

Nick passed his RCB but, because he was so young, he was posted for six months to the Parachute Regiment, where he learned how to bond with the troops that he was destined to lead.

FAMILY AND EVENTS

Jessica. After they married, Nick was still posted in Palace Barracks in Northern Ireland. It was after this stint that Nick was posted to Hong Kong and seconded to the 6th Gurkha Rifles.

Nick quickly settled in to the life of a British Officer in a Gurkha Battalion. He learned the language and “kaida” of the men. Nick commanded A Company. His Northern Ireland experience meant that his boys were very well trained when it came to Internal Security exercises. He gained the same amount of respect and popularity from his Gurkhas as he had done from his “Jocks”.

I returned to 6 GR in 1981 after a secondment to the Australian Army and then the Infantry Demonstration Battalion at Warminster. We instantly became great friends.

Nick was full of life, never seemed to age, was a very confident speaker and loved music and parties. We were peas in a pod!

Major Nick Sutton

Nick was a very popular Officer with his “Jocks”, which is evident from the wonderfully warm tributes they made about him when he was so very ill.

Between us we set up “Sahebs Discotheque” and had endless fun playing at various “gigs” in Hong Kong. These included a Cathay Pacific “Divorce Party” (organised by the divorcing couple!), a party on a tea plantation on Lantau Island (we were flown in and out

by RAF Wessex helicopters from Sek Kong!) and the infamous 6 GR “Hollywood Nite” party at Beas River Country Club. Couples came dressed as Hollywood stars. They had to sign in by writing on a pink car. The music was thumping, champagne was flowing and the party was voted the best Hong Kong had seen in years. Unfortunately, the RHKP didn’t agree and tried, several times, to close us down. We were never invited back to Beas River again!

He was nicknamed “Nick the Stick” because he was so skinny!

Nick had this concept that a discotheque was not just about the music.

He then met his first wife Ruth in Northern Ireland where he was serving after he came back from Singapore. They met at an Officers’ Mess party and were married after a short courtship. She was 19 and he was 25. They had three children, Ben, Adam and

We were “Showmen”! At one 6 GR party we adorned the stage with the Mess cannons, tiger skins and Regimental silver. “Jon, it’s all about frontage – we must look as good as we sound”!

What followed was a 20-year career in the British Army, operating across the world as a front-line infantry officer, serving with The Parachute Regiment, The Gordon Highlanders and 6th Gurkha Rifles.

When asked at his selection interview for Sandhurst why he had chosen the Gordon Highlanders, he said, because ‘they were going to Singapore’; the idea of the exotic Asian city state appealed to him.

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Nick served in the Falklands after Hong Kong. Here he helped to run the British Forces Broadcasting Service radio station with great success. This was the most southerly broadcasting station in the world at that time – and still is. By this time and at 39 years old, he’d had enough of the military and finally put his hand up for redundancy from the British Army in 1993.

He wanted to do something different.

In the army he’d done a lot of radio work, something he’d loved and which prompted him to move into the world of broadcast media, working in radio and television. He became a breakfast show presenter and a television news journalist with ITV News and Current Affairs and was subsequently appointed General Manager for ITV Television in 1994.

ness community and beyond. Karen asked Nick at one point what drove him to drive the Club’s success and he likened the Club to the Officers’ Mess he so dearly missed.

In September 2014 at the end of the Club’s AGM, it became apparent that Nick wasn’t well. He was anaemic, fainted on the night and had been struggling to go on walks with Karen and Jazz their beloved mini Schnauzer.

They discovered it was cancer of the lower end of the Oesophagus in the November of that year. Nick was stoic to the end, even taking it upon himself in a remarkably touching Facebook post to tell his friends that his death was imminent.

A not-so-successful business venture with a partner in a hot air balloon business in Bournemouth went sour when his partner disappeared with the money and left Nick with the debt. That led to some tough years that eventually saw Nick and Ruth go their separate ways after 30 years of marriage.

Karen and Nick were able to squeeze in a trip to Bali in June and then back to the UK in July to catch up with family and to visit his beloved “Jocks” at a Gordon Highlanders reunion. He and Karen also managed to meet up with some old 6th Gurkha friends at Mani and Sudha’s restaurant, the Gurkha Durbar.

In 2002 Nick got a job with a performance training group called Black Isle where he learned the business performance modules that he has used as a model to establish his own business in Australia in his last few years, training and coaching high-end executive teams. As part of the job, Nick was sent off on a course in 2003 where he met Karen with whom he would spend the rest of his life.

By this time Nick’s cancer had spread to the brain where he had two tumours.

He passed away on 11 October 2017.

The Western Australia Club now has “The Nick Sutton Library”.

I will miss his charm and wit and his total love of life.

Nick was a past President of The Western Australian Club where during his appointment he took the Club from the very brink of closure into new premises, overseeing the Club’s rebirth as a vibrant and now rapidly growing institution within the Perth busi-

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I will never forget that “it is all about frontage”!

Jon Titley

Photograph by Duncan Briggs

FAMILY AND EVENTS

RSM Pahalsing Thapa, Gallipoli Barracks, 1969

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ARTICLES

ASSAM, HANNAY AND THE GREAT MUTINY

T

he Shillong earthquake on the afternoon of June 12 1897, besides being the mother of all recorded earth tremors in the subcontinent of India at that time, also had a seismic effect on our regimental history, referring to the loss of our records from the early years in Assam and Cuttack. Although the regimental silver was also mangled out of all recognition by the collapse of the mess ceiling, silversmiths in London successfully made the bits into the 42nd centre piece that we all know; what we lost irretrievably were our diaries, the leather bound game books, scrap books, our library and all the souvenirs of our past which today might tell us what sort of a family we were one hundred and fifty years ago. When Major Ryan began writing Volume I in the 1920s, his foremost task was to record the huge events at Helles and Sari Bair while they were still in the minds of the survivors. He succeeded wonderfully and Volume I was printed in 1925. However, ten years after its publication Lieutenant Colonel HRK Gibbs (or Gibbos ) printed an eleven page addendum to Ryans’ history in which he added important fragments of our Assam narrative that had been found in the archives of the Governor-General as well as in the records of the Assam Rifles. This discovery somewhat enlarged the significance of our barely recorded exploits in Assam during the command of Colonel Hannay. Sadly, Gibbos’s addendum was never included in our history and now very few (unread) copies have survived. What follows is an extract from Gibbos’s 1936 draft, further expanded with the benefit of the diary of Margaret Hannay (wife of Colonel Hannay), as well as a relevant stack of Government General Orders covering Hannay’s command in Assam.

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These records came to us thanks to the generosity of Colonel Spencer Hannay; Kay Dawson (nee Hannay); Tony McClenaghan, Secretary of the Indian Military History Society; Squadron Leader Rana Chinna, Vice President of the Indian Military History Society and historian David Harding of 10 GR. In the 1820s Assam was a relatively unknown wilderness, the wildest and least explored territory of British India. On the 1832 Cabinet Library map it was shown as a huge white, featureless space approximately 400 miles long and 250 miles across, without a single detail of any settled population or the tracks and river lines by which to move. The first military expeditions had taken several months to enter the area starting from Calcutta moving overland to Goalundo at the junction of the Ganges and the Jamuna and then by large cumbersome country barges upstream to Gauhati. Moving onwards in much smaller local boats to Sadiya, they gained access to the many river gorges heading north and east until they became too steep and rocky to allow further passage. The river basin, which expeditionary forces tended to follow, was enclosed by steep hills to the south and the mighty Himalaya to the north. With an unusually high rainfall, the steep river valleys on either side quickly flooded to become impassable and magnificent forests darkened the hills above.

to become lawless and aggressive, ready to fight each other as well as the Ahom forces which tried to reassert their authority. So when the East India Company’s Bengal Army arrived in 1824, they were stoutly resisted by local warriors, who justifiably saw them as invaders. From the leisurely perspective of Calcutta the result of a fight between a disorganised band of “savages” and a regular Bengal Army unit seemed a forgone conclusion. But in the dark and dripping forest the local tribesmen had a superb knowledge of the ground and could move quickly to surprise the invaders with their bows and spears at close quarters. The forest and the steep valleys removed the East India Company’s advantages of firepower and logistics, and the indigenous tribes, emboldened by their success against the Ahom were unimpressed by the tiny British force sent against them; they had defeated the Burmese – why should they not defeat the British?

In the 1820s the irregular forces of the Bengal Army were in a period of constant reorganisation and units like the Cuttack Legion, which were raised as local battalions for a particular contingency, could disappear without trace. The bare facts of our transition from the Cuttack Legion to the 42nd Light Infantry are well set out in Volume 1, but missing from that story is the part played by the bold young men who saw to it that the battalion survived and at critical moments triumphed. In the case of 6 GR, our early survival was considerably due to a cadre of (mainly Scottish) officers, from the command of Simon Fraser (1817) to the command of Simon Fraser Hannay (1839 to 1861) – his grandson! After seventy years in Assam (1827 to 1900) it could be said that 6 GR was an Assam Gurkha regiment and that Hannay was its embodiment, commanding the 1st Assam Light Infantry very successfully for an extraordinary twenty three years, from its initial footprint in Assam, through the Great Mutiny and the campaigns to secure the border region which followed. Having spent most of his adult life in action with the 1st Assam Light Infantry, Hannay died in 1861 still in command and was buried in the garrison churchyard at Dibrugarh on the banks of the Brahmaputra river.

In the 1820s Assam was still at the farthest extremity of the East India Company’s writ and logistic reach; this presented a tough proposition for an expeditionary force tasked with securing the eastern borders and the chaotic and volatile indigenous populations who lived there. On either side of the Brahmaputra river route, “wild tribes” had settled in the jungle-clad mountains who were different in their appearance, physique and languages from their Indian neighbours. According to one academic theory they were Mongolian people who had migrated from the north; however, an opposing theory was that they were descended from the seaborne Dyak clans of Borneo.

Superimposed over them was the fag-end of a weak and exhausted Burmese imperial administration – the Ahom dynasty. They had governed Assam for 600 years but by the early 1800s had lost their grip leaving ungoverned spaces and allowing the indigenous tribes Although Hannay was central to our success as the

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Assam Light Infantry particularly during the Mutiny, in a characteristically understated 6 GR fashion, Volume 1 has little to say about him. From collateral sources we learn that he was born in 1801 in Galloway on the West coast of Scotland and probably sailed to India as a cadet in the East India Company’s military forces having taken an entrance exam in London, which to pass he needed to: • be at least 16 years of age.

• be without bodily or mental defect.

• able to write in a clear hand.

• construe Caesar’s commentaries.

• calculate vulgar fractions.

• have sufficient cash (about £300) to pay for his voyage and the purchase of his personal kit.

In 1820 at the age of 19 he received a commission as ensign in the Bengal Native Infantry. He served for 18 years mostly in the 40th Regiment (which later mutinied) and saw action in the first Burma war, arriving by sea and then leading several expeditions into the interior as well as publishing an interesting and still read exploration report which is in the archives of the Royal Asiatic Society Cambridge.

In 1827 he married Margaret Graham from Glasgow.

Normally CO’s wives don’t feature in the male space of a regimental history, but Margaret was no ordinary CO’s wife. In 1829 she accompanied Hannay on a three-month battalion move across India to Mhow.

True – she was actually carried in a palanquin by a team of ten bearers, nevertheless with the rest of the column she rose before dawn, sometimes at three am, sometimes as early as one, and warmed herself by the huge fires that were lit while their tent was struck and their rudimentary camp furniture was piled onto the bullock carts. From her descriptions we are able to see Hannay in sharper focus. According to a contemporary watercolour, he was a small erect Scottish figure, with a huge forehead, mean mouth and penetrating blue eyes that matched his resolute and decisive behaviour in the field. Margaret appeared to be the only British Officer’s wife in the column and received a standing invitation to the officers’ mess that was erected when the column reached its destination each day. She seemed to spend a deal of time in the

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company of the subalterns, often reading, sometimes to Hannay from the Bible, and sometimes to the young Sahebs from racier books such as The History of the German Empire or Walter Scott’s Life of Napoleon.

At the halt Hannay’s tent would become his office, and as he was Adjutant at the time, she would find herself signing his routine orders and leave passes so that his Colonel, “ a cross old bear”, would not know that he had gone fishing. This he did regularly with most of the officers’ mess when they came to inviting rivers; they also shot an abundance of game – snipe, partridge, hare and saw the occasional tiger. She wrote about the comparative luxury of the mess, the band nights, the dinners under canvas and plummeting morale when the last of the wine was drunk. But she was also aware of their mortality, the hardship of the sepoys and their families and the sudden fevers that delivered death regardless of rank or physical well-being. Wolves, jackals, robbers and gangs of thugs would pass through the lines at night, and on the move, at the first gleam of dawn she felt the surrounding hills and jungles had a joyous beauty (…that made her think of Scotland!).

At Mhow, the Hannays probably did not embrace the social rituals of a Bengal Army garrison with much enthusiasm, and in 1838 Hannay successfully transferred to the Assam Light Infantry. Their new home would be at Sadiya, which was still at the farthest extremity of the Bengal Army’s lines of communication. Unlike Mhow, which was a large and thriving station next to a well-established Indian town, Sadiya was a tiny garrison in the Assam forest. The buildings were small and mean, and the total absence of local builders and craftsmen meant that incoming Europeans brought with them all the basic paraphernalia of a nineteenth century home as well as their own doors and window frames. By the 1830s Sadiya consisted of a few rows of houses for officers and government officials, a barrack block and at the centre a small fort surrounded by a ditch and wooden palisade. The only social amenity was a racetrack.

Lieutenant Colonel A White – the CO, also held a political appointment so that he could represent the Governor in dealings with the local tribes. Spread

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Bhutan

Sadiya Dibrugarh

tra

mapu

Brah

Jamu

na

Gauhati

Shillong

rm

a

ASSAM Goalundo

Bu

Ganges

Jorhat

BENGAL 100 Miles

Map of Assam showing principal towns

around them the closest were the Kampti who had migrated from Burma and settled in large numbers in the neighbouring hills. They hated the British, in particular their efforts to supress the traffic of slaves which reduced the wealth of the tribal chiefs. Colonel White was confident however that he had successfully appeased the Kampti’s grievances and was unwilling to listen to reports of their continuing antagonism.

Alas, he turned out to be disastrously wrong. On the night of 28 January 1839, Kampti warriors swarmed into the cantonment and cut Colonel White and the Subadar Major to pieces, killing and wounding a total of 41 men. The garrison quickly recovered and a counter attack led by Hannay and Marshall succeeded in driving the attackers out of the houses and down to the river where 24 of them were killed.

It had been a close shave for the Hannays and in different ways also a turning point for both of them.

Calcutta was several weeks distant and Captain Hannay was now the senior officer present; he assumed

command and organised a successful follow-up operation which led to the break up of the Kampti tribe and the launch of his long tenure in command.

Meanwhile, after the chaos of the attack, Margaret resumed her journal in a depressed and sorrowful vein: “having lost every letter, paper and reference that I possessed on earth, I have now resolved on keeping a sort of diary to note down, even the most common place events of our every day life… I feel little, very little of my former confidence either in myself or in the world… I ought to be thankful that it has given place to a full dependence on God… The weather is gloomy, and our minds unsettled by finding out some feeling of disaffection in some of the men of the Regt. on account of Batta (allowances), which at this critical time is extremely vexing.”

