Victoria Crosses awarded to Britain’s Indian Army Gurkhas, 1911- 1947

By Colonel Richard Cawthorne

Victoria Cross was expanded to include Indian and Gurkha officers and soldiers of the Indian Army. Initially the award of the Victoria Cross to officers and men of the Honourable East India Company and later Britain’s Indian Army was restricted to British officers and soldiers. Native officers, non-commissioned officers and sepoys were only eligible for the Indian Order of Merit (IOM), which had been instituted in 1837. The expansion of the award to include native officers, non-commissioned officers and men was notified in The London Gazette on 12 December 1911, which coincided with its announcement at the Coronation Durbar of HM King George V at Delhi on the same day.

Over the next 35 years, until Par tition and the Independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, a total of forty Victoria Crosses were awarded to Indian and Gurkha officers and soldiers. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded during the First World War, two of which were to Gurkhas; one Victoria Cross was awarded to an Indian sepoy during the Waziristan campaign in 1921; and twenty-eight Victoria Crosses were awarded during the Second World War, of which ten were to Gurkhas. Of the twelve Victoria Crosses to Gurkhas, three were awarded posthumously, all in the Second World War. Victoria Crosses awarded to Britain’s Indian Army Gurkhas, 1911- 1947 By Colonel Richard Cawthorne In the First World War, the Victoria Crosses awarded to Gurkhas were both to riflemen of the 2nd Battalion 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles; one in France in 1915 and the other in Palestine in 1918.

In the Second World War, Gurkha recipients were from six of the ten regiments of Gurkhas for actions in North Africa, Italy and Burma. The first Victoria Cross to be awarded to a Gurkha in the Second World War was for an action in North Africa in 1943; two were awarded to Gurkhas, both posthumously, for actions in Italy in 1944, and the remaining seven Victoria Crosses were awarded to Gurkhas for the Burma campaign. Of the seven Victoria Crosses for the Burma campaign, four were awarded during a two-week period in 1944 - two of which were awarded to a single battalion in the same battle.

Gurkhas of 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force) were awarded a total of four Victoria Crosses for actions in Burma and Italy, which was more than any other regiment in the Indian Army; and its 2nd Battalion was the most decorated battalion in the Indian Army, having been awarded three Victoria Crosses during the Burma campaign. Six of the twelve Victoria Crosses awarded to Gurkhas of Britain’s Indian Army are now held by the Gurkha Museum.

These are the Victoria Crosses awarded during the First World War to Riflemen Kulbir Thapa and Karanbahadur Rana, both of 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles, and for the Second World War to Subadar Lalbahadur Thapa and Rifleman Bhanbhagta Gurung, 2nd King Edward VII’s Own Gurkha Rifles, Rifleman Tulbahadur Pun, 6th Gurkha Rifles, and Rifleman Ganju Lama, 7th Gurkha Rifles. Havildar Lachhiman Gurung and Honorary Lieutenant (QGO) Tulbahadur Pun were the last of a special breed and their deaths represent the end of an era.