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THE BRITAIN-NEPAL SOCIETY J o u r n a l Number 40

2016

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THE BRITAIN-NEPAL SOCIETY

J o u r n a l Number 40 2016

CONTENTS

2 Editorial 4 The Society’s News 8 200 Years of UK – Nepal Relations 19 The Genealogies of the , and related Families 26 Social Mobility of Nepalis in the UK: A Case Study of Fairfax Road, Farnborough 32 ZSL Conservation & Biodiversity Symposium 26 Feb 16 38 The Golden Jubilee of Trekking in Nepal 42 The Everest Expedition 45 MCC v Nepal at Lord’s Tuesday 19 July 47 Not Your Average Holiday – WaterAid in Nepal 53 From the Editor’s In-Tray 58 Review Article – Britain’s Gurkha War 64 Book Reviews 69 Obituaries 78 Useful addresses 79 Notes on the Britain – Nepal Society 80 Officers and Committee of the Society

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EDITORIAL

Firstly I must apologise to members for the their team. The match was very well late publishing of this edition of the journal. supported by Nepalese living in London and close by, as some 5,000 were admitted. I have been more than usually dilatory and This is well above the support normally circumstances beyond my control have also afforded to such events. Robin Marston played some part. I have tried to reflect that recalls the early days of trekking which was 2016 was designated ‘Nepal 200’ in the pioneered by Col Jimmy Roberts in 1965. selection of articles and I thank sincerely The unfortunate earthquake of 2015 put the contributors who have covered this paid to the attempt by the Gurkha Everest aspect. In terms of thanks I also wish to Expedition. The plan had been to have a pass on my thanks to BP Joshi for his Gurkha soldier as a summiteer in 2015. efforts and to the firms that have once again Sadly this was not to be as the earthquake responded to support the journal. I am had a strong effect in the Everest base camp particularly pleased to be able to include area. Luckily most of the team were above as a keynote piece Dr Chalise’s the base camp at Camps 1 & 2. Major Todd comprehensive paper on 200 years of describes events as the Gurkha team were Anglo-Nepal relations.This has been well able to get back to base and help with researched as the footnotes clearly rescue operations. Wildlife conservation has demonstrate, and serves as a good record as also played a good part in recent friendship between two very different Anglo-Nepal co-operation, although from nations developed over time.I have been the time of ’s able include the text of Greg Hickman’s residency in the early nineteenth century lecture on the and Ranas, given to the and before that of Buchanon-Hamilton’s Society in November 2016, which was also botanical studies, there was a strong interest very apposite as it shows many in the natural science of the region. To mark connections, not all of which we were this, the Zoological Society of London held possibly aware. That there is now a well a conservation and biodiversity symposium established Nepali Diaspora in UK in April at their London HQ. I have (a population of some 80,000 - 100,000) is included brief notes on the topics covered. well illustrated by Dr CK Laksamba’s paper I have also included the text of the talk by given at the Britain Nepal Academic Craig Holliday on Wateraid in Nepal. Council study day in Liverpool in April Also to mark both the 2015 and 2016 2016. It reflects considerable research by anniversaries, I have re-published the him and his colleagues. Unsurprisingly review of the in-depth book by John many Nepalese have established themselves Pemble - ‘Britain’s Gurkha War – the in locations where British Gurkha soldiers Invasion of Nepal 1814 – 16. Books have settled following their military service. reviewed include Col Dickenson’s A Yak in Among the events scheduled in 2016 was the Fridge, a biography by our Treasurer, the Nepal v MCC match at Lords. Nepal Rupert Litherland, of the late Major won due to some good spin bowling by General Bunny Burnett and Major General

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Chris Lawrence’s The - 200 Years conservationist, who members may well of Service to the Crown. As usual the remember from early visits to Tiger Tops Society has lost a number of members and the academic, Professor David during the year as listed by the Chairman. Snellgrove, whose books resulted from I have included obituaries where possible early studies of remote regions of Nepal and I have also included pieces on Chuck that border . McDougal the well-known tiger

DISCLAIMER Responsibility for opinions expressed in articles and reviews published and the accuracy of statements contained therein rest solely with the individual contributors.

