Farewell to Colonel Brigade of Gurkhas Colonel J G Robinson CBE and Mrs Alison Robinson by Senior Gurkha Officers

Gurkha Majors, Officer Commanding, Queen’s Gurkha Orderly Officers and Regimental Sergeant Majors from across the Brigade units came together on Saturday 3rd August 2019 in the Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment Officers Mess to show their appreciation for  Colonel James Robinson CBE (Colonel Brigade of Gurkhas) commitment, direction, dedication and drive in leading the Brigade of Gurkhas for the past seven years.

At the dinner, the Deputy Chief of Staff Major Narendra K Gurung valiantly attempted to capture the many achievements of a man of true giant stature and the generational relationship he has to the Brigade of Gurkhas, which was followed by a special ‘khada’ ceremony wishing the family best of health and prosperity in their future endeavours.

Brigade of Gurkhas will surely miss his fatherly guidance.

Staff Sergeant Akash Tamang was awarded a Commander 8 Engineer Brigade’s Certificate of Commendation for his outstanding contribution as an Observer Mentor to Exercise WESSEX STORM 1901.

Staff Sergeant Joseph Subba was awarded a 7th Infantry Brigade’s Certificate of Commendation for his exemplary ambassador for his both trade and the Gurkha traditions of Infantrymen first, unwavering integrity and dedication to duty. 

Corporal Kumar Pun was awarded a Commander 8 Brigade’s Certificate of Commendation for his outstanding leadership and wider support to UK task force in South Sudan. 

Since the inauguration of the Brigade of Gurkhas Cricket Club (BGCC) in 2018 by our presiding Secretary, Major Buddhibahadur Bhandari MVO, BGCC has been fortunate enough to carry the Brigade Of Gurkhas reputation widely playing against a few big names including; Lord Traveners last year and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) this year. Currently, there are 32 BGCC players formed across the Brigade of Gurkhas. 

This year BGCC had a cracking start with a very successful week of training sessions during our AGM playing and practicing against few local Cricket club in the Army Cricket Pitch, Aldershot. We are progressing and few resolutions have already been identified by our Secretary for the next year to bring more fixtures.

The Brigade of Gurkhas Bhela will take place on 13th July 2019. More information can be found on this link..

 Nepal Cup, Tug of War, Ladies Volleyball ( V/Ball) and Thelo

Activities

• Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) Weapons Display
• Gurkha Welfare Trust
• Gurkha Museum
• Junkari Charity Group
• RGR PRI Shop

Family Fun Fair

• Twist Around Family Ride
• Chair-o-Plane
• Dodgem
  £5 for All ride – All Day Tickets from Control Tent 1.

General Stalls

• Gurkha Mortgages
• Peepal Mortgages
• MUMs Mortgages
• SSAFA
• REFA

Food Stalls

• Palace Resturant
• QOGLR Food Stall
• Gurkha Company Sittang Food Stall
• Fish ‘n’ Chips, Burger and Hot Dogs
• Ice Cream and Ice Slush Puppy
• Tea, Coffee and Hot Chocolate
• Gurkha Company Sittang and Gurkha Welfare Advice Centre Cold Drinks

Retail Stalls

• UK Sweaters
• Lumbini Clothing
• Kala Jyoti

NB: Timings may be subject to change. Changes will be broadcast on the PA system.

Nepal Cup 2019 started at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on 4th July 2019.

Nepal Cup 2019 scores update for 4th July 2019:

Group D

1 Royal Gurkha Rifles (2) – Gurkha Company Catterick (0)

Group B

2 Royal Gurkha Rifles (7) – Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas (1)

Group C

Queen’s Gurkha Signals (3) – Gurkha wing Mandalay (1)

Nepal Cup 2019 scores update for 5th July 2019:

Group D

1 Royal Gurkha Rifles (2) – Queen’s Gurkha Engineers (1)

Group A

Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment (3) – Gurkha Company Sittang (0)

Group B

Gurkha Staff and Personnel Support (4) – Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas (1)

Nepal Cup 2019 scores update for 8th July 2019:

Group C

Queen’s Gurkha Signals (7) – Gurkha Company Tavoleto (1)

Group B

2 Royal Gurkha Rifles (3) – Gurkha Staff and Personnel Support (0)

Group A

Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Support Battalion (2) – Gurkha Company Sittang (1)

Nepal Cup 2019 scores update for 9th July 2019:

Group A

Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment (3) – Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Support Battalion (1)

