Royal Gurkha Rifles

Last updated

The Royal Gurkha Rifles
Royal Gurkha Rifles cap badge.png
Cap badge
Active1 July 1994 – present
AllegianceFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
BranchFlag of the British Army.svg  British Army
TypeRifles
Role
SizeTwo battalions
Five companies
Part of Brigade of Gurkhas
Light Division
Garrison/HQRHQ – Camberley [1]
1st Battalion – Shorncliffe
2nd Battalion – Seria, Brunei
Coriano Company – Aldershot Garrison
Falklands Company – Aldershot Garrison
Sittang Company – Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Mandalay Company – Infantry Battle School
Tavoleto Company – Land Warfare Centre
Nickname(s)The Gurkhas
MarchQuick – "Bravest of the Brave"
Double Past – "Keel Row"
Slow (band) – "God Bless the Prince of Wales"
Slow (pipes and drums) – "The Garb of Auld Gaul"
Anniversaries Meiktila (1 March)
Medicina (16 April)
Regimental Birthday (1 July)
Gallipoli (7 August)
Delhi Day (14 September)
Commanders
Colonel-in-Chief The King
Colonel of
the Regiment
Major General Gerald Strickland
Insignia
Tactical recognition flash Gurkhas TRF.svg
Tartan Douglas tartan, centred, zoomed out.png
Douglas (pipers' trews and plaids), from 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles
AbbreviationRGR

The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) is a rifle regiment of the British Army, forming part of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Unlike other regiments in the British Army, RGR soldiers are recruited from Nepal, which is neither a dependent territory of the United Kingdom nor a member of the Commonwealth.

Contents

History

The regiment was formed as the sole Gurkha infantry regiment of the British Army following the consolidation of the four separate Gurkha regiments in 1994: [2]

The amalgamations took place as follows:

The 3rd Battalion was consolidated with the 2nd Battalion in 1996 as part of run down of British forces in Hong Kong. [3]

The Gurkhas in general and the direct predecessors of the Royal Gurkha Rifles in particular are considered to be among the finest infantrymen in the world, as is evidenced by the high regard they are held in for both their fighting skill, and their smartness of turnout on parade. [4]

In December 1995, Lieutenant-Colonel Bijaykumar Rawat became the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, the first Nepalese to become a battalion commander in the RGR. He oversaw the departure of the battalion from Hong Kong just before that city's transfer to Chinese control, and the battalion's relocation to Queen Elizabeth Barracks, Church Crookham in 1996. [5]

Twice during its most recent Brunei posting the 2nd Battalion was deployed as the Afghanistan Roulement Infantry Battalion, while the 1st Battalion deployed as part of 52 Infantry Brigade in late 2007. During this tour, Cornet Harry Wales (Prince Harry) was attached for a period to the 1st Battalion as a Forward Air Controller. [6]

Under Army 2020, the regiment was intended to provide two light role battalions, rotating between Brunei and the UK, with their higher unit as 11th Infantry Brigade. [7] However, in June 2015, the 2nd Battalion, then based in the UK, was reassigned to form part of 16 Air Assault Brigade, in the air assault infantry role. [8]

In 2018, the UK Government announced that it intended to recruit more than 800 new posts to the Brigade of Gurkhas. [9] Approximately 300 of these are planned for the Royal Gurkha Rifles, which was to see the formation of a new battalion planned for the specialist infantry role. [10] On 11 March 2019, the Minister for the Armed Forces confirmed that the 3rd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles would be reestablished, with recruitment starting in 2019. [11] The battalion was reformed on 31 January 2020, to be based initially at Shorncliffe before moving to Aldershot. [12] However, following the revised Future Soldier (British Army) reorganisation, the formation of the 3rd Battalion was cancelled, with instead a number of independent companies established to reinforce units across the British Army. The first formed unit, Coriano Company, was subsequently followed by a second, Falklands Company, which was attached to 2nd Battalion, The Rangers. [13]

Organisation

The first battalion (1 RGR) is based at the British garrison in Brunei as part of Britain's commitment to maintaining a military presence in Southeast Asia. [14]

The second battalion (2 RGR) is based at Sir John Moore Barracks, Shorncliffe, near Folkestone in Kent as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade, and is available for deployment to most areas in Europe and Africa. [14]

1 RGR and 2 RGR rotate between Brunei and Folkestone. [15]

Coriano Company and Falklands Company operate as part of the Army Special Operations Brigade providing training, mentoring and operational support for indigenous forces in partner nations, and is based in Aldershot Garrison. [16]

Training companies

In addition to the operational battalions, three further units are cap badged as Royal Gurkha Rifles:

These three are formed as operational training units at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the Infantry Battle School and the Land Warfare Centre, to provide opposing forces for realistic battle simulation.