After a married life on the move, the house at Sadiya would be her last. With Hannay away each day,

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Margaret spent her time sewing, writing and reading in their quarter by the river. The heavy monsoon continued and on dark rainy days she took exercise by pacing up and down on the bungalow veranda.

Officers called in bringing her gifts, a parrot, a baby otter, some flowers and they would read together. Her diary entries became sadder; she recorded her fevers and pains, missing Hannay, praying to God, criticising the new officers. She was particularly vituperative about Marshall the adjutant – who was “without a redeeming quality”. She calmly disregarded British India’s unwritten rules on segregation and taught an English class for the Indian line boys on her veranda, enjoying their bright intelligence but vexed by their unruly behaviour. A passing fakir woman also took up residence in their bungalow compound entertaining Margaret with the sepoys’ gossip. From her Margaret learned that the men, particularly the Nepalis and the Assamese hillmen, would die for Hannay but that they were less enthusiastic about her and some of the other officers. After a gap of two years her last entry was written shortly before she died on 17 June 1841.

She had been moved downstream to Gauhati, she wrote of her pains becoming unbearable, her parting from Hannay who was campaigning in the hills and of her darling son Henry, who “was well and good”.

Meanwhile Hannay was continuously up-country, leading an energetic campaign to bring the lawless tribes of Eastern Assam under the rule of the East India Company. Since the death of Colonel White and the follow-up operations against the Kampti tribes, there had been another uprising. The Assam Light Infantry had been deployed in small isolated forts throughout the border area which were vulnerable to mass attack; the garrison at Bisa had been completely overrun and all 23 men killed. Casualty returns signed

by Hannay reflected the extraordinary nature of the close-quarter violence in which all surviving wounded had been hit by arrows: “Poisoned punctured arrow wound to chest” and “Poisoned incised arrow wound of abdomen”.

By the spring of 1857 the harbingers of a widespread mutiny in the Bengal Army had become increasingly visible: in Calcutta native officers rushed to buy

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gold, sepoys became uncharacteristically hostile towards Europeans and in the countryside beyond the cantonments strange figures had been carrying coded symbols from village to village. When the storm burst in May 1857 British Officers in Native Regiments were completely surprised. “ I see them on parade for two hours daily, but what do I know of them for the other 22?” reflected a stunned Depot Commander at Ambala. “Our servants might plot our death by every description of atrocity and we might be in perfect ignorance of it” wrote the magistrate at Saharanpur.

Meanwhile at Simla the Nasiri Gurkha Battalion had become restless, causing fearful Europeans to crowd into a fortified house for overnight protection. Even in Assam it was not true to say that “no suspicion ever fell on the 1st Assam Light Infantry” (Volume 1 page 19).

By September the survival of British Garrisons from Delhi to Calcutta hung in the balance. Meanwhile on the surface the situation in Assam was much the same as it had been prior to the mutiny. Hannay had successfully commanded for sixteen years and was now confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. After Margaret’s death he had married the family governess Mary Campbell and had four children by her. The Regiment had moved down stream to Dibrugarh and military operations against the hill tribes continued.

However it was wrong to imagine that Hannay’s men were not also vulnerable to subversion. Unlike the Nusseree and Sirmoor Gurkha battalions, the Assam Light Infantry had recruited sepoys from areas in India which now supported the mutiny. And some of these men were beginning to receive seditious messages from their home towns. According to Sir Edward Gait: “In September 1857 an uneasy feeling began to display itself among the men of the Dibrugarh regiment, owing to letters received by some of the Hindustani sepoys from Shahabad, where many of them had been recruited; and some of them were found to have entered into a conspiracy with the Saring Rajah, a scion of the Ahom royal family who resided at Jorhat (on the Brahmaputra West of Dibrugarh).”

Unlike the fashionable young officers of the Bengal

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1888 Kohima, Rfn Bhudibal Thapa carrying a.577in Snider rifle. He was the CO’s orderly.

Army who could only spend two hours a day with their men, Hannay was continuously with his sepoys for there were no musical soirees to attend at Dibrugarh.

On learning from his own men of the subversive letters, he took immediate action, deploying his Shahabad recruited sepoys who might be disaffected, to

man the jungle outposts along the Brahmaputra basin, and concentrating his Assamese and Gurkha troops at Dibrugarh. This prevented the disaffected individuals from forming into a mutinous body. Once the situation was secure he ordered Captain Lowther and a party of Gurkhas to capture the Saring Rajah who lived

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downstream from Dibrugarh and was going to be the focal point of the planned uprising.

In a private letter Lowther described what happened: “After a long all-night march from Dibrugarh across a jungly and marshy country, sometimes on elephants, then on foot and then in boats the party reached and surrounded the Palace just before dawn. I told off my men rapidly and formed them into parties so as completely to surround and cover every outlet and corner…

Before long the ominous barking of a disturbed cur proclaimed that no time was to be lost. Off I went toward the guard-shed in front of the Palace. My sharpshooters following at the double. The noise awoke the sleeping guards and as they started from their slumbers, I caught one firmly and a Gurkha next to me felled with a butt end blow another of them as they were getting to arms… In the darkness and confusion no means of entrance could be found at first… however my police guide having been often in the Palace knew every room of it… and thrusting himself in at a door and soon brought me into the presence of the Rajah…

At sunset I carried off my prisoners by the same bad ground by which we had so stealthily arrived. We were followed by about 2,000 infuriated Mussulmans crying, praying and prostrating themselves before the object of their lingering hope of rebellion, the Rajah, but we drove them off…”

According to Sir Edward Gait – the Rajah, a mere boy, had been a tool in the hands of his first minister, Maniram Dutt, who from Calcutta had been sending seditious instructions and plans for the uprising.

When the news of the conspiracy reached Calcutta Dutt was arrested and three companies of the Naval Brigade sent to Gauhati preventing any further attempts to rise up against the British presence. Dutt was hanged and the young Rajah deported to India.

Sir Frederick Halliday the Deputy Governor of Bengal congratulated all concerned “ particularly Colonel Hannay to whom the greatest credit is due for (his) prompt and well conceived measures… ” By any standard, Hannay’s action with his officers and men had decisively prevented an uprising in Assam

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and assured the continuation of 1st Assam Light Infantry as a loyal regiment. In 1858 a General Order of the Governor General awarded eleven officers and sepoys of the Regiment the Indian Order of Merit (3rd Class) for distinguished conduct and loyalty to the State.

Subedar Ruggonauth Sing Subedar Kirtu Sing Subedar Hurloll Singh Subedar Mundur Kewas Subedar Issur Dutt Subedar Jugdees Kewas Jemadar Mohabul Thappa Jemadar Rugoobeer Thappa Havildar Runbahadoor Sing Bugler Shaick Bulloo And a further Order promoted seven others for their distinguished conduct in the same action. These awards were a significant recognition of the part played by 1st Assam Light Infantry in suppressing the mutiny in the north east.

In April 1861 Hannay, still commanding at Dibrugarh, died in office, he was buried in the garrison churchyard. Shortly after the Regiment was re-designated as The 42nd Assam Regiment of Native Infantry (Light Infantry); this brought us into the regular list and ended a precarious existence as an irregular corps.

Sadly Hannay’s significance in bringing us to this point in our history, although recognized by the Governor, has not been explained in our own history. And the loyalty and bravery of the Indian, Gurkha and Assamese sepoys of the 1st Assam Light Infantry have not been recorded in any Regimental list. In both volumes of our history the listed names reflect a later period when we became an all-Gurkha regiment; this erases the story of our existence as the Assam Light Infantry and the fortitude of the sepoys and the officers of that period. In a perfect world their names and their ethnic diversity would be celebrated, and their bravery and their decorations should be known, for they are an essential part of our 200-year survival.

John Mackinlay

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6TH GURKHAS ON EVEREST

hile many readers will be very familiar with the tragic events leading to the deaths of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine in their quest to complete the first ascent of Everest in 1924, I suspect that fewer will be aware that there were actually three expeditions leading up to the tragedy and that both officers and soldiers from 6 GR played a significant part in two of them.

began, exploring on his own and with friends as well as with his father who was a keen walker. School was characterised by boisterous pranks, sport and athletics but little academic success.

In the summer of 1887, after being commissioned into the 43rd Light Infantry, he took some leave and with a colleague travelled to Lucerne in Switzerland. They walked over the St Gothard and Furka Passes onto Meringen and from there with two excellent guides 1921 Expedition climbed the Wetterhorn. This started a passion for The first of these expeditions was in 1921. It was a mountain travel and exploring which never left long reconnaissance to the north of the mountain him. By 1889 he had managed a posting to from Tibet, having walked from Darjeelthe Indian Army, and to the 5th Gurkhas ing, given that Nepal was still to be in Abbottabad. He remained in 5 GR closed to foreigners for many years to until 1914 when he was posted to come. No European had been within command 1/6 GR. During this time 60 miles of Everest so a thorough he managed several seasons in reconnaissance and survey was esthe Alps, including one with Parbir sential. Although Brigadier Charles Thapa, a 5 GR khud racer who he Bruce, formerly 6 GR, was to have led took to Europe, plus expeditions to the this expedition he was unavailable for Baltoro region of the Karakorum, to military reasons and Colonel Charles the Hindu Kush, to Nanga Parbat and Howard-Bury took his place as leader.

Lance Naik Tejbir Bura’s with a group of soldiers to the Nanda The expedition left Darjeeling in May 1924 Olympic Medal Devi Group. In 1922, at 56 years old and returned at the end of October. It he was chosen for his experience and organising was a great success. ability rather than any expectations that he would go high on the mountain. He was however, well liked and 1922 Expedition respected by the team.

The success in 1921 led to an immediate decision to mount a full assault on Mount Everest in 1922 and for Also in the team of 13 “sahebs” was Geoffrey Bruce this Charles Bruce would be the leader. Charles Bruce of 2/6 GR. He was a cousin of Charles Bruce and was an interesting, larger than life character, but a very accomplished mountaineer of the classical school one of three Transport Offices on the expedition. He had no climbing experience but at 25 years old was and was probably unique at that time in terms of considered to be one of the best athletes in the Indian Alpine and Himalayan experience plus his knowledge of the peoples of the region. He was born in London on Army. He was born on 4 December 1896 and after school at Rugby joined the Glamorgan Yeomanry with 7 April 1866. His was a well to do family of the time; whom he served in WW1 in Egypt and Palestine. He his father 1st Baron Aberdare, wealthy after coal was discovered on their land and later Home Secretary and joined 6 GR in July 1917, serving on the North-West Frontier through the Third Afghan War and only weeks his mother the youngest daughter of General Sir Wilbefore the start of the expedition had been awarded liam Napier. Charles was the youngest of 14 children.

When not at school, most of his time was spent in the the MC for gallantry in action. There were also four Aberdare Valley in the hills of Glamorgan near Merthyr junior NCOs from 2/6 GR: Naik Hurke Gurung and Lance Naiks: Lal Sing Gurung, Tejbir Bura, and SarbaTydfil. It was here that his love of the mountains

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jit Thapa, I assume brought by Geoffrey Bruce and an orderly from 1/6 GR, presumably to look after Charles Bruce. The junior NCOs were mainly used to organise and supervise the porters as well as being in charge of the “treasure chest” on the walk in. Later, Tejbir took on a more prominent role.

Armed with a travel permit from the Dalai Lama the team set off from Darjeeling on 26 March 1922 and after a three day rest at Kampa Dzong reached the foot of the Rongbuk Glacier and Base Camp on 1 May. The team quickly began establishing camps on the mountain and by 11 May were on the North Col (Chang La) at 7,000 m. Unfortunately the plan for two attempts on the summit had to be changed to one due to illness and on 19 May the four available climbers set off, supported by a team of porters, but with no intention of using oxygen. On 21 May, the porters having dropped down, the team pushed up the mountain and by 14:00 hrs had reached 8,225 m, (26,985 ft); then a world record.

By this stage, one of the other climbers and the expert on the oxygen equipment, George Finch, had recovered from illness and with no recognised climber to support him turned to Geoffrey Bruce and Tejbir to join his proposed second attempt, but this time with oxygen. This involved giving them “a stiff lesson in the use of climbing irons” plus instruction and maintenance on the experimental oxygen equipment.

Finch had chosen Tejbir in favour of the others on the basis that “the man who grins the most is usually the one who goes furthest on the mountain”.

ing over dangerous slabs which Bruce somehow negotiated. They then headed upwards and Bruce’s oxygen failed. Finch reacted instantly, physically saving Bruce from a fatal fall and sharing his oxygen.

Finch somehow managed to find the problem and fixed it with a spare he had carried from Darjeeling.

Realising that he could not reach the top, despite being able to see it clearly; with Bruce badly shaken and having reached 8,326 m (27,316 ft) Finch decided to turn back. They had however, established a new world height record which was to stand for two years; an amazing achievement by both of them, but particularly Geoffrey Bruce on his first mountaineering expedition.

A third attempt on the summit was made, but in the North Col they triggered an avalanche which very sadly killed seven porters. This ended the hopes of the expedition which then withdrew from the mountain and was complete back in Darjeeling by 2 August. The European members of the expedition were awarded the Olympic Medal in Alpinism; silver with a gold overlay at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix; and a further eight medals were awarded at the 1924 Summer Olympics to Tejbir and the seven porters killed on the third summit attempt. Tejbir’s medal can be seen in the Gurkha Museum.

1924 Expedition

A third expedition was mounted in 1924. It should have taken place in 1923, but mainly because of funding difficulties had to be postponed. Charles Bruce was again chosen as the leader and Geoffrey Bruce was also chosen, but this time as a mountaineer, though with his language skills and empathy with loOn 24 May, supported by 12 porters they climbed to cal people he continued to organise the transport and the North Col and the next day onto the North-East porters. Four NCOs from 2/6 GR were also seconded Ridge where they established a lightweight camp. The to the expedition: Tejbir Bura and Hurke Gurung from oxygen was most helpful. That night and on 26 May the 1922 expedition plus Umar Gurung and Shamsher the weather was terrible and the three of them were Pun. There were 12 sahebs with a mixture of some in great danger of being blown down the mountain from the 1922 expedition and some new faces. Having inside their tent in the hurricane force winds. On 27 been in Darjeeling for a month selecting porters, 70 May they pressed on however, but Tejbir, who had from the 300 applicants etc., the expedition departed no windproof clothing and must have been suffering at the end of March following the same long route as terribly from the cold, collapsed at 26,000 ft (7,925 m). the 1922 expedition.

After being revived with oxygen he returned to camp.

Finch and Bruce carried on, largely un-roped, traversUnfortunately in early April, Charles Bruce was seri-

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Lance Naik Tejbir Bura, 2/6 GR, and British climber on 1924 Everest Expedition

ously stricken with malaria he had contracted on a recent tiger hunt. Lt Col Edward Norton took charge of the expedition and Bruce returned to Darjeeling, taking no further part. The expedition arrived at the Rongbuk monastery just short of Base Camp on 28 April. Establishing Camps 1 and 2 was the responsibility of Tejbir, Hurke and Umar. They set off from Base Camp with 150 porters for this purpose. Unfortunately 52 local porters quit the expedition and two days later Bruce dismissed all the other local porters and just retained 55 ‘Sherpas’. Interestingly, at Charles

Bruce’s initiative the team had selected the strongest, most competent porters for higher altitude work, calling them “tigers”, essentially the beginning of the Sherpa concept.