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THE SOCIETY’S NEWS (This is an edited version of the Chairman’s report delivered at the AGM on 2nd December 2016)

The Chairman opened the meeting by about and supportive of the activities of the formally welcoming the new Nepalese Britain-Nepal Society. The Society very Ambassador, His Excellency Dr Durga much looks forward to working closely Bahadur Subedi to the UK and to the with him. Before asking Dr Subedi to say a Society. Since his arrival Dr Subedi had a few words, the Chairman presented Dr busy schedule culminating on 1st Subedi with the Society’s tie and wished December in the magnificent occasion of him and his wife a very happy and the presentation of his letters of Credence to rewarding stay in London. The Queen at Buckingham Palace followed Quite apart from Dr Subedi’s appointment by a splendid celebration here at the there has been much change at the Embassy Embassy. The Chairman pointed out that during the year. Other new arrivals include this meeting was Dr Subedi’s first official Mr Sharad Raj Aran as Deputy Chief of event as Ambassador and thanked him for Mission, Mr Bhupendra Prasad Ghimire, permitting the Society to hold the AGM in Third Secretary and Mr Tejendra Regmi, such impressive surroundings. Dr Subedi Attaché and the new Secretary, Urmila. He comes to London with a glittering CV. Prior hoped all would have happy and successful to his appointment to London he has held a stays in London. The Society bade farewell number of senior positions at the Ministry to Mr Tej Bahadur , who had been of Foreign Affairs in and has both DCM and Chargé d’Affaires during also held diplomatic appointments in his time in London and who had done so Bahrain, Japan, the United Nations and much to support the Society during the Myanmar. He has participated in numerous interregnum, and to Mr Babukaji Dongol, official visits and international conferences Third Secretary. notably in the USA, Europe and . He The Chairman pointed out that in his last is also a distinguished academic and poet two reports he had had cause to refer to with numerous publications and awards to tragic events in Nepal – the mountaineering his name. Amongst other things he has disasters on Everest and the Thorung La in published collections of essays and verse 2014 and the dreadful earthquakes in 2015. and has edited The Journal of Nepalese Art, Thankfully this year there have been no Culture and Literature and the International disasters on this scale. The work of Journal of . I know that restoration has gone on in Nepal though he is planning to add to this impressive list inevitably it has tended to slip from the of publications during his time in London. public gaze. It is really important that we It will be evident from all this that His continue to keep the suffering of the people Excellency is a man of very considerable of Nepal at the forefront of our minds and distinction and we are lucky to have him in to help in whatever way we can. In this London for the next few years. I have context it was inspiring to hear from already had the opportunity to meet with his Professor Robin Coningham of his work Excellency on a number of occasions and I with UNESCO’s restoration programme in know that he will be most enthusiastic Kathmandu at a recent evening lecture.

