5th Gurkha Rifles

Refer to general article Gurkha Rifles
The Hazara Gurkha Battalion

Chronology

• 1858 raised as 25th Punjab Infantry or Hazara Gurkha Battalion
• 1861 renamed the 5th Gurhka Regiment
• 1891 became 5th Gurkha (Rifle) Regiment
• 1901 name shortened to 5th Gurkha Rifles
• 1921 became 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles
• 1947 became part of the Indian Army
• 1950 renamed the 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force)

First World War

Regimental War Diaries are available from the National Archives, Kew, England. Note that many of these are hand written, however transcribed editions are available for Gallipoli, for the 5th Gurkha Rifles and for the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade, of which the 5th Gurkha Rifles was a part, edited by Martin Gillott. publisher Great War Diaries, in Kindle editions which have a Search facility (anyone with Kindle Unlimited can read them for free). (Download of a free Kindle App is available, you don't need Kindle).

For National Archives references, and Theatres of War, refer External Links below.

External Links

• Gorkha Regiments (India) Wikipedia
  
• 5 Gorkha Rifles Wikipedia
• WW1 National Archives War Diary catalogue references, collaborativecollections.org:
  • 1st Battalion 5th Gurkha Rifles Theatres of War: Egypt, Palestine and Syria; Gallipoli; Mesopotamia and North Persia
    • For Gallipoli, the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade War Diary is also very relevant.
  • 2nd Battalion 5th Gurkha Rifles Theatres of War: Mesopotamia and North Persia
  • 3rd Battalion 5th Gurkha Rifles Theatres of War: India and East Persia
• Thamman Gurung, Rifleman 1st Battalion, 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his outstanding courage November 1944 at Monte San Bartolo, north-east Italy. cwgc.org, now an archived webpage.

Historical books online

• Notes on Goorkhas: 
being a short account of their country, history, characteristic, clans, &c. 
by Captain Eden Vansittart, 5th Goorkhas 1890 Archive.org
• History of the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force) 1858-1928, c 1930, is available in a reprint edition, which in turn is available as an online book on the Ancestry owned pay website fold3.

Volume 2 1929-1947, published 1946, and Volume 3 to 1991, published 1991, are available at the British Library UIN: BLL01001795372 and UIN: BLL010124929011. Volume 3 includes an abridgement of Volumes 1 and 2.

• The Gurkhas Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. A regimental history. This appears to be a reprint edition, for which no author is given, and which advises first published 1960. However the text 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.