The Expedition pushed on to Camp 3, but there on 5 May the “tigers” suffered a dreadful night of – 21°F (-30°C) with only basic clothing and a blanket. Of 23 only four were fit. The team pressed on despite the weather, but by 10 May when the temperature dropped to – 39°F, Norton ordered a withdrawal.

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This was organised by Bruce; a magnificent effort in appalling conditions with snow blind, sick and frost bitten porters. Shamsher Pun was comatose at Camp 1 and Bruce and Hingston plus six porters carried him down to Base Camp, but he died on the way. He was buried the following day. One porter suffered so badly from frostbite that his legs were dead to the top and his feet black and putrid. He died in agony on 25 May. Bruce was clearly a tower of strength in this crisis; Somervell wrote that “he (Bruce) knows exactly how to get the best out of the porters and does so with strength combined with kindness”.

After a blessing by Dzatrul Rinpoche, the High Lama at Rongbuk Monastery, on 15 May, which Bruce believed had put new life into the porters, they returned to the assault. By 19 May, they had re-established Camp 3 just short of the icy slopes leading to the North Col, but by 25 May they had retreated again under atrocious conditions, including a hazardous rescue of four porters. By this stage only 15 of the 55 “tigers” remained.

On 29 May the first summit attempt was mounted by Mallory and Bruce, supported by all the fit climbers and nine “tigers”. All was well up to Camp 4 but high up in the North Col they were battered by fierce icy cold winds. The porters struggled and refused to go above Camp 5 at 7,700 m (25,260 ft). In fact Bruce and the lead Sherpa went back twice to carry loads dumped by porters; a superhuman effort which badly strained Bruce’s heart. The attempt was aborted.

The second attempt, like the first, without oxygen, and supported by six “tigers” was made by Norton and Somervell. They managed to establish Camp 6 at 8,170 m (26,800 ft) and from there made their summit

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attempt. With Somervell unable to follow, Norton climbed to a new world record height of 8,570 m (28,120 ft); around 900 ft (280 m) below the summit, but he decided to turn back. They finally reached Camp 4 at 21:30 using their new-fangled electric torches. For the third attempt; planned to be with oxygen, Mallory chose Sandy Irvine as his partner rather than Bruce, because of Irvine’s expertise with the oxygen equipment (Finch had not been invited on the expedition because he had recently divorced!).

They left for Camp 5 on 6 June and made their famous attempt on 8 June. They were probably seen by Odell, the support climber at 12:50 hrs, when the mists cleared briefly, high on the North Ridge. At 14:00 an intense snow squall began and the climbers were never seen again. Controversy has since continued as to whether they did reach the summit. This was not resolved, even with the amazing discovery of Mallory’s body in 1999. On 16 June the party left Rongbuk.

Geoffrey Bruce went on to command 2/6 GR and rose to the rank of Major General. He was invited to lead the next expedition to Everest in 1933 but for military reasons he declined.

On reflection, I feel that we can say that Charles and Geoffrey Bruce and the Gurkha soldiers from 6 GR who followed them, made a most significant contribution to this extraordinary piece of British mountaineering. Perhaps most important was their ability to bridge the gap between the “sahebs” and the porters that the expeditions so depended upon.

Duncan Briggs

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View of the Lhotse Nuptse Wall, Everest’s peak just visible, and the shoulder of Ama Dablam to the right

B

HIMALAYAN ODYSSEY

efore 1 R Warwick left Aden for Hong Kong in April 1960, someone gave me a copy of Ralph Izzard’s book, “Alone to Everest”. This was the Daily Mail reporter’s account of his trek from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp in 1953, when the first known ascent of that mountain was made by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, just before the Queen’s coronation. (‘First known’ because nobody is really sure if Irvine and Mallory (whose body was recently found on Everest) made it to the top although the general feeling is that they did not. And ‘ascent’ because I don’t subscribe to the word ‘conquest’ in relation to mountains; no one ‘conquers’ a mountain: one goes, one climbs (or not), one goes away (sometimes not), and the mountain remains.)

Without knowledge of Nepali, with sketchy knowledge of the route, and with no medical help within umpteen hilly miles in any direction, Izzard set off to write a story. He had never walked 180 miles in his

life, much less 180 miles either steeply up (ukalo) or steeply down (uralo), there being little else but ukalo/ uralo outside Kathmandu valley, but he had unlimited self confidence. Off he set, with a few porters and a cook, an untried but optimistic system of runners to carry his despatches back to Kathmandu (no portable wireless, computers or mobile phones in those days), to live off the land – to tell the unofficial story of Everest 1953. The subsequent book was a gem, telling what he did and how, and importantly what he could buy en route to live and do to survive. All this was well before the days of mass tourism to Nepal and many facilities that now exist. There and then, with all the confidence of a 26 year old (acting) captain, I decided that 1 R Warwick should mount an expedition from Hong Kong, to cover the same ground, a round trip of about 380–400 miles. My decision was easy; others had to be convinced.

First was a good and much respected CO, Lt Col Mike

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Ryan. No problem once he concluded that: a. I was not actually raving mad, and the trip could fall under the heading of ‘Adventure Training’, then making its mark in the army; and b. It could actually be done.

Over the first hurdle… Next, a case had to be made to HQLF, Hong Kong, and here Major (later Colonel) Bill Etches, battalion 2IC, lent his support and staff trained mind to the task. Cutting a long story short, eventually many other agencies became involved – HQ FARELF, MOD, HQ Brigade of Gurkhas, HQ BRIGLOC Nepal, DA Kathmandu, and more staff officers with more initials between them than you could shake out of three round trips through the alphabet.

However, it was agreed that we would mount an adventure training expedition to Nepal but with slightly altered aims, which excluded Everest Base.

Conveniently, and at no cost to us, the party would travel to Calcutta on a Gurkha trooping flight, entrain for Jogbani (the nearest station in India to Dharan and HQ BRIGLOC), trek to Namche Bazaar and thence to Mingbo – a 20,000 ft (or so) peak about ten miles south of Everest – which we would then attempt to climb; (great idea: we had no one with experience of snow and ice climbing, but never mind that small detail). After this, assuming we still had legs and the rest of our essential personal equipment, we would trek into Kathmandu, make our way back to Barrackpore and the Gurkha Transit Camp, by means not specified (though walking would be out!) and a subsequent trooping flight back to Hong Kong. All this would take place in October/November 1961. So far, and inevitably, the process had taken many months…

Meanwhile, the CO and 2IC changed, I was now 2IC C Coy, and it became obvious that for administrative reasons the members of the party would have to come from C Coy, except for a doctor and someone with high altitude climbing experience. We also had two Gurkhas attached to us from 2/10th GR by Lt Col (later Brigadier) Tony Taggart, himself a climber and a member of the Himalayan Club. By great good luck, an army doctor in Hong Kong, Major John Barrett, who had good Alpine experience joined us; he would lead the climb. Eventually, those chosen to go were 2Lt Ian Tomes, Cpl Derek Harrold (‘H’), LCpl Ray Neale, and Pte John Docker, with LCpl Jack Knight and Pte

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Jack Keen and Pasang Phutar en route to base camp

Matt Leaden as reserves, plus Rfn Chaturman Rai and Rfn Ranbahadur Rai, both from 10 GR and myself as overall leader.

As this was to be an official army expedition, we were entitled to, and were issued with, a lot of army equipment, from socks to parkas (last seen in Korea in 1953-54), Bergen rucksacks, and much else, plus a quantity of dry rations, including the dreaded hardtack which, amazingly, was later very popular. Each member of the team put £100 towards expedition costs and also bought some personal items such as jerseys and ice axes; our own PRI made a small grant to the expedition and, best of all, we were granted local overseas and ration allowances at Nepal rates, so giving us a reasonable if not huge amount of money. (In the end HQLF had really been very good to us.) Hong Kong suppliers provided us with items such as Pringle jerseys (excellent), a typewriter and a 16 mm Paillard Bolex film camera. (I first wrote this in a chalet outside Ste-Croix in Switzerland. In 1980, when I bought the chalet, I discovered – through a totally chance meeting with one of the Paillard brothers – that those cameras were made in Ste-Croix. What a twist in this

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tale.) The South China Morning Post offered £100 for a six part exclusive on the trip, and other offers came from the Birmingham Post and the Coventry Evening Telegraph. Financially we were OK. Then disaster struck. On 18 October 1961, eight days before we were due to leave HK, on a final practice climb on a feature called Jane’s Pimple, near Sek Kong, John Barrett fell nearly 90 ft, a dislodged boulder hitting his right thigh on landing. His climbing partner, John Docker, was struck on the forehead by another falling rock but not seriously injured. John Barrett was rescued in rapidly failing light and on difficult terrain by a helicopter of the RHKAAF, brilliantly piloted by Flt Lt Danny Cheung, later awarded a Queen’s Commendation for Service in the Air. (I saw the rescue myself: he should have had an AFC.) Three days later, after several operations, John Barrett’s right leg was amputated; (two years after that he was climbing again with an artificial leg: what a man).

HQLF wanted to know, not for the first time, whether we would now scrap the expedition; not for the first time they were told, “No.” Then, amazingly, they found us a national service doctor whose term was about to expire, for whom the MOD authorised an

extension. Thus did Hamish Macdonald, specialist gynaecologist and obstetrician, Scottish to the core, join us with just five days to go. John Barrett, in hospital, fully supported the decision saying, “You can’t just pack up. You have to go on.” John Docker also could not go, and Jack Knight took his place. So, on 26 October, after a few crazy days sorting out the changes, equipping the replacement members, re-listing the names of those insured, the party left Kai Tak aboard an Air India Gurkha leave aircraft for Calcutta. In the small first class cabin at the rear, the drinks were free, the meal delicious, the sari-clad hostesses were stunning: we did not feel that we were leaving civilisation for weeks to come.

Calcutta was hot and we were glad to move north, leaving Ian Tomes and Chaturman to bring up the heavy baggage, half a ton of it. This they did successfully – not easy, given that every box had to be sealed by very suspicious Indian Customs officers, and then shown with the seals unbroken at the IndianNepalese border to more suspicious Customs officers.

HQBRIGLOC in Dharan were very helpful, accommodating us and, my Nepali being sketchy then, lending us a young British officer who spoke the language

LCpls Ray Neale and Jack Knight, Everest summit clearly visible behind the Lhotse Nuptse Wall

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(Paul Pettigrew, would you believe?), who assisted us with porter selection and the breaking down of loads; (note: each porter carried one maund – 80 lbs – for eight shillings a day, 40p in today’s language). At 04.30, three days after our arrival in Dharan we were on our way – beginning with a 4,000 ft slog up to the Dhankuta pass. That evening, as we camped by a river below the pass and cooked supper, I commented to Hamish on the fairly rank odour of smoke and stale sweat of our porters. Five days later, I said that it wasn’t so bad after all; Hamish fell about laughing and said, “Well, you smell just like them now!”

It was a long hike to Namche Bazaar, the Sherpa ‘capital’ where, in those days, almost all expeditions to the Solo Khumbu region paused for breath. We spent 18 days on that trail, including one when we walked up hill all day and, not having reached a pass by nightfall, bedded down in an old cattle shelter; we scraped snow off the roof for water and the resultant cocoa was an interesting and not to be recommended colour. On another, in the middle of nowhere and miles from anywhere else, half our porters went on strike, demanding double pay: this was most unusual and the situation was promptly resolved by our three NCOs who, in that forthright language sometimes used by British soldiers, told them: a. what they could do to themselves (difficult) and, b. that we could carry their loads ourselves, which we did until we were able to recruit more in a village 24 hours further on. (I was very proud of their support then, and throughout.)

We fired the sirdar; Chaturman and Ranbahadur jointly took over his role, and we had no more trouble. The trek itself was special: apart from the constant ukalo/ uralo, crossing rivers on those rickety bridges, made of various materials of varying quality, often washed away in the monsoons, was special – occasioning more forthright language – but there they were and, like chickens, we always had to get to the other side.

In Namche we had already secured the services of Pasang Phutar, a high altitude porter, now a sirdar, who had twice carried to the South Col of Everest in ’53, for which he was awarded a Coronation Medal.

He was to be our guide and new sirdar and, with his son Ang Norbu, would be responsible for the next

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Ang Norbu, son of Pasang Phutar, and Keen with Ama Dablam in the background.

Ang Norbu had just prevented Keen from a lengthy tumble off an ice cliff

group of porters, all Sherpas, who would carry to Base Camp. Our route led to Thyangboche Monastery whence Everest is clearly visible above the massive Lhotse-Nuptse wall, and then to Dingboche Monastery where we saw the famous yeti scalp – or did we?

In both places we made the usual monetary donation, of course, in return for much needed blessings. Three days after leaving Namche, with some of the party beginning to feel the effects of high altitude, we established our base not far from Ama Dablam, one of the most strikingly beautiful mountains anywhere.

In front of us stood Mingbo, part, but by no means the highest part, of a small range running south and east of Everest itself. From the glacier we could no longer see the world’s highest mountain, but the closer we had come to it (about ten miles south) the more awe inspiring the wall and the 29,028 ft peak were.

(The height is now 29,030’ ft – for all the difference it makes to anyone attempting it!) We had arrived; what next? Pasang Phutar, Ang Norbu and I made a short reconnaissance up Mingbo’s lower slopes to select a route that seemed possible, up which the main party would carry the rations, stores and kit for a quick attempt on the summit. Next day, a Sunday,

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of people rushing for trains and buses in the UK, to work that day as they worked every day, of the routine and grind of normal life, and was massively content.

The evening meal was tinned stew with raisins and jam thrown in (mine anyway) tea, chocolate melted with snow, tea and more tea.

Ang Norbu, Pasang Phutar and Cpl ‘H’ Harold examine ‘the crevasse’

was spent in selecting and preparing stores for the advance camp; those to go would be Ian Tomes, Ray Neale, ‘H’, Chaturman, Ang Norbu, Pasang Phutar and myself. Manning base would be Hamish, Jack Knight, Rambahadur and another Pasang, a Sherpa hired to help with the chores there.

Early on 26 November we began the slow climb to the advance camp, during which the expedition leader distinguished himself by falling while crossing a small ice cliff. Fortunately, Ang Norbu, ahead, was wide awake and, belayed to his ice axe, stopped the descent: this was the only near accident we had and occasioned as little sympathy as you might expect, or deserved. By mid afternoon we had arrived at a site at about 19,000 ft (we had no altimeter but relied on a proof copy of a map of the Everest region, given to us by the Royal Geographical Society). From a wide, level platform we had a superb view: nearly 2,000 ft below was the blue canvas of the mess tent; to the west stood magnificent Taweche, the twin peaks of Thamserku and, beyond, a multitude of blue, white and brown mountains, thrown into relief by the setting sun. Just to the right was Ama Dablam; I thought

In the morning, cold and clear, Ray Neale, Derek Harrold, Ang Norbu and Pasang Phutar left to attempt the peak. We thought that if the going was firm, and there were no technical problems, they could be up in four hours and down in two. At first their progress was good; within an hour, however, they were in deep snow and moving slowly. Another hour and Ray was compelled to return to camp: his boots were full of freezing snow, he was in danger of being frostbitten, and he spent an agonising 40 minutes as two others rubbed warmth back into his feet. Meanwhile, as a rope of three, H, Ang Norbu and Pasang continued upward. By 11.00 they disappeared over a snow hillock a few hundred feet below the peak. At 3 p.m. they reappeared, slowly making their way over the icefall to camp where, on arrival and over hot tea, H told us the story.