Group C

Gurkha Wing Mandalay (2) – Gurkha Company Tavoleto (1)

Group D

Queen’s Gurkha Engineers (2) – Gurkha Company Catterick (1)

Nepal Cup 2019 Semi Final scores update for 11th July 2019:

1 Royal Gurkha Rifles (3) – 2 Royal Gurkha Rifles (1)

Queen’s Gurkha Signals (4) – Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment (1)

Nepal Cup 2019 Third Place Match scores update for 13th July 2019

Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment (2) – 2 Royal Gurkha Rifles (1)

Nepal Cup Final Match score update for 13th July 2019

Queen’s Gurkha Signals (1) – 1 Royal Gurkha Rifles (0)

The Top scorer for Nepal Cup 2019 was awarded to Lance Corporal Prasant Tamang.

Click the image above to watch Queen’s Gurkha Signals Free Kick winning goal score by Lance Corporal Prasant Tamang against 1 Royal Gurkha Rifles (1-0) in Nepal Cup 2019 Finals Match.

The Brigade of Gurkhas Annual Golf Championship was held on Tuesday 2nd July 2019 at Windlesham Golf Club played between Brigade of Gurkhas unit teams. This event marks the official start of the Brigade of Gurkhas Brigade Week 2019. The day also sadly marked the Colonel Brigade of Gurkhas (Col BG) Colonel James Robinson CBE last participation in the BG Golf championship as he retires from the job very soon. Col BG leaves behind a great legacy which he initiated in 2015 and has since been contested annually by the best Gurkha golfers.

Overall Unit Champion:

• Champion team of the Year 2019 – Gurkha Company Sittang
• 1st Runners up – Queen’s Gurkha Signals
• 2nd Runners up – 1 Royal Gurkha Rifles

Individual Top 5 of the Brigade of Gurkhas:

• 1st – Captain Mahendra Phagami (RGR) – Gurkha Company Sittang
• 2nd – Sergeant Gajendra Gurung (QGE) – Gurkha Wing Mandalay
• 3rd – Captain Dipakraj Ghale (RGR) – Gurkha Company Sittang
• 4th – Captain Bhakta Sherchan (RGR)– Gurkha Company Catterick
• 5th – Staff Sergeant Saroj Rai (QGS) – Queen’s Gurkha Signals

Novelty Prizes:

• Nearest to the Pin – Staff Sergeant Saroj Rai – Queen’s Gurkha Signals
• 2nd Approach – Sergeant Gajendra Gurung – Gurkha Wing Mandalay
• Longest drive – Corporal Chandra Rai – 2 Royal Gurkha Rifles

Dear all Gurkha Brigade Association friends, please find below the link to all online version of Parbate.

This is June/July’s edition and it covers some events including:

• Prime Minister of Nepal visits the Brigade of Gurkhas
• Ladies Trek to Annapurna Base Camp
• Pass off the Square for Recruit Intake 19
• 249 Gurkha Gurkha Signal Squadron Reformation
• Survival Nepali Language Course

The Brigade of Gurkhas Media Team.

The Brigade of Gurkhas again excelled at the Army Operational Shooting Competition (AOSC) 2019 known as the Bisley Shooting Competition. This is the biggest shooting competition in the British Army, held annually at the Bisley Camp in Pirbright, Surrey.

Shooting teams take part not only from across the British Army but also a number of International Military Teams participate. This year’s AOSC was held on Thursday 20th June 2018 and Brigade of Gurkhas performed extremely well in the competition. 

The Queen’s Medal winner

The best shot prize is the Queen’s Medal which was won by Corporal Subash Rai 2 Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) who was carried on a chair in the traditional manner by senior officers including Colonel Brigade of Gurkhas.

Regular Army Queen Medal Competition and Unit Service Weapons Team Championship.
Individual Prizes.

