The Gurkhas: From the Anglo-Nepalese War to Joanna Lumley's 2009 Win

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The names Gurkha and Gorkhali trace to the warrior saint Guru Gorakhnath, whose shrine stood in the hill principality of Gorkha, the kingdom Prithvi Narayan Shah expanded into the foundation of modern Nepal. That expansion collided with the British East India Company in the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814 to 1816, where Gorkhali soldiers used the Himalayan foothills for ambushes and close fighting with the kukri. British agents David Ochterlony and William Fraser were so impressed that they recruited defectors during the war, and by 1815 the first Gurkha regiments had formed. In the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Gurkha battalions held Hindu Rao's house at the siege of Delhi for months beside the British 60th Rifles.

More than 200,000 Gurkhas served in World War I and over 250,000 in World War II, earning 26 Victoria Crosses, split evenly between British officers and Gurkha soldiers. Yet a Gurkha officer held only a viceroy's commission and ranked below any newly commissioned British officer. The 1947 Tripartite Agreement divided the regiments between India and Britain and tied British Gurkha pay to Indian Army rates, which left retired veterans with small pensions and no right to settle in Britain.

• At Sari Bair in the Gallipoli campaign, Gurkhas were the only Allied troops to reach and briefly hold the crest line.
• Six regiments stayed with India and four transferred to the British Army, while Gurkhas also serve in the Singapore police, Brunei, and India's Special Frontier Force.
• Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions exempts Gurkhas from the mercenary definition because they are integrated into the host state's armed forces.
• In 2008 Mr. Justice Blake ruled at the High Court that rules barring pre-1997 Gurkha retirees from settling in Britain were irrational.
• Campaigning by actress Joanna Lumley, whose father fought beside Gurkhas, helped defeat the government in the Commons in 2009.