There had been more snow hillocks to cross but the going had been steady, if slow, till very deep snow forced them to traverse some 70 or 80 ft across an ice cliff. There followed a vertical climb of about 100 ft on good ice and a second short traverse. This brought them to a ledge immediately below the saddle of Mera La, and a short climb to Mingbo’s summit, but – a big but – any further advance was halted by a 30 ft wide crevasse whose depth could only be guessed.

Without bridging ladders there was no alternative but to return. Pasang and Ang Norbu were particularly cross at being frustrated by what was, for them, a relatively small mountain. Over more hot drinks we discussed possibilities… the only one, really, was a descent to base, at least a day to reorganise, two more days to cross a saddle to the northwest (during the recce we had seen another party doing this), then move southeast and try from the other side: eight days, minimum, all being very well. Financially, we could not afford the porterage; (later, back in HK final reckoning showed that after all expenses, payment

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of our remaining bills and some small write-offs, the expedition account was in credit by £23.4s.4d).

Also, our rations would not cover all eight extra days.

Disappointed, we returned to base and subsequently to Namche.

There we remained for 48 hours or so during which, in Pasang’s house, we had a great party, of which my memories – clouded by raksi and chang then, and by the mists of time now – are few. I do recall Ang Norbu huffing and puffing during the Sherpa dancing, and that one of the girls said it was the same when he made love…that, in reply to a demand for one of our traditional dances (What?! are you kidding me!), we did the Hokey Cokey, which had everyone, including ourselves in fits of laughter…that Adi Jungalwallah, a noted Indian climber, was there trying to hire Pasang as sardar for the following year’s big Indian expedition (600 porters); he failed, after a Buddhist monk foretold problems which, later, did occur. Then we were off: the walk to Kathmandu, 180 more miles, was fast as we were gradually losing height, were by then very fit, and we made it in under two weeks. So after 42 days, exactly six weeks out of Dharan, the expedition was over. To end, however, a few reflections…

We were not high-altitude climbers but climbing Mingbo was in the visa applications and had to be attempted. Once there, we thought we could make it; that we did not was no one’s fault: Pasang, obviously the most experienced at this stuff, was emphatic that it would not go. But we made the trip, largely as conceived (if not to the Everest Base Camp), with high snow and ice thrown in – which, frankly, nicely added spice to it all. No one was injured and, thanks to Hamish, no one was ill, not even with diarrhoea, scourge of the Himalayan foothills.

No reflection whatever on Ray Neale but, given the make up of the party, mainly two officers and three NCOs from 1 R Warwick, I should probably have sent Ian Tomes on the peak attempt – not that he could have done anything about the crevasse but he was young, immensely fit and the balance in the assault group would have been better. Instead, for one of the few times in my life, I allowed political correctness

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into the equation. Feeling that a couple of 100% Warwickshire men should summit I chose Ray and H, and have long felt that it was the wrong grouping.

Was it worth it? For me, undoubtedly, and the others certainly thought so at the time. I think and believe they would agree now. Then, Nepal was only beginning to open its doors to outsiders, and we were there before so many of the rhododendron forests were decimated for fuel for so many expeditions and trekking parties, and before the subsequent, inevitable widespread soil erosion; before Everest and the trails thereto became rubbish dumps, as they now are. We were there before the hill children knew what mitai were and kind, but unthinking tourists dished them out to people without access to dentists. We were there before so many bhattis came into being, and lived on what we could carry and what we could buy which, since we were a small group, neither wrecked the local economy nor raised prices locally. We were there when the going was hard, and the only medical assistance was Hamish. If someone had had appendicitis or broken a leg, he would have had to deal with it, with our inexpert assistance, miles from anywhere. And then somehow we would have had to handle a subsequent evacuation, without radios (absolutely forbidden by the Nepalese government) and without helicopters on call. Finally, as soldiers, it was good for us to be on our own, cut off from all support, in a physically demanding situation and, with good discipline and comradeship, to come through it successfully. And our epitaph?

On a cool Saturday morning in January, three days after our return to HK, I walked into our Officers’ Mess; some of my brother officers were dozing in chairs after a four and a half day exercise in good weather. One of them woke up, saw me and, without missing a beat, said, not: “Hullo, how are you?” or, “Nice to see you back”, but dead seriously, “By God you people missed a tough week!” It was the new CO himself …!

Jack Keen

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T

DOLPO – LAND OF ‘YARSAGUMBA’

here are at least 14 areas across Nepal’s northern border where Tibetan language and culture dominate. Dolpo is one of the most remote of these regions, to the west of Mustang and to the east of Mugu. It falls in trans Himalaya, and is separated from the Tibetan plateau by another mountain chain known as the Tibetan Marginal Mountains which rise to 6,000 m. Various high passes cut through them to lead down to the Tibetan plateau.

During the winter, snow on the passes to the south can isolate northern Dolpo from the rest of Nepal. The Himalayan mountain chain, including Dhaulagiri at 8,172 m, acts as a barrier to the annual monsoon. This results in a semi-arid climate, with annual precipitation of less than 500 millimetres.

The region is historically divided into the four main valleys of Chharka, Panzang, Nangkhong and Tarap,

Dolpo

Pakistan

where most of Dolpo’s villages are located. Chharka is an isolated and iconic village which stands fortresslike high above the Barbung khola which runs south into the Bheri river. The Tarap valley is very much the cross-roads of Dolpo. The valleys of Nangkhong and Panzang drain westward into the Karnali River via the Mugu Karnali.

There is an airstrip at Juphal, which has recently been hard-topped, a four-hour walk from the District headquarters, Dunai. Early morning flights to Juphal leave from Nepalganj when the weather at Juphal permits.

By land, there are trails into Dolpo, in order of least difficulty, from Jumla in the west, Jomsom in the east and from Beni via Dhorpatan in the south. If Juphal is not operating, one can go by road to Rari in Rukum.

From there it takes five to seven days to get to Dunai.

Tibet Butan

NEPAL Khatmandu India

Map of Dolpo From ‘High Frontiers: Dolpo and the Changing World of Himalayan Pastoralists’ by Kenneth Bauer. Used by kind permission of the author.

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Photo by Doc McKerr

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Yaks in Dolpo

they can also grow enough barley or buckwheat to provide food for four to five months. However, life would still be impossible for them if they did not make money through trading to buy other essential needs.

They are the archetypal trans-Himalayan traders who Photo by Doc McKerr

In anthropological terms, the people of Dolpo, the Dolpopa, are impressively resourceful agro-pastoralists.

They keep substantial numbers of yak and large herds of goat and sheep, which provide for many of their needs. Each year, using skilful irrigation techniques,

Three Generations of Yak Herders from Charka

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Yaks returning to Charka laden with loads from the market in Tibet

have the personal physiology and own the yaks to act as the middlemen in getting goods from both Tibet and Nepal across the high Himalayan passes.

Changes in trans Himalayan trade For the Dolpopa, this trade was traditionally based on bartering grain-for-salt. Not much grows in the Tibetan plateau but there are huge salt lakes there from the time when the whole area was under the Tethys sea before the Indian plate hit the Eurasian plate to cause the rise of the Himalayas. In Nepal, there are no salt deposits but the middle hills, through clever irrigation, can provide a twice-a-year harvest of grain. Now the Chinese have built extensive networks of roads across Tibet so grain can be delivered easily enough to all remote areas. On the Nepal side, Indian salt (which is naturally iodised unlike the Tibetan variety from the dried-up lakes) is brought into the remote areas through a network of roads which, though nowhere near as extensive as the Chinese-built ones in Tibet, has greatly reduced the time needed to travel to obtain it. Thus, the traditional trade of salt-for-grain has reduced to a trickle. It has been mainly replaced by cash for Chinese goods.

This scale of this change was brought home to us on the two-day journey from Chharka to Tingkhu in 2011. We arrived at Chharka on Aug 30, and found the village empty apart from old people and very young children. The women were in the high summer pastures and all the men were away on their annual trading trip to Tibet. We were told that we would meet them returning home with their 500 yaks over the next two days as we headed north. The next day just before reaching the large meadow that is traditionally used as an overnight stop on the trail from Chharka to Tingkhu, we crossed a wide and fast flowing river in a thunderstorm. With an hour of daylight left, a weak sun appeared along with the first of the returning Chharka yaks to share the camp site with us. Our guide told us that the headman of Chharka was with the group so I went to have a chat with him. Like all his companions, he had been drinking heavily on the trail so there was not much chance of having an extended discussion about the challenges of life in Dolpo today! The yaks were loaded with every conceivable type of Chinese product so I simply asked him what they had traded in return. He raised a closed fist holding lots of cash, waved it around, and shouted, “paisa!�

Goods for sale at the Maryum market Where had these heavily loaded Chharka yaks come from? Each year, for about 10 days in early August, though the dates can vary, two large temporary markets are established at road heads in Tibet, just a few hours walk north of the Kung la and Maryum la passes. The dates for the markets are fixed one year ahead and are widely disseminated. Each market is supplied by about one hundred lorries. The markets are under the general supervision of the Chinese police but prices are in the hands of the traders. The police issue a permit (10 yuan/person in 2011) at the entry to the market area. They are checked again when each group of Dolpopa leave to start their return journey. Photography is strictly forbidden. It is big business at both markets with villagers from every village in Dolpo coming north over the two passes.

Thousands of yaks and some mules are involved, and congestion can occur on the passes and business activity in the markets is frenetic.

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Goods for sale at the Maryum market

Getting the cash to go on this spending spree?

The story starts with a caterpillar-fungus fusion that occurs when parasitic mushroom spores (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) infect and mummify a ghost moth larva living in the soil. A spindly fungus later sprouts from the dead caterpillar host’s head. Two to six centimeters long, the fungus shoots above the soil to act as a finger-shaped indicator for harvesters to find. This is yarsagumba, summer grass, winter worm, popularly known as the Himalayan viagra. It had long been used in Tibetan medicine as a tonic or energy giver, and to cure a range of ailments. Up until 2001 it was protected in Nepal as an endangered species.

Villagers were forbidden to trade in it. They could only sell it at the District office for some trivial amount. The bureaucrats in the District office could then sell it on at a fat profit into the Chinese market through their cronies in Kathmandu. No doubt hoping to expand this lucrative source of income, the law was changed in 2001 to allow unrestricted harvesting but sales across the border into Tibet were still forbidden; all still had to be sold at the District headquarters under the same arrangements as before.

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This clever plan fell apart in 2002 when the Maoists expanded their military activities into Dolpo. All elements of the Nepali government in the area were withdrawn to the District headquarters and the Maoists immediately liberalised the yarsagumba trade to the great financial benefit of both themselves and the local villagers. The message was a simple one: sell as much as you like to the Chinese middlemen, but give us a 20% tax and keep the rest as income.

They also encouraged villagers from the south to take part in the harvest and taxed them for entering the previously restricted areas. In 2003, 20,000 people from the lower southern valleys arrived in Dolpo, 5000 of them to Tarap valley alone. Yarsagumba was a major earner for the Maoists during the war, and the Dolpo villagers had never been richer. After the Maoist conflict ended, the greatly enhanced scale of harvesting continued, large numbers of people kept coming from the south, and the arrangement of selling direct to traders from Tibet continued.

The harvesting starts each spring just after the snow melts at about the 16,000 ft plus level. Only the very old and very young are left in the villages during the six weeks of the harvest. Otherwise every person is in the temporary camps set up near the harvest areas

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Material wealth is now starting to be prized above all else. With cash as king, there is a lot more envy, and alcohol abuse, already a problem, is becoming even more prevalent with the import of cheap and very nasty Chinese whisky. At a much lower level of concern, though still indicative, we saw how small children are becoming addicted to cheap Chinese sweets and confectionary, and Chinese cola, great quantities of which are brought back by the yak caravans.

Yarsagumba

in some cold and very exposed places. These camps in turn are serviced by a large subsidiary industry taking beer and food up to them. Descriptions given to us of what went on in and around the camps suggested a state of affairs akin to what it must have been like in the American Wild West. With bitterly cold nights, each year produces stories of inadequately clothed outsiders dying through altitude sickness and hypothermia.

The photo above shows a piece of yarsagumba worth about ÂŁ6 at 2011 prices. The fat piece is the dead caterpillar that has been progressively killed by the grass which grows through it and emerges through its head as a fungus which is the thin piece. Only the fungus appears above ground and it is difficult to distinguish it from grass among the snowmelt. The sharp eyes of young children are particularly good at doing so. The work is done on hands and knees. Once identified, the dead caterpillar piece must be dug up carefully as only the combined whole piece has any value. The harvesting starts at dawn. In Dolpo, most of the harvested yarsagumba is sold across the border at good prices to Chinese middle-men, thus avoiding paying mandated Nepalese taxes.

There is no easy way out. Money from trade has always been vital to sustaining life in these high, marginal lands. With the ending of the traditional trade of salt-for-grain, the income from the sale of yarsagumba is vital to sustaining life on a year-round basis in places like Dolpo. What must be guarded against is that it does not destroy the social and cultural foundations that are equally important to sustaining life in such a harsh and unforgiving land, not to mention the need to maintain the capability to sustain life should the yarsagumba harvest fail, either temporarily or permanently.

The vivid memories of our three Dolpo treks will remain with us for a long time, as will our hopes that the Dolpopa can successfully manage the period of traumatic change they are living through. They are an extremely tough and resourceful people, who have adapted to great changes in the past while still managing to preserve their distinctive culture and way of life. This could be their toughest challenge yet but there are good grounds for believing that they will do so again. We will long remain with them in spirit.

General Sir Sam Cowan

The challenge of change Economic change is invariably the harbinger of social change and this is well illustrated by what is happening in Dolpo. The sudden influx of large amounts of money into what until very recently had been a mainly agro-pastoral community is having a profound impact on the life, culture, economy and environment of Dolpo.

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The Khumbu Icefall

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Photograph by Alum Richardson

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THE GURKHA EVEREST EXPEDITION 2017 The Gurkha Everest Expedition 2017 was the culmination of a five-year journey for the Brigade of Gurkhas.

On 15 and 16 of May 2017, 13 members of the Brigade stood on the summit of Mount Everest, the first serving Gurkhas ever to do so. In turn, it is also the most successful mountaineering expedition on Everest in some time, having fixed ropes to the summit for the first time by non-Sherpas, achieved a 100% summit success from the summit team and returned all members without any serious injuries. It is also the start of something bigger and more enduring; the Gurkha Exploration and Mountaineering Society (GEMS) will be launched shortly, providing more opportunities for Adventurous Training to members of the Brigade and more remarkable achievements by Gurkha soldiers.

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was in Khandbari drinking tongba (in the middle of the day, I admit) when the first earthquake hit in April 2015, certainly nowhere near the dramas experienced by the Everest team who were at Camp 1 (6,000 m) at the time. Their tale has been well publicised and is an extraordinary one, but better told elsewhere (See The Journal No. 96). The first interaction I had with the team was some weeks later in Kathmandu, when I had the pleasure of meeting a group of shaken, but robust, mountaineers who had a story to tell and a mission to finish. So, after some good fortune and a few training events in Scotland

I made it to the start line of the 2017 expedition in a supporting role along with another Lieutenant from 2 RGR, Liam Smith. Both of us had a good deal of climbing experience, but Himalayan peaks were a completely new endeavour for both of us. We approached the expedition with an open mind as to summit ambitions, and focused on supporting the team goal of getting a serving Gurkha soldier to the summit of Mount Everest.

