The Royal Gurkha Rifles in action
The Gurkhas are a unique unit in the Army with a reputation of being amongst the finest and most feared soldiers in the world. All reporting, footage photos UK Army
The Royal Gurkha Rifles was formed on 1 July 1994, after amalgamation of four Gurkha Regiments, 2 GR, 6 GR, 7 GR and 10 GR.
During this time, battalions of the Royal Gurkha Rifles have taken part in operations in Kosovo, Bosnia, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Australia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Malawi.
The Royal Gurkha Rifles now consists of three battalions, two of which are based in Shorncliffe in Kent, and the other in Brunei
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, and is the place 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.
All Gurkha soldiers are recruited in Nepal. British Officers are recruited from across the UK and Commonwealth.
The Royal Gurkha Rifles currently have a jungle role Battalion permanently based in Brunei and a Light Role Battalion in the UK as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade.
All Officers are expected to speak Nepali and will attend a language course in Nepal. The Gurkhas have only been eligible for the Victoria Cross since 1911. During this time 26 have been awarded, 13 to British Officers and 13 to Gurkha Soldiers.