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Last year also saw the adoption of the new We hope to re-schedule it as soon as constitution and it is hoped that progress possible. Exciting firsts (or firsts for some will continue to be made towards an ever time) included a showing of Mahout, a film more settled polity. We are privileged, once describing Tim Edwards’s relocation of four again, to have with us tonight the elephants from Chitwan to Bardia. In July a Ambassador’s namesake Professor Surya small group of members went to Lords for Subedi, who will talk to us at the end of the first ever Nepal-UK test match won by official business about political and the visitors to the delight of the estimated constitutional developments in Nepal. 5000 strong Nepal supporters. I doubt No doubt he will steer us through the whether MCC members in the Long Room challenges still facing the politicians and had witnessed the like of it before. report on some of their successes thus far. The weather was glorious, the atmosphere It is customary at this stage of the meeting cheerfully noisy, a great time was had by all to reflect for a moment on the lives of those and there was a lavish party in the Long members of the Society whose deaths have Room in the evening. The match was to a been reported during the year. We think of large extent the brainchild of Society Lord Chorley, Alan Durston, a former member Prashant . Then in October, Treasurer, Dick Jenkins, Lt-Colonel John courtesy of Mahanta Shrestha, some 15 Roberts, a former Vice-Chairman, members and guests attended a thoroughly Brigadier Tony Taggart, a former Chairman enjoyable jazz and curry evening at and Vice-President and Colonel Terence Monty’s restaurant in Fulham. White. May I ask you to stand for a As you will gather we are doing what we moment’s silence? can to extend the scope of our activities in On a more cheerful note, our programme of order to attract an ever-widening range of events during the year followed its usual participants. Any suggestions or wishes pattern with some interesting additions. that you may have will be most gratefully A well-attended Annual Supper was once received. again held at St Columba’s Church Hall Pont Street with recent UK ambassador to Nepal, Andy Sparkes, giving a most entertaining and informative speech. In addition to the talks already mentioned we were given a fascinating virtual tour from Ladakh to Bhutan by Zara Fleming a widely travelled expert in Buddhism. Both this lecture and that of Professor Robin Coningham were attended by larger numbers of members than we have had for some time. Long may this continue. Sadly, a talk by Maggie Burgess on the work of Leprosy Promise, a medical charity working in particular but not exclusively with leprosy in Nepal had to be postponed for family reasons. Col John Swanston & Andy Sparks.

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Looking ahead, the Annual Supper will take appropriate, and endeavour to ensure that place as usual at St Columba’s on Thursday schemes do not merely replicate 16th February. The Guest of Honour and each other. principal speaker will be Lisa Choegyal In common with many similar societies and whom many of you will know as an iconic organisations, we have continued to find it figure in Kathmandu. I have no doubt that difficult to reach and recruit younger her reflections on 40 years of living in members. The formal arrangement of a Nepal will be fascinating and entertaining. Young Members Committee has not Next year’s lecture programme focuses on produced the results that we had hoped for, mountains and mountaineering. In May we so we will be discussing new ways of will hear from Nick Kershaw on the work reaching that particular audience. of Impact Marathon in Nepal. Nick I hasten to add that none of this is to pioneered the concept of using marathon gainsay the energetic and imaginative work running in amazing mountain locations of Alison Marston, the inaugural chair of around the world to raise money for local the younger members committee, who has charities. The Nepal Marathon took place in numerous ways made a fantastic last week. In October Everest summiteer personal contribution to the quality of the Geoffrey Stanford will reflect on Lessons Society. I have challenged members of the from Everest. Finally, in November Doc Committee (including myself) to recruit McKerr will tell us about The Great two new members each by our next Himalayan Trail a 1200 mile continuous Committee meeting in January. May I Himalayan traverse which Doc has helped extend the challenge to yourselves, inviting to develop. He has also recently been each of you to endeavour to identify at least making films in Nepal with the aim of one new member during the year. encouraging the growth of tourism to Other initiatives with which we hope to get Nepal. As mentioned earlier, numbers for underway include considering the the talks have been growing recently so possibility of some additional lunch time please help us to maintain and increase this lectures, re-structuring the shape of the trend. Guests are always most welcome. annual calendar, and organising regional Inevitably perhaps we have not achieved events where there is a cluster of members. this year all we set out to accomplish. It was Do please let a member of the committee very disappointing to have to abandon plans know if you have any ideas for making the for a Society visit to Nepal last spring Society more interesting, appealing and and there was insufficient appetite for a even more fun. postponement to the autumn. Another Alongside these initiatives a huge amount time perhaps? of work has gone on to improve As yet we have not capitalised on Ashley communications with our members. Adams’ outstanding schools initiative of In particular the new website is a vast last year. However, there are the stirrings of improvement on its predecessor, enabling a scheme to form a loose consortium of us to keep members who use the internet organisations and individuals with an up-to-date with our very latest news and interest in education in Nepal. The idea announcements. I do hope that you will would be to share best practice, act as a visit it as often as possible and draw it to discreet pressure group where and when the attention of others. The website, along