It was, through and through, a truly memorable experience, partly due to the climbing but mostly

LCpl Umesh Gurung, 2 RGR, on the summit of Everest, 16 May 2017 – Our 200th anniversary

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Hon Major (GCO) Gyan Bahadur Gurung hands over the 6 GR Everest flag to Lt Chris Boote, 2 RGR

due to the team. Our trek into Base Camp, a 14-day journey through the best of the Khumbu valley, was a real pleasure despite the occasional bouts of headaches from the altitude. Inevitably, the younger soldiers would race off ahead in the morning, and several times through the day we would come to a small crowd of locals surrounding our Gurkha climbers spinning tales or playing songs. We were, certainly, a team that differed from the usual fare that is seen trying to scale Everest as part of commercial expeditions. We had a warm relationship with our

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Sherpas and created a genuine atmosphere of trust extremely quickly.

Our initial acclimatisation rotation through the mountain, from Base Camp (5,300 m) to Camp 3 (7,200 m) gave us significant confidence. Most teams are lucky to get to Camp 2 (6,300 m) on their first journey, whereas we were able to return to base camp knowing that we had achieved enough altitude to push to the summit on the next go if required. The team moved quickly and efficiently through the Khumbu

Photograph by Alum Richardson

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Crossing a crevasse on the Khumbu Icefall

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Sherpani and Yaks resupplying Base Camp

icefall, and was making impressive progress higher up the mountain relative to other outfits – we clearly had an edge. At Camp 2 we were able to relax, enjoy the spectacle of being in one of the most amazing locations in the world and look forward to what was to come on our second rotation. To be sure, with Everest towering above us and the summit clearly being battered by high winds, every individual also had their own chance to reflect on what was to come and their part in it.

bring success, but not at any cost. All of us were prepared to sacrifice our summit attempt to assist another climber if required.

Our summit bid was the product of detailed planning and a bold attitude. It was the first attempt on the summit from the South side that year, and saw an advance team of three Gurkhas with their Sherpas climbing on the 15 May in the same style Hillary did in 1953, followed by a main team of 10 the next day who were to climb using ropes fixed in place by the three leaders. It placed 13 of the team in a narrow If we were in any doubt as to the seriousness of the weather window, entirely reliant on the ability and climb, we passed the body of a famous climber, Ueli Steck, the next morning as we descended form Camp professionalism of the three Gurkhas in the advance 2 to Base Camp. He had fallen some way that morning team. If they were unsuccessful, it could have turned out very differently. With accurate and timely weather from the Nuptse wall. Helping with the recovery, we saw first hand what fine margins we operated within, updates from our Base Camp team, we were confident that this was the right move. a sobering part of the expedition for all. This was a theme which persisted. On our summit rotation, the Our boldness paid off. All 13 of those given the first body we encountered was just a few metres from our tent at Camp 4 (8,000 m), and several others opportunity to summit were successful, and moved up and down to the summit in some style and speed. higher up. I believe that we were well prepared for Other teams, who had followed our lead and tried to this mentally not only by virtue of our kaida, military training and experience, but our attitude to the climb; get a head start from Camp 4, were quickly overtaken.

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Photograph by John Walker

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We soon made rapid progress to the summit and most of us enjoyed a clean, crowd free alpine ascent to the summit. I was in the main team of 10, and reached the summit just after 7am on the 16th. I spent 10 minutes on the summit, for five of which I simply sat and took in the view – advice given to me by a previous summiteer and certainly worth the cold.

At the summit, the 6 GR flag was proudly unfurled on my ice axe, a flag we had carried up from Kathmandu since being presented it at British Gurkhas Nepal.

Unfortunately the wind has caught the flag in the picture, so only the ‘Q’ of Queen’s and the crossed kukris are on display – I can only apologise, but cannot promise a reshow! I can, however, promise that there will be further exploits through the Gurkha Exploration and Mountaineering Society, and we look forward to sharing those with you in the future. We are extremely grateful for the support from the entire Brigade family, and 6 GR in particular, for making this opportunity happen.

The full team sheet is: Maj Dick Gale (RE) Maj Buddhi Bhandari (QGE) Maj Andrew Todd (RGR) Capt Govinda Rana (QGE) Lt Chris Boote (RGR) Lt Liam Smith (RGR) SSgt Subarna Gurung (QGS) Sgt Milankumar Rai (QGS) Sgt Yambahadur Gurung (QOGLR) Sgt Pasang Sherpa (QOGLR) LCpl Shakti Gurung (QGE) LCpl Dhan Ghale (QGE) LCpl Umesh Gurung (RGR) LCpl Maherbahadur Thapa (RGR) Rfn Rakesh Sunuwar (RGR) Mr Alun Richardson Spr Sandro Gromen-Hayes (RE Res) Withheld, former RGR Withheld, former RGR Withheld, former QGE Withheld Lt Chris Boote, RGR

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1/6 GR Anti-Tank Platoon Firing MOBAT at Batu Pahat Ranges

PROVISIONING THE PLATOON – WITH A SMILE

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ime flies and, with it, memories fade. But not all; some memories remain brightly burnished till the end. This is about one of those memories, fleeting at the time, but which I have never forgotten. It is the memory of an enigmatic smile.

Nearly sixty years ago in Malaya, as the sano saheb responsible for, and nominally in charge of, the Anti-Tank Platoon in 1/6 GR (this was before we were granted the “QEO” prefix that later graced our regimental title) I was ordered to take the platoon with all its weaponry and equipment to the gunnery ranges for several weeks’ training. The ranges were at Batu Pahat, in Johore state, a few hours drive from our base in Kluang.

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Preparations for the venture were painstaking.

Lists were drawn up, equipment checked, cleaned, lubricated, polished when necessary and then repolished. The excitement was palpable – anything to get away from the predictable routines of life in the Kluang garrison.

My immensely helpful second-in-command was Lt (QGO) Tilabahadur Thapa. The knowledgeable ‘Tilly Saheb’ provided a calm, steadying influence at all times and his humorous asides in times of near-crisis were greatly appreciated. Together with our experienced NCOs I could not have been in better hands.

At Batu Pahat we were expected to be self-reliant for all our food and rations; just the barest of barrack hut

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accommodation would be offered. Now management of this type of situation was way beyond the military skills I had been taught at the Mons OTS. But with the assurance of Tilly Saheb and of the NCOs that all would be well, we started to make plans within our budget. I understood that, on our arrival at Batu Pahat, it was up to me to choose a local Chinese contractor from the many who would offer their services. Thereafter, apparently, it would all be plain sailing.

As the day of departure approached I began to have doubts. I could see that our time away from Kluang might range from the joys of a self-catering holiday camp all the way through to a self-imposed, badly provisioned and over-priced confinement that could jeopardise the whole exercise which was to concentrate single-mindedly on gunnery. So I sought the advice of the wise resident burhos of the Officers Mess, the Majors Pottinger, Brebner, and HaywardSurry. One evening, over a few brandy-dry-gingers, I asked them what pitfalls I should anticipate. Their advice was generous and wide-ranging. But in essence it amounted to one fundamental point: when negotiating the cost of providing for the whole unit over the entire period, and having reached a total cost that was within our budget, I should then introduce a demand for one further, final discount “for the Officers’ Mess”. Thus armed I went contentedly to bed, prepared for our departure the following day.

We duly arrived at Batu Pahat, surveyed our new surroundings, unpacked and then put out the word that the following morning I would be prepared to negotiate with interested local contractors the matter of provisioning for the whole platoon for several weeks.

Several local contractors did indeed turn up that next morning. After initial soundings a front-runner emerged, a slightly dour middle-aged Chinese whose knowledge of the prices of every single local foodstuff, and their possible fluctuations, was prodigious.

We began the lengthy business of negotiating for every single type of food that the platoon might require: different meats, poultry, rice, noodles, green vegetables, fruit etc. Finally we reached the very last item which I remember well, hens’ eggs. My inter-

locutor had initially asked for six Malay cents (three pence in today’s prices and exchange rates) for each egg and I had negotiated this down to a mere three cents per egg. At this moment of triumph we totted up all the figures to reach the total sum for the contract and I then casually dropped my killer demand: “And what about a final discount?” I asked.

The contractor reacted as if stung. For an instant he was totally immobile; then he leaned forward slightly, lowered his eye-lids and with a half smile whispered “You mean a personal discount, Lieutenant Walker?”

If it were not for the slight emphasis on the word personal I might well have missed the hint. But the way he said it made his meaning obvious: he thought I might be corruptible. To my shame I took time to reply, time enough to multiply the overall cost of provisioning the unit by 5%... but then I heard my own voice reply, loud and clear – “No, of course not, it’s for the Officers Mess”.

Over the years I have often thought of that one, everso-casual, question and how naive I had been not to anticipate it. But what a useful lesson it was. A dozen years later I found myself, after two years of Chinese language training, working as Her Majesty’s Consul in Macao where there was widespread gambling, both legal and illegal, and large scale smuggling of Chinese and European artefacts and antiques looted during the recent Great Cultural Revolution in China, just across the flimsy border. My work included the issue of UK visas and British passports and it was helpful then, and in the decades since in various parts of the globe, that I could detect innuendo almost before it was uttered.

So I still feel grateful for my MOBAT gunnery course experience and particularly to my contractor friend for having unwittingly given me a head start in keeping my nose clean – it’s nothing personal, it’s just that, as they say, forewarned is forearmed.

John Walker

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“SNAKES ALIVE” – REMINISCENCES OF LIFE IN THE 2ND BATTALION IN THE 1950S The 2nd Battalion was rather more relaxed than the very efficient 1st Battalion and it had a collection of very unusual characters with whom it was great fun to serve. George Lorimer, an experienced mountaineer, was one of them.

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n 1953 the Battalion moved to Segamat, in North Johore, with David P-J commanding. B Company went off to their own base with their own OC and George Lorimer, who also wore his SD hat at a jaunty Admiral Beatty angle like our previous CO Ralph Griffiths, came back and took over D Company. So I slipped back from being a bogus OC of two operational rifle companies simultaneously to company officer again. The reality of those days was that the battalion often had only seven or eight BOs and we just had to make do, although scattered in widespread company bases. George had been in 4 GR and was a high climbing friend of Jimmy Roberts, 2 GR, with whom he had been in Gurkha Para during the war. They had dropped at Elephant Point, Rangoon, as had Roger Richards my 7 GR friend who lived near us in Perth. Jimmy, formerly 1/1 GR, and George had climbed together several times, including notably on Dhaulagiri. Whenever passing our way Jimmy would call in and spend the night, much whisky would be consumed and I would listen spellbound as they discussed climbing expeditions they had enjoyed together, including in the Karakoram. Many years later when taking trekking groups from Western Australia I would drop in to see Jimmy at his pheasant farm in

A musang

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Pokhara. Their tales inspired me to take a group to the Karakoram where the scenery was as spectacular as they had claimed!

George was as strong as an ox with a gruff exterior, but a kindlier man you could not meet. He had a huge sense of humour and constantly played tricks on his unsuspecting company officer. He would guffaw with laughter as I fled shrieking from my bed, still enveloped in my mosquito net, wrestling with a large snake that he had concealed between my sheets. In the morning I would find a smaller one coyly peeping out of my jungle boots. Dear old Grandma had told me to always shake my boots before putting them on, how had she guessed I would live with George?

He would catch a snake by the tail and crack it like a whip so if you remembered that it was dead there was no problem – but if you were confused by sleep or George’s whisky it was another matter.

I think one of his worst tricks was to coil a particularly nasty looking specimen in the fridge and ask Sundaram our excruciatingly bad Tamil cook, to fetch us a beer. As the snake cascaded in a most lifelike manner onto his bare feet Sundaram turned and, hardly touching the floor, leapt straight through the closed wooden shutters. Fortunately we had no glass windows and we were on the ground floor. Sundaram was, in fact, quite fond of George who would say “Sundaram this dinner is disgusting” and Sundaram would reply “Thank you, Major Saheb” with a rolling of eyes and a flashing of white teeth. Sundaram had an odour all of his own and periodically George would insist that our two orderlies took him out to the shower and scrub him with coarse carbolic soap that he had bought in the bazaar. That night we would be rewarded with a singularly foul meal – and the smell of carbolic soap didn’t help either.

In Labis I acquired four musang kittens (a sort of civet cat), which rapidly grew into outrageously mischievous monsters. They would keep the company in fits

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with their high wire antics on the radio aerials and the generator cables. Sarbajit Saheb hated them as they blatantly disobeyed his orders. He also hated Chupi, the wild boar, who had enlisted in the Company as a pretty little striped piglet but was now built along the same lines as the Captain Saheb himself. One day Chupi went too far, digging up almost the entire floor of Sarbajit’s tent before he was discovered. He got the chop and was eaten by the whole company that night.

Not a good idea to mess around with Sarbajit MC. One night I saw the opportunity to get my own back for the snake tricks. When George was asleep I slipped all four musangs and the old tailless ginger tom cat, that we had inherited when we took over the camp, into his room. Well, was the result spectacular!

To my horror the four trapeze artists and Old Tom fought a battle up and down George’s mosquito net and under his bed. The yowling and caterwauling stood the camp to and Sarbajit demanded to know what the blankety-blank was going on. Eventually when things quietened down the battlefield was surveyed, two dead musangs were removed and Old Tom breathed his last under my Company Commander’s bed – it looked very much like trouble! George “persuaded” me to give him my mosquito net to replace his, in shreds after the fight and Sarbajit Saheb gave me a stare that suggested he had sussed out who had caused the fracas that had disturbed his sleep.

The remaining two musangs took refuge in the attic.

One made the mistake of getting into the bathroom when George was taking a shower and he promptly strangled it, with no thought at all for my feelings.

The last continued to live dangerously in the attic and liked to peer at us through the open manhole as we sat there in black tie (yes we dressed for dinner every night, less jackets – Penguin Order we called it) before making a sortie to steal our fruit. I am sure George thought that the musang was laughing at us as we sipped our pre dinner stengahs, and he took to sitting there with an Ml carbine across his knees waiting for the chance of a snapshot at the miscreant.

Every shot shattered another roof tile, to be fixed by an orderly the next day. Fortunately after some close shaves it disappeared, the Captain Saheb’s good hu-

mour returned and I decided not to go into the musang training business after all. Perhaps George’s insistence on even more arm wrestling contests, which left my arms practically paralysed and which I never won, suggested that some form of punishment was being meted out. I thought of getting one those huge Fijian officers to spend a few days with us but it didn’t work out. If only Somerset Maughan had been able to come and stay, he would have loved it!

George’s strength was legendary and he always carried a big old Bergen rucksack in the Jungle. On one occasion we were out on an op together and at the end of the day he said “ Neil I am getting too old for this, I feel worn out”. Shortly afterwards I saw cigarettes passing hands and questioning revealed that his orderly had bet mine that his Saheb could carry anything. Shamefacedly they produced two large river boulders from the bottom of George’s Bergen where they had been concealed all day. George, as always guffawed with laughter and, of course, the orderlies got off Scott free. What a lovely man he was.

