History of the Brigade of Gurkhas
THE BEGINNING - GURKHAS, NEPAL AND THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
Robert
Clive's decisive victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 firmly
established British supremacy in India thereby opening the door for
expansion of the Honourable East India Company. Some 10 years after
Plassey the British started to come into contact with a unique and
vigorous power on the northern borders of its newly won territories in
Bengal and Bihar.
This power was the city-state of Gorkha led by
its dynamic King Prithwi Narayan Shah. Gorkha was a feudal hill village
in what is now western Nepal, the village from which the Gurkha takes
his name. Prithwi Narayan Shah and his successors grew so powerful that
they overan the whole of the hill country from the Kashmir border in
the west to Bhutan in the east. Eventually, as a result of boundary
disputes and repeated raids by Gurkha columns into British territory,
the Governor General declared war on Nepal in 1814.
After two long and bloody campaigns a Peace Treaty was signed at Sugauli in 1816.
During
the war a deep feeling of mutual respect and admiration had developed
between the British and their adversaries, the British being much
impressed by the fighting and other qualities of the Gurkha soldier.
Under the terms of the Peace Treaty large numbers of Gurkhas were
permitted to volunteer for service in the East India Company's Army.
From these volunteers were formed the first regiments of the Gurkha
Brigade, and from this time stems Britain's friendship with Nepal, a
country which has proved a staunch ally ever since and has become our
'oldest ally' in Asia.
Never has the trust that was then placed
in the Gurkha soldier ever been in doubt. Alongside his British comrade
in arms he has fought in many parts of the world and has proved himself
to be of the closest of friends and bravest of allies that Britain has
known.
'Keeping the Peace' in India under the British flag began
for Gurkha soldiers with the Pindaree War in 1817, and the first battle
honour gained by Gurkha troops was at Bhurtpore in 1826. The two senior
regiments distinguished themselves in the hard fought battles of the
1st Sikh War in 1846, and six regiments of the Nepalese Army were
offered to the East India Company for service in the 2nd Sikh War of
1848.
In the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858 the 2nd Goorkhas showed
striking proof of their loyalty at Delhi where, together with the 60th
Rifles (now part of The Rifles), they held Hindu Rao's house, the key to
the British position which was under continuous fire from the
mutineers, for over three months. During this period the 2nd Goorkhas
suffered 327 casualties (including 8 of their 9 British Officers) out of
a total strength of 490. Also during the mutiny, 12 Nepalese Army
Regiments, a force of 8,000 men under the personal leadership of the
Prime Minister of Nepal, took part in the final relief of Lucknow.
AFTER THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
Throughout
the next 50 years there was much active service in Burma, Afghanistan,
the North-East and the North-West Frontiers of India, Malta, Cyprus,
Malaya, China (the Boxer Rebellion of 1900) and Tibet (Young husband's
Expedition of 1904).
source:http://www.army.mod.uk/gurkhas/7557.aspx
