2nd Gurkha Rifles

2nd Gurkha Rifles

Refer to general article Gurkha Rifles
Also known as The Sirmoor Rifles or Sirmur Rifles

Chronology

• 1815 raised as Sirmoor Battalion by Lieutenant Frederick Young
• 1823 became 8th (Sirmoor) Local Battalion
• 1826 became 6th (Sirmoor) Battalion
• 1850 became Sirmoor Battalion
• 1858 became Sirmoor Rifle Regiment
• 1861 became 17th Bengal Native Infantry
• 1864 became 2nd Gurkha (Sirmoor Rifles) Regiment
• 1876 became 2nd (Prince of Wales's Own) Gurkha Regiment (The Sirmoor Rifles)
• 1901 became 2nd King Edward's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Regiment)
• 1936 became King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles
• 1947 allocated to Britain on Partition.

Regimental histories

• Britain's Brigade of Gurkhas : the 2nd K.E.O. Goorkha Rifles, the 6th Q.E.O. Gurkha Rifles, the 7th D.E.O. Gurkha Rifles and the 10th P.M.O. Gurkha Rifles by E.D. Smith. Originally published 1973, and reprinted 1982. Series: Famous regiments.

Available at the British Library UIN: BLL01007379549

External links

• 2nd Gurkha Rifles British Empire website
  
• Sirmoor Rifles Wikipedia
• Gurkha awarded MBE 70 years late 13 May 2016 army.mod.uk. Subedar Major Kalu Chettri, MC MBE, 2nd KEO Gurkha Rifles. Contains links to full details of the Military Cross and MBE Citations, and provides regimental details from 1917.
• WW2Talk topic "3/2 Gurkhas in the Arakan" [in WW2].
• Listen to the 1992 interview with Harold Douglas James British officer served with 3/2nd Bn Gurkha Rifles with 3 Column 77 Bde during First Chindit Expedition in Burma, 1943 Imperial War Museums
• The Gurkha Museum Peninsula Barracks, Winchester, Hampshire, England. Covers the 2nd, 6th, 7th and 10th Gurkha Rifles, those Gurkha Regiments which became part of the British Army.

Historical books online

• History of the 2nd King Edward's Own Goorkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles) by Colonel L W Shakespear 2nd KEO Goorkha Rifles. Volume I from 1815 published 1912. Volume II 1911-1921, published 1924. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Volume II is also available online on fold 3 (Ancestry owned pay website) in a Naval & Military Press reprint edition, located in World War II/Military Books/India (where possibly images and maps may be clearer).

Volume III, by G R Stevens, is for the period 1921-1948, and is available at the British Library, part of UIN: BLL01013084299, which advises there is also a Volume IV, 1948-2003.

• The Gurkhas 1928 Archive.org, mirror from Digital Library of India. Full title: The Gurkhas: their Manners, Customs and Country by Major W Brook Northey, late 1st KGO Gurkha Rifles and Captain C J Morris 3rd QAO Gurkha Rifles. Also available as a download from PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.

The Land Of The Gurkhas Or The Himalayan Kingdom Of Nepal by Major W Brook Northey, late 1st KGO Gurkha Rifles. Reprint edition, first published 1937. Archive.org. The author held the post of Recruiting Officer for five years, during which he was permitted to visit the interiors of Nepal that were out of bounds to other Europeans. Also available to download as a pdf from PAHAR-Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.

• The Gurkhas Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India. A regimental history. This appears to be a reprint edition, for which no author is given, and which advises first published 1960. However the final chapter refers to events in 1964. The most likely publication appears to be The Gurkhas by Harold James and Denis Sheil-Small published 1965, London.

The Gurkhas by James, 1965. Link to a pdf download, PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.