It was about this time that I became chief witness for the defence in a rape case. Sundaram who it seems had more than a roving eye, came to us and said that he had been accused of “firing a girl in the Tamil lines”. He asked the Major Saheb to please be his witness in Court. George unkindly pulled rank and said that was just what company officers were for and anyway it would be good experience for me just in case I had any nasty thoughts of my own. Duly arriving at Court I was surprised to find that Sundaram was conducting his own defence and I was about to be cross examined by the company cook, who I noticed was smelling quite distinctly of carbolic soap.

It was all very brief and brilliantly conducted. I was asked if on the night in question he had served us dinner and was in camp getting breakfast the next morning, which he certainly was. He then asked me if the camp was wired, the gates locked and the sentries instructed to challenge and shoot anyone trying to penetrate the perimeter, which, of course, they were.

Then the crucial question was asked “Are you sure no one could get in or out of the camp without being shot?” What could one say in open Court at the height

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of the Emergency? In spite of the compelling evidence produced by the Prosecution Sundaram was found not guilty. George and I were convinced it was all done with smoke and mirrors, but he was a likeable rogue and although he was a lousy cook he was the only one we had. Even George baulked at drafting me into the kitchen. We enjoyed a spectacular dinner that night – not entirely by chance perhaps?

All companies had their own jungle ranges adjacent to their bases and we fired huge amounts of ammunition to hone our snap shooting skills and to keep the ammo turning over in the humid climate. George and I were taking on the QGOs, who all had Smith and Wesson 38s, at a pistol competition just for fun, when my close friend Tim Whorlow, with whom I had swum and played water polo at Sandhurst, dropped in. George always carried a giant Colt 45 automatic which he had won from the Americans and which fired Tommy gun ammunition left over from the War. I always carried a rifle on ops but I had a German Luger which had a beautiful smooth action and was clearly engraved 1917. It used our current 9 mm rounds. It was so accurate that I actually shot a rabbit up on Salisbury Plain one Sunday afternoon when on the Platoon Commanders Course, but that is another story which is better not investigated, particularly as it was not licenced. Tim had a super German P38 Walther of which James Bond would have been proud. The BOs were doing well until George’s turm came up.

His first round made a sort of fizzing sound and had to be ejected manually, the second made a comic strip type bang and the bullet fell at his feet while the third produced no result at all. We decided that was enough and it was drinks all round on George. He laughed hugely when we all castigated him for carrying this monstrous weapon on ops with its dud ammo.

The only other time I saw it in action was when he accidentally let it off and the bullet lazily chased our feet around the front of the Jeep with George at the wheel – another occasion for great merriment!

Perhaps George’s most spectacular snake trick was perpetrated at the Ipoh Swimming Club when we were in 28 Commonwealth Brigade with the British Battalion being the 1st Loyals commanded by Charles

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Thompson. It was customary on Sunday morning for the Guli Guli man to entertain the children with his tricks and snake charming while the parents enjoyed a quiet drink before curry lunch. On this occasion play as he might no cobra emerged from the woven basket because George had purloined the snake. With it draped round his neck and holding it firmly behind the hood, he tapped Charles on the shoulder and thrusting the snake forward as his victim turned round he said, “Good morning Colonel”. Still holding his glass, the good Colonel leapt straight from his chair into the pool and came up spluttering, “George, I don’t think that was funny”. Well, of course, the rest of us disagreed though we tried not to make it too obvious.

We never really discovered who it was who persuaded the Club Secretary to write to Colonel Charles pointing out that entering the pool fully clothed was prohibited under Rule 17. Some of us had our suspicions and my bet was on my erstwhile company commander, now Battalion 2i/c and still playing tricks on me as Adjutant. Shortly afterwards I met Colonel Charles again when I was a student and he was the Chief Instructor on the Company Commanders’ Course at the School of Infantry at Warminster. It may have been a coincidence but I spent the whole of the first field exercise carrying the CI’s radio.

Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Roberts MVO, MBE, MC, has been described as “one of the greatest Himalayan mountaineer-explorers of the twentieth century who achieved his greatest renown as the father of trekking in Nepal. His exploratory activities are comparable to those of Eric Shipman and Bill Tilman”.

In George’s obituary in the Himalayan Journal, Jimmy writes of their three months in the Eastern Karakoram, their time together on Dhaulagiri and on the joint services expedition which made the first ascent of Annapurna 2. He also says that George was ”an ideal companion, good humoured, generous and uncomplaining of irritating whims of a leader who thrived on a constant change of plans”. To which I would only add that he was a lovely man who was great fun to be with as I’m sure Christine and Sian would agree.

Neil Anderson

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THE HISTORY OF NEPAL IN 100 OBJECTS Tenzing’s Ice Axe

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enzing Norgay Sherpa was the first ever Sherpa to reach the summit of the magnificent Mount Everest along with Sir Edmund Hillary at 11:30 am on 29th May 1953.

Tenzing Norgay was born as Namgyal Wangdi on the 29th May 1914; he was often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing the Nepali Sherpa mountaineer, and later listed as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

© Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

Sherpa Tenzing was born and bought up in Tengboche at Khumbu in the Northeast of Nepal according to his autobiography. In an interview with All India Radio in 1985, he mentioned that his parents came from Tibet but he was born in Nepal. Norgay was born as a Nepalese Buddhist, his father Ghang La Mingma was a yak herder and his mother Dokmo Kinzom, a housewife who lived to see him climb Mount Everest.

He was the 11th of 13 children, many of who unfortunately died young.

Tenzing in his teens was said to have run away from his home twice, the first time he went to Kathmandu and then the second time to Darjeeling. He was even sent to a monastery, Tengboche Monastery, to be made into a monk but he soon decided that it was not what he wanted to pursue and left. When he was 19 years old, he finally settled

Tenzing on the summit of Mount Everest – 29 May 1953

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Alamy Photographs

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Tenzing Norgay, his wife and daughters, visiting Buckingham Palace to receive his George Medal.

With him are Major Charles Wylie and his wife

It was in 1953 when Norgay was part of John Hunt’s Expedition to Everest that he met Edmund Hillary, who was a member of the team. Hillary almost had Tenzing Norgay Sherpa got his first opportunity to take a fatal accident when he fell into a crevasse but was saved by Norgay’s quick action. This led Hillary to part in an Everest expedition after he was employed consider him as an equal climbing partner during their

by Eric Shipton, who was the leader of the 1935 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition. He was summit attempt. just 20 years old when he got the chance, after two Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary reached the others who were selected failed their medical tests. summit of Everest, 29,028 ft/8,848 m at precisely Norgay was a high-altitude porter on three official 11:30 am. They only spent 15 minutes at the top of British attempts to climb Everest from the Northern Everest and it was there that Hillary took the famous Tibetan side during the 1930’s. down in Toonsung Bustee in Darjeeling among the Sherpa community.

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Norgay passed away in Darjeeling, India, on 9th May 1986 due to a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 71. Today his remains can be found in a memorial in After descending from the summit both the men rethe Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, ceived many awards and honorary mentions. Tenzing Norgay was the recipient of numerous awards such as which was one of his most cherished and favourite the George Medal, which he was given for his brilliant places. His legacy lives on in his children and extended family and of course on the peak of mighty Everest. efforts on the Everest expedition. Afterwards, he became the first Director of Field Training at the HimaHon Captain Bijoy Tamang layan Mountaineering Institute (H.M.I.) in Darjeeling when it was established in 1954. photograph of Norgay posing with his ice-axe.

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BOOK REVIEWS HIMALAYAN WANDERER

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C.G. Bruce, 1934, Maclehose. London

either George MacDonald Fraser nor PG Woodhouse in their wildest imagination could have invented Brigadier Charles Granville Bruce, boxer, fencer, wrestler, runner, mountaineer and supreme instigator of the afterdinner destruction of officers’ messes. Charles Bruce was born in Wales, the fourteenth child of Lord Henry Bruce, a fabulously rich barrister whose fortune arose from the discovery of coal beneath the family land.

Father Henry divided his time between the estate in Aberdare and London, where he was Home Secretary for Gladstone’s government. Charles, a pugnacious child was sent away to school as soon as possible in a hopeless attempt to arrest his early tendencies for rough behaviour, but at Harrow, despite becoming the fastest line writer and most beaten boy in the school, the staff completely failed to crush his spirit.

After school he was set to join the Army, but was so distracted by his sporting interests – running, fencing and boxing, that for two consecutive years he failed to get his application for Sandhurst in on time and finally in 1887 opted for a last chance militia entry via the 1st Battalion Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. During this relaxed growing up period he made a wager that he could complete the distance from London to Brighton on foot, dressed in his shooting clothes, alone and sustained only by the roadside pubs; to win he had to arrive on time at an appointed hotel in Brighton for a sumptuous dinner to be paid for by the loser of the bet. He was going well until he reached Reigate where he became distracted by a particular barmaid with whom he had such a “violent flirtation” ( – whatever that meant in 1887?) that he only regained his aim in the nick of time to win his dinner; his friend having found him in the hotel bath. In 1888 he was accepted for a commission into the Indian Army and, shortly after attending a fencing contest at the Café des Fleurs at Aix, boarded HMS Crocodile for Bombay, travelling on the lower deck with the newly commissioned

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subalterns in what was known as the Pandemonium area.

Although Bruce had applied for Gurkhas, at Bombay a disobliging Staff Captain sent him to a regiment, which in every respect lay at the opposing pole, – a coastal defence battalion (which he carefully fails to identify in his memoir) of the Madras Regiment – in southern India. Although the Madras Regiment had achieved great distinction under Wellington in the previous century, life had moved on and the NW Frontier was now the military-place-to-be. Bruce had been sent to a professionally derelict battalion where life had become so static that officers were encouraged to take all the leave they wanted and to develop “other interests”. The garrison commander, an elderly man with a long white beard, had amiably suggested collecting butterflies, but Bruce had set his sights on shooting a tiger and had already purchased three fast ponies and a herd of water buffalo for this purpose, but before any tiger emerged to make a kill, the battalion received life-changing instructions to embark for Rangoon. As they marched unwillingly down to the docks, the women and children lined the route beating their chests and howling and to Bruce’s “intense disgust...” there was equal howling and weeping from his men. Bruce wasted no time to fire off several letters to influential family connections urging them to get him to the NW Frontier.

Meanwhile the regiment sailed for Burma. Notwithstanding the general demoralisation of his men, Bruce was enthralled by Burma; he described in detail the rich colours, the slow rivers, huge forests and the attractive Burmese populations. Contrary to the orders of the local British commander and despite the menace of dacoit gangs, he trekked through the forest with just an orderly and the latest lever-action Winchester rifle, exploring his surroundings with a sense of wonder and delight. His new rifle saved him on one occasion when they walked into a gang of

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bandits; he surprised them with his fast and lethal shooting and they fled. Meanwhile the string-pulling letters had succeeded and a new posting order to join 5 GR at Abbottabad duly reached him in the depth of the Burmese forest. He travelled by ship and then by rail across India to a station near Rawalpindi and completed the last forty miles in a horse drawn tonga, arriving at the mess, a dreadful sight, riddled with jungle fevers and rotting feet – in the middle of polo week.

5 GR, Abbottabad and the huge mountains were to become the most important features for the rest of his life. Abbottabad was the home station for the Frontier Force which now had an army wide reputation for daring deeds and military success. By the 1890s 5 GR was approaching its top form.

In stark contrast to the coastal battalion, the mess vibrated with the energy of physically fit, Gurkha-obsessed young bachelors, some who would go on to be VC-winning heroes. Although his superconfident nature and outrageous behaviour won him many friends, there was a “certain type of officer” (orthodox, authoritarian and nit-picking) who deplored Bruce especially because it would require at least five of them to restrain him from instigating an after dinner rough house. Included among Bruce’s habitually hostile critics was Villiers-Stuart, who complained querulously and continuously about Bruce in his private diary, and is therefore an important source of information on our hero.

After several months on the long language course at Rawalpindi, Bruce returned to his house in Abbottabad accompanied by two professional Punjabi wrestling champions, with plans to run an Indian wrestling area in his garden. This private passion, in which he became an acknowledged expert, led him into contact

with wrestling enthusiasts across the country as well as the Indian nobility, who patronised local fighters, promoted their contests and bet huge sums on the outcome. In high-stake fights Bruce would be selected as referee, watched by crowds of 70-80,000 which were so tense that riot police as well several companies of troops were needed to keep order. To a certain kind of officer Bruce’s wrestling interest must have seemed a selfish distraction, but it gave him a genuine reason to befriend Indian power holders across the country and allowed him to cross freely from one community to the other, which few British officers could do.

Having passed in the Nepali language, he took to the regiment with greater confidence and enjoyment; with his barrel-chest and a shaggy black moustache, he was known as bhalu saheb.

Working among his own men he was quick to see beyond the familiar clichés regarding Gurkhas. As a nationally experienced athlete and runner, he saw that they were physically weak through the lack of a proper training regime. They did not have the strength for route marching and their limbs were too short to compete well against the physically larger races in the garrison. But when he was running with them he also noticed that once they got onto a slope they would always beat him. With his competition experience he put together a team of hill racers and devised an event based on his knowledge of fell racing in Cumberland. From this experiment emerged the khud race, which was widely adopted and became essential training for picketing and skirmishing. Building on this, he set out to develop a battalion pathfinder group that could reliably out-march, out-run, outshoot, and out-climb the Afghan, and also perform all of these skills at night particularly because their snipers were also very capable in this respect. Bruce

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Š The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

Photograph of Brigadier General Charles G Bruce drinking chang

by Bently Beetham, 1924 Everest expedition

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was ahead of his time and became a great exponent of skirmishing, in face of the prevailing orthodoxy that favoured volley firing in three ranks.

When the 42nd Gurkhas (soon to be 6 GR) arrived from Assam as the neighbouring battalion, there was some unattractive sneering and hilarity in 5 GR. Villiers-Stuart recorded that they “must have had a very easy time in Assam”. In due course the two Regiments became firm friends, and 5 GR was somewhat deflated when 6 GR’s Tulbir Gurung won the Brigade Khud race for five years in succession. On the eve of the Great War Colonel Chatterton, the CO of 1/6 GR died under the knife at Rawalpindi military hospital in March 1914 and Bruce succeeded him. It was a tragic loss for 6 GR, but in retrospect – God was watching; Bruce, with his instinct to prepare for the future rather than the past and his huge self confidence, turned out to be just the man to lead the battalion into the apocalyptic experience of Gallipoli.

During a previous UK leave Bruce had arranged for his top pathfinder Parbir Thapa to accompany him, despite dire warnings from the Abbottabad Gurkha experts that it would be a disaster. Parbir excelled himself and slipped comfortably into the downstairs community at the Aberdare estate and before long was chasing poachers with the keepers. On the first occasion the escaping gang were quite relaxed for they were used to outrunning Lord Bruce’s corpulent keepers. The poachers turned up hill to make a leisurely escape … but running up hill was a big mistake and Bruce and Parbir were quickly onto them; the gang suddenly stopped and turned to fight the two lone runners – an even bigger mistake as both Bruce and Parbir were highly qualified in that department too. Bruce’s account contains so many anecdotal gems the reader forgets that, as its title suggests this is a book about mountaineering. The real purpose of bringing Parbir to UK was above all to visit Zermatt where together they would learn and then practice climbing techniques for snow and ice with a top Alpine guide Mathias Zurbriggen. Bruce had climbed the Wetterhorne four years previously and was now preparing for the Himalayas having already applied to join the British climber Martin

Conway’s expedition to the Karakorum as a local logistics expert. He was also keen to find out if his Gurkha pathfinders would take to it, as he strongly suspected they would.