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with our increasing use of email huge vote of thanks to John Swanston who communications, gives the Society a much is stepping down as Vice-Chairman after more up-to-date feel. Many thanks are due six years. to MJ Streather, our Secretary and He will also be leaving the Committee and webmistress, and to In Motion Design our we will miss his wise and unobtrusive web designer for these achievements. advice. I have no doubt that we will It may sometimes seem as if the customary endeavour to lure him back in the future. vote of thanks given on these occasions to Our grateful thanks go to Willie Bicket the committee and other helpers is vain whose term on the Committee also comes repetition. Nothing could be further from to an end this year. Willie has been most the truth. supportive and has been a regular attendee This year’s committee meetings have been at our meetings and events ensuring that exceptionally well-attended and the Society things behind the bar flow smoothly and, could not exist without the ideas and if I may say so, copiously. support of all involved. They also make a And as always, I would like to thank huge contribution ‘on the day’ to the Mahanta Shrestha and Prashant Kunwar for smooth running of our various events. their most generous, and much-appreciated To them all and with a special nod to supply of Khukuri beer for all our events. Vice-Chairman John Swanston, Treasurer The Chairman closed by pointing out that Rupert Litherland and Secretary MJ there was still one remaining vacancy on Streather many thanks. Before moving on the Committee for which he hoped a to the election of the Officers and volunteer might be forthcoming. Committee Members I would like to give a

Our entertainers at the supper.

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200 YEARS OF UK-NEPAL RELATIONS: AN ACCOUNT OF ENDURING

-By Dr Suresh Chandra. Chalise: enduring partnership with Nepal rather • AvH, FES, UGC and LS Fellow than colonising her.3 Ever since, the bond • Former Ambassador of Nepal to the USA of perpetual peace and friendship,4which and the UK. was thoroughly altered later by the Organised by Institute of Foreign Affairs friendship treaty of 1923,5 has been (IFA), at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, characterized by mutual understanding, Singhadarbar, Kathmandu, goodwill, unwavering support on 28th of December 2016 and cooperation. Gurkhas as Cornerstone of Bond: The diplomatic relationship between Nepal As the military cooperation between the and Britain, which formally began two countries persistently savoured following Segauli treaty in 1816, was priority, the Gurkhas obviously attained established due to two distinct motives: itself as the cornerstone of Nepal-Britain military requirements of both the coun- bilateral relations and this remains the tries, primarily of the latter as the treaty case, particularly when one takes into allowed British government to employ account their services to the British crown. the Gurkhas in their military services,1 and More than two hundred thousands of also the notion of the Himalayan Frontier Nepalese Gurkhas took part in the World Policy of British-India.2However, in spite War I and II and about forty three of unequal and one sided in nature and thousands of them, died6 as heroes leaving content, arguably, the treaty could be seen behind, nevertheless, misery and as a testament of British longing for an destitution to their families. Under the 1The treaty allowed British to recruit Gurkhas in their of Nepal-Britain Relations: A way Forward,” Foreign military service. Currently, the Gurkhas account and Commonwealth Office, 25 September 2013. about 3% of the total British force. See for details 4https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Sugauli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Sugauli. 5https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal%E2%80%93Brit Nonetheless, Dr Watson, who, in his article, argues ain_Treaty_of_1923 that Francis Buchanan Hamilton, who went to Nepal 6http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-10782099 in 1802-3 and extensively travelled the Kingdom- met 7On 13 July, Major James Joshua Bowman, and served people of different walks of life, much Lieutenant Neal Turkington and Corporal Arjun before the took place; was primarily Purja Pun from 1st Battalion, the Royal Gurkha responsible for underpinning the relationship at the Rifles, were killed in Afghanistan. Parents of Neal people’s level. More importantly, as Hamilton’s Turkington made a personal request for the works were not limited to Botanical matters, Watson participation of embassy of Nepal, London, in the claims that British Government later had sought funeral rites of their son. It is author’s personal Hamilton’s advice on Nepal’s domestic affairs, too. opinion, as he was heading the Nepalese mission at His book, “An Account of the ,” that time in London; that “perhaps, they thought, also is a pointer as to how he was closely acquainted since their deceased son had been working with with the politics and social affairs of Nepal. See: Nepalese in the and, as the word Watson Mark’s article “Dr Francis Buchanan- Gurkha is embedded directly with Nepal, Hamilton: Pioneer for Nepalese Biodiversity,” the participation of Nepal embassy would be worthy published in 200 Years of Nepal-UK Relations: and truly graceful on the occasion.” As it was a Commemorative Issue, Nepali Embassy, London, poignant longing from grieving parents, which January 2014. conspicuously suggested of the emotional bond 2Surya P. Subedi, THE BRITAIN-NEPAL SOCIETY between the two communities; the Nepalese mission Journal Number 27 2003, p.36 in London instantly sent its military attaché to attend 3Andrew James Sparkes- CMG, “Two Hundred Years the funeral rites.” 8 G Birch Britain-Nepal Society 2016 48396_Layout 1 19/06/2017 13:40 Page 9