Gurkha clerks

Prior to 2011, administrative support for the entire Brigade of Gurkhas was provided by specially trained personnel called Gurkha clerks, who wore the cap badge of the Royal Gurkha Rifles. In June 2011, the Gurkha clerks were amalgamated into a single company sized unit called the Gurkha Staff and Personnel Support Company (GSPS), which was incorporated as part of the Adjutant General's Corps. As with the other Gurkha support units (Queen's Gurkha Engineers, Queen's Gurkha Signals, Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment), the GSPS received its own cap badge based on the badge of its parent corps. [20]

Ranks

Upon joining the British Army the RGR's predecessor regiments adopted British rank titles (e.g. sergeant and corporal) instead of the Indian Army names used before (e.g. havildar and naik). Similarly, the regiments' Viceroy Commissioned Officers, who were neither commissioned officers nor non-commissioned officers but filled most of the junior officer positions in a battalion, had their titles changed to (King's) Queen's Gurkha Officer (QGO), e.g. lieutenant (QGO), captain (QGO), major (QGO) instead of the Indian Army ranks of jemadar, subedar, and subedar-major. [21] At the same time, some RGR Gurkha officers had a Queen's Commission; they often had a (GCO) suffix after their rank. [22]

Subsequently, on 17 June 2008, the London Gazette published a Supplement that effectively abolished the QGO system by listing every serving QGO officer with their new commissioned rank (e.g. captain (QGO) became captain); the (QGO) and (GCO) suffixes disappeared. [23] Thus, serving Gurkhas, who previously would have become QGO, are now given a British commission and described as "Late Entry." Direct entry officers can be either British or Nepali (occasionally); they follow the normal British Army training for all direct entry infantry officers. A significant addition to the normal direct entry training for British RGR officers is that they will carry out Nepali language training in Nepal, which culminates in a month-long hike through the Nepalese countryside both to practise their language skills and learn about the country from which their soldiers are recruited. [24]

Notable soldiers

Corporal Dip Prasad Pun of the 1st battalion (1 RGR) was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for an act of bravery during the War in Afghanistan in 2010. He alone defended his outpost against a force of up to 12 Taliban fighters. He fired more than 400 rounds, 17 grenades, and one mine. He resorted to fighting with his machine gun tripod after his ammunition had run out. [25] [26]

Battle honours

The battle honours of the Royal Gurkha Rifles are as follows: [27]

Lineage

Lineage
The Royal Gurkha Rifles The 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) The Sirmoor Battalion
The 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles The Cuttack Legion
The 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles Assam Sebundy Corps
The 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles 14th Battalion of Coast Sepoys [28]

Alliances

See also

Related Research Articles

The Infantry of the British Army comprises 49 infantry battalions, from 19 regiments. Of these, 33 battalions are part of the Regular army and the remaining 16 a part of the Army Reserve. The British Army's Infantry takes on a variety of roles, including armoured, mechanised, air assault and light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brigade of Gurkhas</span> British Army units composed of Nepalese Gurkhas

Brigade of Gurkhas is the collective name which refers to all the units in the British Army that are composed of Nepalese Gurkha soldiers. The brigade draws its heritage from Gurkha units that originally served in the British Indian Army prior to Indian independence, and prior to that served for the East India Company. The brigade includes infantry, engineering, signal, logistic and training and support units. They are known for their khukuri, a distinctive heavy knife with a curved blade, and have a reputation for being fierce and brave soldiers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gurkha</span> Indian and Nepalese national soldiers

The Gurkhas or Gorkhas, with the endonym Gorkhali, are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of North India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles)</span> Military unit

The 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) was a rifle regiment of the British Indian Army before being transferred to the British Army on India's independence in 1947. The 4th Battalion joined the Indian Army as the 5th Battalion, 8th Gorkha Rifles (Sirmoor Rifles), where it exists to this day. As part of the British Army, the regiment served in Malaya, Hong Kong and Brunei until 1994 when it was amalgamated with the other three British Army Gurkha infantry regiments to form the Royal Gurkha Rifles. It is the only Gurkha regiment which did not have a khukuri on its cap badge.