Historically there could not have been a better time or place or profession for an aspiring mountaineer.

Abbottabad was within a few days reach of some serious mountain ranges, and a strong colonial government in British India gave him relatively safe access to many unexplored climbing areas which after partition became completely inaccessible. Despite 5 GR’s intense and over achieving reputation, Bruce had managed to carve himself a niche as their explorer sportsman who had the unique capability to take the 5 GR name beyond the tiny perimeter of Abbottabad garrison (needless to say – Villiers Stuart strongly disapproved of Bruce’s absences).

This freedom allowed Bruce, trek by trek, to build up a unique knowledge of the whole area as well as develop his own skills in ice and snow. He began small, accompanied only by two Gurkhas and carrying a light camp, a cotton climbing rope and primitive ice axes. He learned more by joining grander expeditions led by the British climbing celebrities; with Conway to the Karakorum and with Mummery’s expedition to the base of Nanga Parbat, where Mummery and Ragobir Gurung of 5 GR perished in avalanches in the Diama glacier. He was also temporarily posted to accompany specific military explorations, with Younghusband to the Chitral and under Colonel Durand to explore around Gilgit and Chilas.

During these dangerous and physically exhausting expeditions he gained much wisdom and his own reputation grew among the international climbing community. Technically there were better individual climbers but the experiences of the early 1900s showed that the Himalayan peaks demanded a campaign planning approach. It was just not possible for a handful of European mountaineers to arrive in India, dressed in shooting wear, and head for the hills without months of previous logisitic activity and planning. Although Conway’s high altitude rations had been carefully planned and packed in London,

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in reality each expedition needed to rely for weeks or months on the local populations to get them to the base area and sustain them there. The foothills and the high passes had their own seasons and the availability of rations for a large expedition could only be planned with an extensive previous knowledge of the area. Furthermore hill communities had individual characteristics, some were very much better than others as porters and guides at high altitude. By training Gurkhas in climbing skills on ice and snow, Bruce had introduced European techniques to an indigenous population who were already naturally skilled mountaineers and for European visitors they became very sought-after climbing partners, as later events would show.

Although Bruce had discussed a recce to Everest with Younghusband and Conway, his account ends after the Great War and the story of his first Everest

Expedition is in a previous book “ The Assault on Everest, 1922” which was published before this book in 1923. Nevertheless I warmly recommend “Himalayan Wanderer” to climbers and Gurkha enthusiasts. Bruce wrote as he probably spoke in short jocular sentences, which purposely masked a hugely observant and impulsive personality. He was also very funny and there are social disasters and career cock-ups in every chapter. His early climbs had a fly-by-the-seat-of-thepants quality – how did he escape death so many times? Mountaineers can read the recent reprinted version of the book to understand the part he played in opening up the Himalayas and the Himalayan people to the grand European expeditions. And for the more sedentary collector of Gurkha-related original versions, the edition printed by Maclehose London is a must have for the library.

John Mackinlay

FOUR BROTHERS IN ARMS

I

Ian McGill, Melrose Books

was asked to run a bespoke battlefield tour in Italy for Ian McGill and his wife Mary in September 2016. Ian and I had been at Staff College together; subsequently Ian retired as a Brigadier having been Chief Engineer and we had not seen each other in a while. I asked why Italy and Ian explained that his father Dick had commanded 2/8 GR in Italy as part of 43rd Gurkha Lorried Infantry Brigade, alongside the 2/6th and 2/10th, from the beginning of 1945 for the battle of the Senio onwards including Medicina and the Gaiana crossing. He said that he had written a book about his father and his three brothers all of whom fought in the war and wanted to see where both his father had been in Italy and also his uncle Jerry, who commanded 4th Indian Division Signals throughout their time in Italy. For background, Ian sent me his book.

It is a remarkable account of one family and their service to the country, drawing on a wealth of letters and photographs. Ian covers the four brothers’ experiences on the North-West Frontier of India in the

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30s, throughout the Second World War, the partition of India in 1947 and the Malayan Emergency in the early 50s, as well as an insight into the very difficult situation of their mother’s isolation in Jersey under German occupation during the war. The final chapter moves on to describe the post-war life of Ian’s father, Dick, as he becomes a farmer in Rhodesia. Malcolm, the eldest, was killed while fighting the Japanese in Burma; Dick was wounded fighting in Italy where he was awarded the DSO; Jerry fought at Monte Cassino; and Nigel the youngest joined the Royal Marines and became a Major General. From a Gurkha perspective, the sections on both Malcolm and Dick are of particular interest.

Malcolm was commissioned into the 9th Gurkhas in 1931. He spent four years in Burma from 1936 to 1939 attached to the Burma Military Police and Burma Frontier Force before returning to 9 GR. He was posted to 1/7 GR as 2IC in January 1944, was wounded in action (shot in the left lung) in March and re-joined them in April. After a spell in hospital with dysentery,

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he was sent to 2/5 GR as temporary 2IC. The day after he arrived he was killed by an enemy artillery shell. A letter of condolence was sent to Dick by Colonel Norman Eustace (6 GR), at the time deputy commander of 1/7th’s brigade. Eustace writes that he came across to act as CO 1/7th for a few days and got to know Malcolm briefly then and later on when CO 2/5th, Philip Townsend, was wounded he took over temporary command of 2/5th. “At the time of his death we were out on operations. Your brother was sitting between me and Gouldsbury, the Adjutant, and we were in what we thought was defiladed ground. Without warning a shell arrived, one of several, and pitched in amongst us, causing in all I think about a dozen casualties. Your brother was hit in the head …” After the war Philip Townsend commanded 1/6th from 1948 – 1961 in Malaya and Gouldsbury was Patrick Gouldsbury’s father. Dick received a second letter, that one from Jim Robertson (also 6 GR) who was at the time CO 1/7th.

Having joined the 8th Gurkhas in 1933, Dick spent the early part of his career on the NorthWest Frontier; there are a number of photographs of his time on the Frontier. He was in Quetta when the 1935 earthquake struck which he describes in a letter to his parents. During the early part of war against the Japanese he was on the staff of 14 Indian Infantry (then Training) Division in the 14th Army. Posted to 2/8th in Italy as 2IC for a month at the end of 1944, he took command in January 1945. After 2/8th’s very gallant part in the battle of the Senio, Dick was very badly wounded when a mortar bomb hit his jeep and killed his driver. Out of action for only a short time he re-joined his battalion in time for the Sillaro crossing, Medicina and the Gaiana battles. During his final months with 2/8th they were busy trying to keep the peace during the bloody massacres of Indian partition. Though born in

Quetta in 1946 Ian grew up on his father Dick’s farm in Rhodesia and later while at Sandhurst Rhodesia declared UDI. He was at Sandhurst with John Anderson, who it was that suggested I should run Ian’s Italy tour for him.

Other chapters include the careers of the other two brothers and most interesting letters to and from their parents in Jersey during the war. The description of Jerry’s time with 4th Indian Division in Italy was of great use for our tour. During this we took in the two battles of Cassino, Palazzo del Pero near Arezzo where King George VI visited officers of the Division, and the battle of Faetano in San Marino where Sherbahadur Thapa 1/9 GR, part of 4 Division, won his VC, and where, on 17 September 2016, Ian was guest of honour for the unveiling of the plaque at the monument to Sherbahadur.

But further mention of the tour is for another time.

Among the glowing reviews of this book are seven by the most senior recent members of the Army. General Sir Peter Wall, when Chief of the General Staff and former Colonel Commandant of the Brigade of Gurkhas and a former Gurkha Engineer, wrote: “A fascinating record of leadership and service: about a family that endured war in many guises and extensive hardship, with humility and the utmost fortitude. A vivid example for those in challenging times nowadays.” Lieutenant Wall was a troop commander in 9 Parachute Squadron RE when Ian was his OC! Ian is giving all proceeds from the book (now in its second, updated, edition) to the Gurkha Welfare Trust. If you have not read it, I cannot recommend it more highly.

Brian O’Bree

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EVEREST 1953 The epic story of the first ascent Mick Conefrey, Oneworld Publications

O

ne of the three best mountaineering books I have ever read, it is worth getting a few minor criticisms out of the way. First, Gurkha is spelt ‘Ghurka’ throughout – a bit irritating; next, Field Marshal should not be spelt ‘Marshall’ – just once; and last, a few more dramatic, photos might have been included to great effect. But the book is in no way spoilt by these – so, onward and upward …

Written with the benefit of hindsight and meticulous research into documents not generally available more than 60 years ago, the author has written a cliff hanger. Literally, from one chapter’s end to the beginning of the next, one cannot wait to make the jump. Mike Conefrey, a well-known writer and producer of BBC documentaries on mountaineering and exploration, had access to personal diaries, letters, newspaper records, RGS archives, and to people – including some from the successful expedition and widows and descendants. Thus, with close attention to the complex chronology, he has written possibly the best account of that incredible expedition. These days, almost anyone with £50,000 to spare can expect (90%, anyway) to be more or less ushered to the summit of the world’s highest peak; this, however, is the story of real heroes.

Beginning with Shipton’s prewar reconnaissances from the north (Tibet), through the 1951 recce, and climb of Pumori with Ed Hillary, when a possible route from the south was first seen and photographed, Conefrey takes us through the rather shoddy management of Shipton’s dismissal, (the then) Colonel John Hunt’s appointment as leader; to preparations, Kathmandu, Base Camp, further recces – especially of

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the Khumbu Icefall – finding a route to the South Col and, eventually, the second and successful assault.

Highlighted is the difference, the crucial difference, between Shipton and Hunt, the former a believer in small, lightly equipped parties loosely managed, the latter fixated on detailed preparations and, critically, teamwork. That everyone eventually bonded with the common aim of climbing ‘Britain’s mountain’, pays tribute to Hunt’s leadership and diplomacy.

(NB: Amazon notes the unexpected set backs and dramas versus the ‘expected straightforward success of a military operation.’ Many readers here will know how rare is ‘straightforward!’).

In Kathmandu the expedition was cold-shouldered; the porters were unhappy with their accommodation, and several unpleasant personalities among them fomented problems. Those resolved, the huge party departed in two groups for Solo Khumbu.

En route, to Hunt’s satisfaction, the troublemakers resigned; it saved firing them. Importantly, real bonding began: members are quoted expressing their respect for the leader, not least for the huge amount of work he did. The setting up of Base and Advanced Base Camps are well covered, as are the several climbs made to acclimatise, and the probing for a route through the notorious Icefall. The climb to the South Col to carrry stores is told; everyone took part and, for various reasons, loads were reduced to 50 lbs each. (Conefrey does not mention that the six Sherpas who carried twice to the South Col, a magnificent effort, positoning an extra 300 lbs of supplies at 26,000 feet, were awarded Coronation Medals, a small gesture perhaps, but a gesture nevertheless. Among them was Pasang Phutar, my sirdar on a mini-climb in 1961).

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From the South Col, recces and pre-stocking of higher camps are described, leading to the first of two assaults, by Bourdillon – young, eager, almost desperate to be among the first to summit – and Charles Evans, older, wiser in the ways of high mountains, to whom climbing was a matter of aesthetics, not ‘bagging’ peaks. We read diary entries, learn how Bourdillon missed his wife Jennifer (who normally went with him on expeditions), of the reflectiveness of Wilfrid Noyce, classical scholar, schoolmaster and poet, and other fascinating insights of the personalities involved, so very different, but with one common aim: to put climbers on the summit. We read of Hunt’s exhaustion from working so hard and of his later emotion, his tears, those of a tough but immensely sensitive man.

The first, gutsy attempt by Bourdillon and Evans who, having reached the South Summit, a tantalising 300 feet from the top, higher than anyone before them, was called off because Evans’ oxygen supply failed.

Bourdillon who, with his father, also a noted climber, developed the closed circuit oxygen system and containers, felt it was a ‘go’ for him, came close to making a quick solo attempt. (A fine mountaineer, he died in 1956 climbing the Jägihorn in Switzerland). And so to the second assault, by Ed Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, not to be described here, because Conefrey’s account is utterly absorbing, but best of all is how he describes the growing respect of Hillary for Tenzing, no longer ‘just a Sherpa sirdar’, but a dedicated, very competent climber in his own right: a partner. Following their succcss, from Hillary’s laconic comment, ‘We knocked the bastard off,’ to the clever means by

which the news reached Britain, without giving the game away en route, just before the Coronation of Elizabeth II, all is faithfully recorded, as is the return to Kathmandu and subsequent political drama.

Politics, we know, are conducted in minefields of deception, personal interests, ambition and exhibitionism. Into the South Asian version of these unlovely characteristics stepped the expedition, none more so than Hunt, Hillary and Tenzing. In particular, the two summiters were snagged in a morass of mischiefmaking, wild imagination and sheer fabrication.

The issue for all but Hillary and Tenzing was, ‘Who was first to the top?’ (One Indian paper wrote that Tenzing had led all the way and, at the end, hauled an exhausted Hillary up the last few feet). Well, we have known the answer for a long time, attested by both men. And there was the issue of nationality, Tenzing’s anyway. Born in Tibet, before moving to Solu Khumbu the Nepalese government claimed he was Nepali.

Having lived some years in Darjeeling, India counted him Indian. The facts, simple to state, but difficult to extricate from a web of politics. What mattered to the two principals was that ‘they’ had reached the top, in harmony. Which was, and is, how it should be – although in India today, one can still start an argument about this.

An excellent book for anyone remotely interested in Everest or mountaineering generally: do read it.

Jack Keen

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The Library at Ampleforth with portraits of Captain Robert Nairac GC and Captain Michael Allmand VC

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MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 6TH QUEEN ELIZABETH’S OWN GURKHA RIFLES Saturday 10 June 2017 Present: The President, The Chairman, Members of the Committee and 17 Members and their guests.

1. Chairman’s Opening Statement.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the AGM and stated that coffee/tea would be available in the Ante Room after the meeting. He stated that sadly this was the lowest attendance at an AGM to his knowledge, which he would return to later.

He continued by saying that this year was without question the most significant one for 6 GR in our generation. Celebrations to mark our bi-centenary year started in great style with the hugely successful Nepal Durbar over the last weekend of February. He asked that his highest praise be recorded to Major Gopalbahadur Gurung MBE and his hard-working Durbar committee for their superb bandobast. Other events were to be discussed later.

He also felt it appropriate to mention the success of the Gurkha Everest Expedition. To have put serving Gurkhas on Everest in time for our actual 200th Anniversary on 16 May was a very special birthday present, especially as the 6 GR flag was taken to the summit on our behalf by an RGR officer.

Aus and Jaus NEW MEMBERS SINCE AGM OF JUNE LAST YEAR:

Captain Tekbahadur Gharti; Sgt Kamal Gurung; Rfn Jaiprasad Kala; Rfn Chitrabahadur Gurung.

Sadly, the following have died since the last AGM: Major John, Baron Harding of Petherton; Lt Colonel Edward ‘Fairy’ Gopsill; Mrs Lynn Prismall (widow of Major Robin); Dr Nick McIver; Mrs Judy Adams

(widow of Major Sandy); Mrs Primrose Reynolds (widow of Lt Colonel Ralph).

24 members of 6 GRRA Nepal and Hong Kong branches have died in the past year.

As a mark of respect all stood for a minute’s silence.

2. Apologies The Hon Sec stated that he had received apologies from 13 members.

The Chairman reported that James Herbert was now out of hospital but not yet able to make the journey.

