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, (located in Military books/India). Elsewhere it is stated that the 1930 edition was for private circulation, a subscribed edition of only 200 copies.

Volume 2 1929-1947, published 1956, 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. Volume 2, 1956 Searchable but not viewable Google Books.

• 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.

• My Dear Walter: Observations of a Gurkha Officer 1937-43 by Richard Wethered Morland-Hughes, known as Portland, 1987. Searchable but not viewable Google Books. The second part of the book, 'Off the Record', reproduces pages from Portland's sketchbook of that name in which he depicted various incidents in the life of his Regiment from the declaration of war in 1939 until just before its departure from the Middle East for Italy in 1943.