Fighters' motto: better to die than be a coward

Tul Bahadur Pun backed the Gurkhas' case in London. Photo / AP

Who are the Gurkhas and what is their contribution to military history?

The 3500 Gurkhas in the British Army all originate from the hill-town region of Gorkha in Nepal. But their name is said to derive from an 8th-century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath. Legend has it that it was he who gave the Gurkhas the famous curved bladed knife, the kukri. The Gurkhas are mainly impoverished hill farmers.

How do they come to be in the British Army?

Almost 200 years ago troops in support of the British East India Company invaded Nepal. They suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the Gurkhas and signed a hasty peace deal and offered to pay the Gurkhas to join their army. A soldier of the 87th Foot wrote in his memoirs: "I never saw more steadiness or bravery exhibited in my life. Run they would not, and of death they seemed to have no fear, though their comrades were falling thick around them".

A total of 200,000 Gurkhas then fought in the British Army in the World Wars - in France, Flanders, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine, Salonika and in the desert with Lawrence of Arabia and then across Europe and the Far East in World War II. They have since served in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Borneo, Cyprus, the Falklands, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Nepal is not a member of the Commonwealth. Gurkhas have never been subjects of the British Crown.

Do they serve only in British forces?

No. After the partition of India in 1947, an agreement between Nepal, India and Britain transferred four Gurkha regiments from the British to the Indian Army. Its Gorkha Brigade (it changed the spelling) now has 120,000 Gurkhas in 46 battalions. There are Gurkhas in the Malaysian Army and the Singapore Police Force.

How tough are they?

Around 28,000 Gurkha youths compete for just 200 places in the British Army each year. To qualify they must be able to do 75 bench jumps in one minute and 70 sit-ups in two minutes. Then they take part in the world's most arduous military selection test, the doko - running 5km up a steep track in the foothills of the Himalayas, carrying 25kg of rocks on their back, in less than 55 minutes.

Are they really outstandingly brave?

Their motto is "Better to die than be a coward". In World War I, in which 20,000 of them were casualties, they won almost 2000 awards for gallantry. At the Battle of Loos in 1915 a Gurkha battalion fought literally to the last man.

How many Gurkhas have won the Victoria Cross?

There have been 26 awards of this highest badge of courage made to members of the Gurkha regiments, half to Gurkhas and half to their British officers. Some of the acts of bravery were extraordinary, like that of Rifleman Tul Bahadur Pun, now 87, who won the VC fighting the Japanese in the jungles of Burma. When all his comrades were dead or wounded he snatched up a Bren gun and made a solitary charge across 30m of open ground to take a Japanese machine gun which he then used to give covering fire that saved a large number of British lives, including that of Major James Lumley, whose actress daughter Joanna is now one of the staunchest campaigners for the Gurkha cause.

- INDEPENDENT