He had sent his apologies and best wishes. Though not an apology, we had heard of the sad news that Nick Sutton in Western Australia has terminal cancer.

There have been several messages of support sent to him and Graham Hornel has been to see him.

3. Matters Arising Item 4 Financial Report. The Hon Sec confirmed that the surplus of £825 raised for the presentation to Richard Morris had been sent to the GWT. Item 5 – Journal. The decision to look for alternative printers was delayed until after the Journal in 2018, which would contain the bulk of 200th Anniversary celebration articles.

The Chairman stated that since there were no other “Matters Arising” not covered in the Agenda, the Minutes were confirmed as a true record of the meeting. Proposer: Major Davies and Seconder: Mr Furtado. Action: Hon Sec to archive Minutes.

4. Financial Report up to 30 September 2016 Major Manikumar Rai, as Finance Officer, stated that the 6 GRRA accounts up to 30 Sep 16 published in the

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Journal contained some errors. An updated account was circulated at the meeting.

He gave the following update up to 30 Sep 16: INCOME: (£11,212.31):

(a) Subs – £3,149.95 (b) Sales – £342.00 (c) AFCIF investment income – £197.04 (d) Cuttack Lunch – £3,185.00 (e) Other income £4,338.02 (made up of £1,669.92 from the closure of the Lloyds account and £1,808.10 from the Regt Trust in respect of the G200 contingency and £860 donations)

postage costs were attributed to postage to overseas members. He went on to say that the Editors of all the Regimental Association Journals were meeting to exchange “Best Practice” and to investigate any areas for cooperation to reduce printing costs Action: Editor to report back on the outcome of the meeting.

The Editor circulated a draft plan for the 2018 Journal and mock up of the front cover showing Lt Chris Booth 2 RGR on the summit of Mt Everest holding the 6 GR flag. Action: Editor is to proceed with his draft plan for the Journal.

6. Webmaster’s Report

The Chairman reported that a variety of reasons, including preparations for this year’s events, have further delayed launch of the new website. However, (a) Cuttack Lunch – £3,186.00 the current website still has an up-to-date Members (b) Grants – £1,352.02 (to Winchester Cathedral £150, GWT in memory of various deceased officers Directory and Events page for members to refer to.

Action: Chairman and James Herbert. £1,147.02 and GBA Trust re NM & BVA 50th Anniversary Magazine – £55) (c) GBA Trust annual subscription – £390.

7. 200th Anniversary Durbar Kempton Park (d) Journal – £4,510.30 The Hon Sec outlined the sequence of events which (e) Refund of overpaid subs – £140 was as follows: (f) Wreaths – £98 (g) AGM Catering – £42.12 (a) A presentation on the history of 6 GR. (h) Presentations and miscellaneous – £82.98 (b) A video of key events from 6 GR history. (i) Website Domain name – £87.04 (c) A Curry Lunch. (j) ISA Fee – £1,000 (d) Nepali Dancing. (k) UK All Ranks Re-union – £550 (e) Pipes & Drums Display followed by Beating Retreat.

EXPENDITURE (£12,438.46):

ACCOUNT SUMMARY:

(a) Excess of expenditure over income – £226.15 (b) Current bank balance – £8,186.65 (c) Current value of AFCIF investment – £5,257.25 (d) Assets retained for Charity use – £13,121.75 (e) Total Assets – £26,565.65

5. Journal Editor’s Report The Chairman thanked the Editor for a superb 200th Anniversary Journal asked that a vote of thanks be recorded in the Minutes for his sterling work.

The Editor stated that 450 copies of the Journal 2017 had been printed at a cost of £4,758.36 (£4,020 – Design & printing and £738.36 postage). The bulk of the

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He stated that the following 200th Anniversary Commemorative memorabilia would be handed out to attendees: (a) Badge. (b) Brochure. (c) Hat. (d) Entry Pass.

It was imperative that people who wished to attend registered in order to allow the planning staff to sort out the catering, wines and seating.

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Tim, Jules and Guy. Nepal Durbar 2017

8. Forthcoming Events

9. Association Merchandise

The routine annual events were as follows:

The Hon Sec informed the meeting that he still held some 6 GR merchandise, details of which were on the website. Those who want/need items were asked to contact him.

(a) 11 Jun 17 – Indian Forces Memorial. (b) 8 Jul 17 – Bde Bhela at the Aldershot sports field. (c) 29 Jul 17 – 200th Anniversary Celebrations at Kempton Park. (d) 14 Sep 17 – GBA Golf. (e) 5 Nov 17 – Book of Remembrance Service at Winchester Cathedral. (f) 9 Nov 17 – Field of Remembrance Service and GBA Dinner at the Army & Navy Club. (g) 12 Nov 17 – Remembrance Sunday Parade and lunch at Captain Hitchcock’s residence. (h) 1 Dec 17 – Cuttack Lunch at the Oriental Club.

A few Members asked if 6 GR plaques were available.

The Hon Sec stated that there were none in stock, but could be ordered if there was sufficient interest.

A small order would mean a higher unit price. (Hon Sec’s after meeting note: The Gurkha Museum shop now has 6 GR plaques.)

10. Election of Committee Officers and Members The Hon Sec informed the meeting of the following:

The 200th Anniversary events are covered under Item 7.

(a) Chairman – in post until 2018.

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(b) Hon Sec – in post until 2020. (c) Finance Officer – Major Manikumar Rai in post until Aug 2017. (d) Editor – in post until 2020. (e) Comms Offr/Webmaster – Captain James Herbert to take on responsibility once new website is up and running.

Election of New Committee Members: The following were proposed as Committee Members: (a) Captain Gary Ghale – Proposer: Mr Furtado and Seconder: Brigadier Anderson. (b) Captain Gordon-Creed – Proposer: Colonel Pettigrew and Seconder: Brigadier Anderson. (c) Captain Gordon-Creed was further nominated as Finance Offr vice Major Manikumar Rai – Proposer: Maj General Pett and Seconder: Lt Colonel Richardson-Aitken. (d) Captain Anne Griffith (Social Secretary) – Proposer: Brigadier Anderson. Seconder: Major Davies.

The President agreed to circulate his draft paper to key members of the 6 GRRA for comment.

Action: President to circulate draft paper of the future of 6 GRRA in due course.

12. AOB Brig Strickland stated that he was keen to strengthen the links between RGR and the antecedent Regiments. His proposal was that RAs should be invited to RGR events in order to bridge the gap between the serving and retired members of the Brigade.

The Chairman stated that the 6 GRRA AGM and reunion was becoming much abbreviated due to the short time available between finishing lunch and Members having to leave. He therefore suggested that the AGM and Reunion be linked to the Book of Remembrance Service at Winchester Cathedral. The proposal was to hold the AGM in the library at the Gurkha Museum followed by lunch in the McDonald Room. Action: Hon Sec to book venue and inform all Members.

The President highlighted the challenges for the future when successors for himself and the Chairman would need to be identified. He asked Members to send him their ideas on who should succeed him, as President and Lt Colonel O’Bree as Chairman. Action: All members.

There was a request that the Cuttack Lunches were held in March and October. (Chairman’s after meeting note: As the Cuttack Lunch is not formally an Association responsibility, the actual dates would be up to the organiser).

11. Future of the Association

The next AGM and Reunion will be held at the Gurkha Museum on Saturday 3 Nov 18 after the Book of Remembrance Service at Winchester Cathedral.

The President stated that he was writing a paper on the future of Regimental Associations (RA). He pointed out that with no new source of membership, 6 GRRA, along with other antecedent RAs had a finite life. Various options were being considered, however the crucial element would be what would happen to the Trust funds. He stated that this needed to be addressed sooner rather than later in order to remain within the Charity Commissions rules.

Various options were discussed and Maj General Pett stated that 6 GRRA should look forward i.e. towards RGR and not back. He went on to say that the Journal must remain and that until its demise the 6 GRRA should continue to be a source of friendship.

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13. Date and Venue of Next Meeting

There being no further business the meeting was closed at 1535 hrs.

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6TH QUEEN ELIZABETH’S OWN GURKHA RIFLES Regimental Association Income and expenditure account for the 12 months ended 30 September 2017

12 months to 12 months to 30 September 2016 30 September 2017 £ £

Income 427.10 Receipts earned from assets – 197.04

Investment Income Sale of chattels by auction

Subscriptions Sales

3,149.95

Cuttack Lunch Donations Donation (for GWT)

2,910.00

212.00

100.00

3,185.00

4,635.00

35.00

4,135.00

825.00 –

Transfer from Lloyds Transfer from Main A/c

201.15

130.30 –

1,669.92 – 1,808.10 –

11,212.31

12,408.25

Expenditure GWT re Deceased offrs & another GBA annual subscription

1,147.02 – 390.00 –

Grant to HK Branch – 100.00 550.00 –

UK Re-union Journal

4,510.30

RBL Wreaths

98.00

Winchester Cathedral Book of Remembrance Service GBA re NM & BV Assn 50th Anniversary Durbar

4,758.36

–

150.00 – 55.00 – 6,562.40

–

Cuttack Lunch

3,186.00

4,577.60

Presentations

82.98

15.00

42.12

42.12

Catering for AGM

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(Continued)

12 months to 12 months to 30 September 2016 30 September 2017 £ £

Refund of sub overpaid

140.00 –

ISA fee

1,000.00

Domain Name

87.04

1,000.00

–

Association Secretary Expenses – 202.13 11,438.46

Total expenditure

17,257.61

(226.15) (4,849.36)

Surplus/(Deficit) Balance Sheet as at 30 September 2017 Accumulated Fund Balance Sheet as at 30 Sep 16

8,186.65

7,864.50

Cash Funds at at Sep 17

7,960.50

3,015.14

4.00 –

Adjustment Uncleared cheques & interest

-100.00

-100.00

7,864.50

2,915.14

7,864.50

2,915.14

5,257.25

5,673.24

13,121.75

8,588.38

Represented by Bank Investments

The accounts of the Association were produced by Mr MFH Adler, ISA (6 GRRT Secretary and 6 GRRA Treasurer)

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6 GRRA REGIMENTAL TRUST ANNUAL REPORT Trustees

Objects of The Regimental Association

• Brigadier JA Anderson OBE (Trust and Meeting Chairman) • Brigadier AJP Bourne OBE • Lieutenant Colonel BM O’Bree (Chairman of the Regimental Association) • Major Mani Kumar Rai MBE (Secretary of the Regimental Association) • Major Gopalbahadur Gurung MBE • Captain MD Channing • Captain PMA Grant • D N MacLean

The Principle Object is to foster esprit de corps and comradeship and to preserve the traditions and history of the 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles (“the Regiment”) for all former members of the Regiment and members of the Association.

Objects of the Trust The objects of the Trust are: 1. To promote the efficiency of the Royal Gurkha Rifles in such ways as the Trustees from time to time think fit; 2. To foster the esprit de corps and further comradeship and welfare of former members of the 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles (The Regiment) and their families and to preserve the history and traditions of the Regiment; 3. To relieve, either generally or individually, persons who are former members of the Regiment and their dependants (“beneficiaries”), who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress; 4. To create and maintain a permanent memorial or permanent memorials to the members of the regiment who were killed in action or died in consequence thereof: and 5. To assist the education and training of beneficiaries.

Activities during the year The Trust was re-structured by a Charity Commission scheme sealed on 20 June 1997 with the above objects. The accounts that accompany this Report show the combined figures for the Regimental Trust and the Regimental Association. It is appropriate, at this juncture, to restate the Objects of the Regimental Association;

The Further Objects are to maintain contact between members of the Association, fostering mutual friendship among them; to maintain liaison between the Association and the Regimental Association of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, and with the serving members of that regiment; to provide for members of the Association to play a full part in the charitable activities carried out by The Gurkha Brigade Association and The Gurkha Welfare Trust in the relief of individual former members of the Regiment and their dependants who are in conditions of need, hardship or distress, and further to act as a channel of communication between members of the Association in need and the many sources of welfare support and benevolence that may from time to time be available.

It will be noted that the objects of the Trust and the Association are remarkably similar. The social (networking) side of the Association covers it costs with the members paying for each event and there is no subsidy from charitable funds.

During the year the Regiment celebrated its 200th Anniversary and thus there was a large amount of extraordinary expenditure, partly met from reserves.

Durbars (Regimental Reunions) were held in both Nepal and the UK with very large numbers of Veterans present. Smaller re-unions were held in India and Hong Kong. The Trustees judge that all these events were highly successful and well worth the considerable overall cost.

The Trustees have met at regular intervals. Full and detailed minutes of their meetings have been kept.

The Charity has continued to support the British and

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Bato ma bhet bhayo - Nepal Durbar 2017

Nepal branches of the Regimental Association (as mentioned above), the Gurkha Museum and the Gurkha Welfare Trust. The latter with a very large grant towards the costs of rebuilding certain Area Welfare Centres in Nepal that were damaged in the terrible earthquakes in 2015.

furthering efficiency and contributing to the promotion of morale, a war-winning factor. The Trustees have supported a range of welfare and benevolence projects during the year in direct benefit of the promotion of the efficiency of the armed forces of the Crown.

Public Benefit

The income of the Trust will continue to be applied in support of projects that provide the broadest benefit to the maximum number of beneficiaries. Investments will be kept under ongoing review. The investment objective is to maintain, indeed increase, the capital value of the Charity’s investments in order that the real value of grants made to beneficiaries may be maintained.

The Charity alleviates distress, awards achievement and promotes the well-being and morale of the Brigade of Gurkhas in particular. As such the Trustees are confident that they meet the stated Public Benefit requirement. The Charity has no trading subsidiary and is not a member of the Fundraising Standards Board as it does not seek to raise funds.

The Charity benefits the public directly by contributing to the esprit de corps of the Royal Gurkha Rifles thus

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Plans and Expectations

Risk Assessment and Policy The Trustees review the risks, which might affect the

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Charity, on a regular basis. The main risk is assessed as being a major collapse of the Stock Market but, nevertheless, they consider that their investments, which are professionally managed by a major financial organisation, are as well diversified as they can be.

The Trustees have experienced previous down turns in the market but, being a charity with long-term expectations and requirements, they are content that their present investment policy is the proper one.

Written policy documents are in place to cover risk management and investment.

No such documents are required to cover volunteer management, safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries and complaints handling as the Charity has no involvement in such matters.

Governance Trustees are selected on the basis of special skills that they can offer which will benefit the Charity in terms of its operation. A balance is maintained in order to ensure that both the old Regiment and the current one (RGR) are adequately represented. Trustees’ training is mainly achieved by virtue of positions held by Trustees in their civilian or military capacities.

Where necessary, the Independent Services Agency Ltd provides specialised technical advice on relevant current charity matters.

The Trustees are all “volunteers� and offer their services on a financially un-rewarded basis. No other volunteers are employed.

No regular fund-raising activities take place.

Ink brush painting of Snow Leopards by Tenzing Norbu Lama

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Members of the 1922 Mount Everest Expedition at Base Camp.

Left to right, back row: Major Morshead, Captain Geoffrey Bruce, Captain Noel, Dr. Wakefield, Mr Somervell, Captain Morris, Major Norton.

Front row: Mr. Mallory, Captain Finch, Dr. Longstaff, General Bruce, Colonel Strutt, Mr. Crawford.

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Rear cover.

Please see seperate file for cover and spine printing

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