aegis of the Brigade of Gurkhas, which Ministers Plenipotentiary and Envoys binds its combat communities also by dint Extraordinary. of emotion;7the Gurkhas fought in the The status of these representatives was Falklands War to defend the British further boosted in 1947 by giving them the territory and have still been fighting in rank of Ambassadors Extraordinary and Afghanistan and some other parts of world Plenipotentiary. These bilateral diplomatic for a peaceful and secure globe. 8 In the measures were imperative to improve military history of the UK, they have the relationship between two friendly secured a special place for them. They and sovereign nations. have not only won Thirteen Victoria Crosses, a well recognised valiant Exchange of High Level Visits: decoration in the world, but also have been The exchanges of high level visits are able to win-over the hearts of the British always instrumental in strengthening crown and other royals9 as well. Such relations and furthering mutual righteous deeds have heightened the image cooperation. Principally speaking, such of the Nepalese globally as a persevering diplomatic rituals have been found work-force. Every year, to commemorate imperative to enhance common their glory in world wars and also to pay understanding and build trust between two homage to their sacrifice, the ambassador different nations. In this light, since the of Nepal to the UK, together with others, inception, as the UK and Nepal adore also places wreath in the memorial bilateral relationship attaching monument of the heroes at the utmost importance to the bond, both the Constitutional Hill in London.10 countries organised high level visits. There have been about four dozen high Upgrading of Diplomatic Missions: ranking visits from the UK as well as from Initially, the treaty of Segauli had made an the Nepal side. arrangement to have “accredited ministers” On the part of the UK, the visits included in each other’s courts.11But, following the the royals, senior ministers from the signing of new Treaty of Friendship Foreign and Commonwealth Office between the two nations in 1923, the status (FCO), Department for International of the British Representative in Kathmandu Development (DFID) and Ministry of was instantly upgraded to the level of an Defence (MOD). Likewise, senior envoy. Later, after a decade in 1934, when members of Inter-Parliamentary Union Nepal established an embassy in London, (IPU) also visited Nepal from time to time. the two countries subsequently exchanged Among the royals, HM Queen Elizabeth II

