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Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of Gurkha Regiment with their English officers seen on guard at a picket in Waziristan.
Of Nepali origin, Gurkha soldiers made a large part of the British Indian forces that fought for the empire in many places in India and beyond. Between the two world wars, they also fought in the Third Anglo Afghan War of 1919 and then participated in numerous campaigns on the northwest frontier to safeguard the border regions.
In 1934 they were deployed in the restive Waziristan to control the resisting tribes, where they stayed until 1938. They saw and took part in action as Waziristan saw its most violent resistance against the British Indian Army under the leadership of Faqir of Ipi, a charismatic local cleric.
After independence, the original ten Gurkha regiments were divided between British Army and Indian Army. Professor Sir Ralph Lilley Turner, who served with the 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles in the First World War, wrote of the Gurkhas: “Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had country more faithful friends than you.”
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