Formation to 1885 The regiment was raised during the
Gurkha War by Sir
Robert Colquhoun on 24 April 1815 as the
Kemaoon Battalion. It did not consist entirely of
Gurkhas but of men from
Kumaon and
Garhwal. The regiment adopted the
tartan of the
Clan Colquhoun. The regiment was primarily used to police the border with
Nepal, doing so for many decades until the
Indian Mutiny began in 1857. The battalion was actively involved in the efforts to quell it. During the
siege of Delhi—which lasted from March to September 1857—the regiment, part of Colonel
Colin Campbell's Third Column, took part in the storming of
Kashmiri Gate and gained the
Battle Honour "Delhi 1857". The mutiny was quelled by July 1858. The regiment, having been brought into the line of the
Bengal Army, was briefly titled the
18th Bengal Native Infantry in 1861 before the regiment gained its present numeral designation when it became the
3rd Gurkha (The Kumaon) Regiment. The regiment saw service in an expedition to
Bhutan shortly after the name change. In 1878 the
Second Afghan War began and the regiment, as part of the
2nd Infantry Brigade of the
Kandahar Field Force, took part in the march to seize
Kandahar. The field force successfully captured the city on 8 January 1879, having experienced great hardship on the march there. The following year the Kandahar Force began the march towards the Afghan capital
Kabul to join
Major-General Roberts force in an attempt to consolidate their situation in the country. During the journey, near
Ghaziri, the force were attacked by a large force of Afghan tribesmen at
Ahmad Khel on 19 April 1880. The fighting that ensued was intense and the field force's situation was in the balance until the Afghan forces were successfully repulsed when the 3rd Gurkha formed an
infantry square.
1885–1914 The regiment took part in the
Third Burmese War after it began in 1885 and operations concluded by the following year under First Brigade. In 1887 the 2nd Battalion was formed, consisting entirely of Garhwalis, but this was separated from the regiment in 1890 to form the
39th (The Garhwal) Regiment of Bengal Light Infantry. A new 2nd Battalion for the 3rd Gurkha was raised that same year and in 1891 the regiment was designated a
rifle regiment, becoming the
3rd Gurkha (Rifle) Regiment. The Battle of Loos was the battalion's last action on the Western Front and it left the 7th Division with the rest of the Garhwal Brigade for
Egypt in December 1915 after the brigade became an independent unit.
Middle East , Palestine, November 1917 After its arrival in Egypt the 2nd Battalion saw active service against the
Ottoman Empire and later took part in the
Palestine campaign, the second largest campaign by force totals during the First World War. It fought in the
Autumn Offensive, seeing their first action during the
Battles of Gaza. It was involved in many other actions during the campaign, including the
Battle of Mughar Ridge in November 1917 and the capture of
Jerusalem in December. On 19 September 1918, just a few months before the conclusion of the war, the
Megiddo Offensive, began and the battalion was involved in the capture of
Sharon. For its part in the campaign the 3rd Gurkhas gained seven
Battle Honours and the
Theatre Honour "Palestine 1917–18" after such honours were granted to units in the 1920s. On 10 April 1918 at
El Kefr in Egypt,
Karanbahadur Rana of the 2nd Battalion became the regiment's second VC recipient after distinguishing himself in an encounter with Ottoman forces, and was the last VC recipient of the regiment. Elsewhere the 1st Battalion, from 1917, took part in the
Mesopotamian Campaign (now
Iraq), gaining only a single Battle Honour in the process. It was achieved at the last battle of the campaign, at the
Battle of Sharqat (28–30 October 1918).
Interwar period The First World War concluded with the signing of the
Armistice on 11 November 1918 but this gave the regiment no respite. It took part in the
Third Afghan War in 1919 and spent much of their inter-war years in the
North West Frontier and
Burma. The post-war reductions saw the regiment reduced to its pre-war establishment. The 3rd Battalion was disbanded in 1920 and the mistakenly raised 4th Battalion followed in 1922.
Second World War The regiment was actively involved in
Second World War and, as had happened during the First World War, the regiment was expanded to meet its commitments. The 3rd Battalion was re-raised in 1940, followed by the 4th Battalion in 1941. During the conflict, the regiment fought in a number of theatres, including North Africa, Italy and Burma. During the North African campaign, the 2nd Battalion fought at
Tobruk, where they were brought in as reinforcements at the height of the battle and suffered misfortune almost immediately, when they were partially overrun by the Germans, losing almost two hundred men as prisoners of war, although many of these managed to escape later.
Post Independence India gained its independence in 1947 and the regiment was one of six Gurkha regiments (out of 10) to be allocated to the
Indian Army as part of the
Tripartite Agreement between Britain, India and
Nepal. The regiment retained its title until 1950 when India was proclaimed a
Republic and the regiment became the
3rd Gorkha Rifles. It remains in existence and consists of five battalions. The Regiment won the Battle Honour 'Pir Kanthi' in the Uri Sector in
the war of 1948 and 'Shingo' in the Kargil Sector in
war of 1971. 1/3 GR has the distinction of being the first battalion in the post-independence period to carry out amphibious operations during the 1971 Indo-Pak War. Colonel J.R. Chitnis, CO 1/3 GR, was honoured with the
Ashoka Chakra posthumously—India's highest peacetime medal for valour—in Nagaland in 1956. On 3 December 1997, a statue was unveiled in
London in honour of the Gurkhas. A quote from
Sir Ralph Turner, a former officer in the 3rd Gurkhas, was inscribed on the memorial: "
Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had country more faithful friends than you." ==Uniforms==