The 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles,, was originally a rifle regiment of the British Indian Army. The regiment was formed in 1890, taking its lineage from a police unit and over the course of its existence it had a number of changes in designation and composition. It took part in a number of campaigns on the Indian frontiers during the 19th and early 20th centuries, before fighting in the First World War, the Third Anglo-Afghan War and the Second World War. Following India's independence in 1947, the regiment was one of four Gurkha regiments to be transferred to the British Army. In the 1960s it was active in the Malayan Emergency and Indonesian Confrontation. It was amalgamated with the other three British Gurkha regiments to form the Royal Gurkha Rifles in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4th Gorkha Rifles</span> Infantry regiment of the Indian Army

The 4th Gorkha Rifles or the Fourth Gorkha Rifles, abbreviated as 4 GR, is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army comprising Gurkha soldiers of Indian Gorkha or Nepalese nationality, especially Magars and Gurungs hill tribes of Nepal. The Fourth Gorkha Rifles has five infantry battalions. The regiment was raised in 1857 as part of the British Indian Army. In 1947, after India's independence, the Fourth Gurkha Rifles became part of the Indian Army as the Fourth Gorkha Rifles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force)</span> Indian Army unit

5th Gorkha Rifles, also abbreviated as 5 GR(FF) is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army comprising Gurkha soldiers of Nepalese origin. It was formed in 1858 as part of the British Indian Army. The regiment's battalions served in the First World War (Mesopotamia) and Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles</span> Military unit

The 7th Gurkha Rifles was a rifle regiment of the British Indian Army, before being transferred to the British Army, following India's independence in 1947 and after 1959 designated as the 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles.

The British Army primarily divides its infantry into regiments, which are subdivided into battalions. However, for various reasons, since the end of the Second World War it has also maintained companies that are intended to provide increments and reinforcements.

The 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles was a rifle regiment of the British Indian Army, before being transferred to the British Army following India's independence. Originally raised in 1817 as part of the army of the British East India Company, the regiment has been known by a number of names throughout its history. Initially the unit did not recruit from the Gurkhas, although after being transferred to the British Indian Army following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, it became a purely Gurkha regiment, in due course with its regimental headquarters at Abbottabad in the North West Frontier Province of British India. After 1947 the regiment was one of only four Gurkha regiments to be transferred to the British Army and this continued up until 1994, when it was amalgamated with other Gurkha regiments to form the Royal Gurkha Rifles. Over the course of its 177-year history, the regiment was awarded 25 battle honours, although prior to World War I it had only been awarded one and no battle honours were awarded to it after World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)</span> Military unit

The 5th Infantry Brigade was a regular infantry brigade of the British Army that was in existence since before the First World War, except for a short break in the late 1970s. It was an Airborne Brigade from the early 1980s until amalgamating with 24th Airmobile Brigade, in 1999, to form 16 Air Assault Brigade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Brunei Land Forces</span> Land service branch of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces

The Royal Brunei Land Forces is the land component of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces. The RBLF has responsibility for maintaining the territorial defence of Brunei, both from attack from outsiders, and by assisting the Royal Brunei Police in maintaining law and order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gorkha regiments (India)</span> Military unit of the Indian Army

Since the independence of India in 1947, as per the terms of the Britain–India–Nepal Tripartite Agreement, six Gorkha regiments, formerly part of the British Indian Army, became part of the Indian Army and have served ever since. The troops are mainly from ethnic Gurkha communities of India and Nepal. A seventh Gorkha Rifles regiment was re-raised in the Indian Army after Independence to accommodate Gorkha soldiers of the 7th Gurkha Rifles and the 10th Gurkha Rifles who chose not to transfer to the British Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">8th Gorkha Rifles</span> Military unit

The 8th Gorkha Rifles is a Gorkha regiment of the Indian Army. It was raised in 1824 as part of the British East India Company and later transferred to the British Indian Army after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The regiment served in World War I and World War II, before being one of the six Gurkha regiments transferred to the Indian Army after independence in 1947. Since then it has served in a number of conflicts including the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the Indo-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971. Today the 8th Gorkha Rifles is one of the most celebrated regiments of the Indian Army, having received numerous citations for bravery in the field of battle, and even producing one of the two field marshals of India, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, of the Indian Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">7th (Meerut) Division</span> Military unit

The 7th (Meerut) Division was an infantry division of the Indian Army and before 1895, the Bengal Army, that saw active service during World War I.