• The winner of the Cheylesmore Cup – Private (Pte) Upendra Gurung, 10 Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment (QOGLR)
• The winner of the Roupell Cup – Corporal (Cpl) Dhan Ghale, 1 RGR
• The winner of the Henry Whitehead Cup and the Association Cup – Cpl Kumar Gurung, Queen’s Gurkha Engineers (QGE), 36 Engineer Regiment
• The winner of the Roberts Cup – Lance Corporal (LCpl) Amrit Gurung, 2 RGR 
• The winner of the Far East LF Cup – Rifleman (Rfn) Ashish Gurung, 1 RGR
• The winner of the Western Command Cup – LCpl Resham Pun, Queen’s Gurkha Signal (QG Signals), 30 Signal Regiment
• The winner of the Malta Cup – Rfn Yugal Gurung, 2 RGR 
• The winner of the Graham Trophy, a large presentation Khukri and the Worcestershire Cup – LCpl Sagar Somare
• The winner of the Graham Trophy, The Bullock Trophy and Large presentation Khukri – Cpl Subash Rai
• The winner of the Young soldier Challenge Cup – Rfn Milan Buduja Pun, 1 RGR 
• The winner of the Manchester Regiment Cup – LCpl Sagar Somare, 1 RGR 
• The winner of the ARA Bronze Jewel – Cpl Dhan Ghale, 1 RGR 
• The winner of the ARA Silver Jewel – Rfn Nishal Thapa, 1 RGR 
• The winner of the ARA Gold Jewel – Cpl Subash Rai, 2 RGR

Team Prizes

• The winners of the KRRC Cup, the Coronation Cup, The RASC Cup, The Eastern Comd Cup and the Malta Challenge Cup – 1 RGR 
• The winners of the Royal Irish Cup, The Britannia Trophy and the Parachute Regiment Cup – 2 RGR
• The winners of the 6th QEO Gurkha Rifles Trophy – 10 QOGLR
• Overall Unit Champions 2019: The Winner of the Dunlop Trophy – 1 RGR

Top 100

57 shooters out of 100 were Gurkhas who will all receive an Army 100 badge – a significant number.

The Gurkha Khud Race will take place on 20th July 2019 in Pen y Fan, Brecon Beacons. The Infantry Battle School aims to re-ignite this long-lasted custom of the Brigade of Gurkhas. This time the race is open to all the general public who can compete alongside serving Gurkhas Soldiers. 

The Hill Race was first introduced by Major The Honorary (later Brigadier General) C G Bruce of the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force) as a protest against the Indian Army attitude which considered that Gurkhas could not compete on equal terms with Punjabis, Sikhs and other Indian Army castes. Unsurpassed among athletic contests as a spectacle, it had important consequences, for it not only established the reputation of the Gurkha as practically invincible on the hill-side, but also had the effect of improving military skills associated with hill-work generally in the context of operations in the hills of the North West Frontier. In 1890 the first year of the Punjab Frontier sports competition, a hill race was run with 133 starters of all classes. The first thirty-three places were won by Gurkhas, the first Punjabi coming in 34th.

Three annual local races followed and in 1894 the 5th Gurkha Challenge Cup was presented to become the Hill Race Trophy.

This silver trophy now resides in the Gurkha Museum. The Trophy is a silver statue of a Gurkha in national costume, and was commonly known as “The Little Man”.

One of the most notable of all the hill running performances was in 1899. Havildar Harkbir Thapa had been with Bruce in England when they went to the Isle of Skye. As the result of an argument between the Laird, McLeod of McLeod and some of his ghillies, a small bet was made that Harkbir would not run from Sligachan Inn to the top of Mount Glamaig and back in an hour and a quarter, the ghillies saying that their dogs could not do this. The distance is two miles open moorland to the foot, and a rise of 2,817 feet to the summit. Harkbir accomplished it by himself in thirty-seven minutes to the summit, and eighteen minutes back to the Inn without fatigue. This record remained unbroken until 1997; many athletes in the North had tried to beat it, but it took a professional fell runner in running shoes, nearly a hundred years later to shave off five minutes from the time set in 1899.

After the transfer of the four Gurkha Indian Army Regiments to the British Army on 1st January 1948 operations in Malaya interrupted the reintroduction of the Gurkha Hill Race Trophy. With the formation of 48 Gurkha Infantry Brigade in Hong Kong in 1960, the first 48 Brigade Khud Race competition was run on a hill called “Nameless” in the New Territories that same year. The course was one mile and 164 yards long, and involved a steep climb up a 1,300 foot slope followed by a perilous descent of 1,200 feet.

The Hong Kong record time was set by Colour Sergeant Gobinda Rai 10 Gurkha Rifles in 1981, in a time of fifteen minutes and twelve seconds before the last Khud Race was run in Kong Kong in 1996.

The last Brigade Hill Race was run in the United Kingdom on a very wet and windy day in Wales on 6th June 1995 which was won by 3rd Royal Gurkha Rifles. After 106 years of Gurkha Hill Racing this spectacular sporting event has ceased to be run in Britain’s Gurkha Regiments.