A large regiment is a multi-battalion infantry formation of the British Army. First formed in the 1960s, large regiments are the result of the amalgamation of a number of existing single-battalion regiments, and perpetuate the traditions of each of the predecessor units.

The following is a hierarchical outline for the British Armed Forces at the end of the Cold War. It is intended to convey the connections and relationships between units and formations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Army Special Operations Brigade</span> British Army special operations formation

The Army Special Operations Brigade, previously called the Specialised Infantry Group, is a formation of the British Army, initially created as a result of the Army 2020 Refine reorganisation, intended to train foreign forces. Its name and role was adapted after the Defence in a Competitive Age reforms, to a unit that not only trains partner nations, but also fights alongside them in "complex high-threat environments".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ranger Regiment (United Kingdom)</span> Special Operations unit of the British Army

The Ranger Regiment is a special operations-capable unit of the British Army which was formed on 1 December 2021 under the Future Soldier reform and is part of the Army Special Operations Brigade. It is intended to be used primarily in an unconventional warfare and foreign internal defence capacity in a similar manner to the US Green Berets.

Future Soldier is a reform of the British Army resulting from the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy published in March 2021. The aim of the reform is to create a more lethal, agile and expeditionary force, able to fight and win wars and to operate in the grey-zone between peace and war. Future Soldier was published on 25 November 2021 and deals with the organizational changes of the British Army, with changes to personnel and equipment were set out in the Defence in a Competitive Age paper published on 22 March 2021.

References

  1. "House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 1 Feb 2005" . Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  2. "Serving Brigade of Gurkhas". 13 February 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  3. "Regimental History". Archived from the original on 10 May 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  4. The Gurkhas, Byron Farwell, W.W. Norton, 1984
  5. "New Ideas: Gurkha Signals, Engineers & 'British' Officers". Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  6. "9 times The Royal Family showed their appreciation for The Gurkhas". The Gurkha Welfare Trust. 28 August 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
  7. "Army 2020 Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  8. "Gurkhas from 2 Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles based at Sir John Moore Barracks in Folkestone join army's 16 Air Assault Brigade based in Colchester". Kent Online. 5 June 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  9. "Did you transfer out of the Brigade of Gurkhas?". Gurkha Brigade. 2 August 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
  10. Ripley, Tim (18 July 2018). "UK to recruit more Gurkha soldiers". Jane's 360. Archived from the original on 18 July 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  11. "New Gurkha battalion to be established as brigade grows". British Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  12. "The Third Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles reformation parade". Gurkha Brigade Association. 3 February 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  13. "F (Falklands) Company, Formation Parade 18th November 2021". Gurkha Brigade Association. Brigade of Gurkhas. 30 November 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  14. 1 2 "His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei says farewell to 2 RGR". The Gurkha Brigade Association. 14 June 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  15. "The Royal Gurkha Rifles". gurkhabde.com. Gurkha Brigade Association. 22 February 2020. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
  16. "New specialist Gurkha battalion established". Ministry of Defence. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  17. "Sittang". Gurkha Brigade Association. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  18. "Mandalay". Gurkha Brigade Association. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  19. "Gurkha Company (Tavoleto) Warminster Parade". Gurkha Brigade Association. 31 August 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  20. "Gurkha Staff and Personnel Support". Brigade of Gurkhas Association. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
  21. Mike Chappell, "The Gurkhas," Osprey Publishing, 1994, pp 32, 42, 44, 56, and 61.
  22. Major General (Ret'd) JC Lawrence, "Gurkha - 25 years of The Royal Gurkha Rifles," Unicorn Publishing Group, 2019, pp 206 and 214.
  23. Lawrence, pp 208, 209, and 279
  24. Lawrence, pp 13, 103, and 105.
  25. "The Outstanding Examples Of A Generation The OP Honours Recipients". London. States News Service. 25 March 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  26. "The land of the brave". Kathmandu. The Kathmandu Post. 1 April 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  27. "Battle Honours". Archived from the original on 18 June 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  28. "A short history of the 10th Princess Mary's own Gurkha Rifles". 10gr.com. Archived from the original on 7 October 2010. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
Preceded by Infantry Order of Precedence Succeeded by