8Under Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), as of 23 9On 19th of June 2010, after receiving his letter of July 2015, a total of 454 British forces personnel and credence, at Buckingham Palace, HMQ,during MOD civilians, that includes Gurkhas as well; have conversation with the author on Gurkha issue, had died while serving in Afghanistan since the start of remarked, “Do you know ambassador...when my operations in October 2001. Of these, 405 were killed grandson Harry was in Afghanistan, he was with the as a result of hostile action. Also, Gurkhas have Gurkhas. I have also two Gurkhas in my palace!” served in Borneo during the confrontation with In addition, on return from his tour of Afghanistan, Indonesia, and on various peacekeeping missions in where he served alongside the Royal Gurkha Rifles, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia HRH Harry once said “no safer place” than and Iraq. Currently they are engaged in Afghanistan by the side of a Gurkha.” Prince Charles, who is in support of the UN-authorised battle against Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Gurkha Rifles and Talibans. patron of the Gurkha Welfare Trust, paid tribute to 9 G Birch Britain-Nepal Society 2016 48396_Layout 1 19/06/2017 13:40 Page 10

and HRH Prince Philip, the of British Prime Minister for peace-building Edinburgh, paid official visits in 1961 and in 2010. Nevertheless, in two hundred 1986, at the invitation of Mahendra years outstanding bilateral relationship, and his son King Birendra, respectively. the British Prime Minister has yet to make Likewise, HRH Princess of Wales his maiden trip to reciprocate Nepal side! Diana visited Nepal in 1993 and HRH Prince Charles, in 1998. Of late, HRH There were altogether four royal visits to Prince Harry’s official visit in March 2016, the UK from Nepal’s side. King Mahendra which had been made on behalf of HM’s paid a visit in 1960 while King Birendra government, took place on the occasion of did so in 1980 and 1995, respectively. bicentenary celebrations. The Prince of King Gyanendra also travelled to the UK Wales’ ten-day visit has been widely in 1981 to attend HRH Diana’s wedding considered in Nepal as an and also in 2003. In addition historically acknowledgement of the sacrifice and the first and foremost visit was made by heroic service of the bravest of the braves Prime Minister Jung Bahadurd Rana in and faithful Gurkhas in the process of 1850. His brother, Prime Minister Chandra protecting the British Crown and her Shamsher Rana went Britain after fifty people. Similarly, six visits have been eight years in 1908. It is widely viewed carried out by DFID ministers, three by that Chandra Shamsher’s successive visit Foreign Ministers, two by Defence played a central role in bringing these two ministers and at least five visits by the nations, hailing from two different Chief of the Army (CGS. Ed.) on different hemispheres, even closer. As the 1923 occasions. Since the then British Army treaty was signed during the reign of chief was also the Colonel Commandant of Chandra Shamsher, he has also been the Brigade of Gurkhas, his visit provided acknowledged as defender of Nepalese added significance. sovereignty, whilst British generosity was (Gen Sir Peter Wall was at Sandhurst with also admired simultaneously for granting the Chief of Army Staff, Gen Gaurav Rana. the same. Apart from the royal and Rana Ed.) In addition, there have been numerous Prime Ministers’ official visits, there have official visits carried out also by officials been significant numbers of visits from the MOD, DFID, and FCO. It would accomplished by the executive heads and not be out of context to underscore a few deputy heads of the . important visits by special peace envoy in In this connection, at least three Prime 2003 and special representative of the Ministers of Nepal travelled to the UK

the Gurkhas’ contribution to British history at the HM Queen Elizabeth II. High Commissioners of pageant in the grounds of the Royal Hospital, India, , , Srilanka, Africa and Chelsea, by saying, “In the 200 years that the Caribbean and also ambassador of Nepal Gurkhas have fought for the British Crown they have commemorate the armed forces of the British Empire, earned our nation’s deepest respect and gratitude.” who served and sacrificed themselves for Britain’s The commemorative occasion of bicentenary of cause in the two World Wars. relationship was joined by HM Queen, Duke of 11Article eight of the nine, says “in order to secure Edinburgh and also Prince Harry. See and improve the relations of amity and peace hereby https://www.gwt.org.uk/gurkha-200/events. Also visit: established between Nepal and Britain (East India http://www.telegraph.co.uk/active/9070514/Prince- company), it is agreed that accredited Ministers from Harry-in-Afghanistan-in-his-own-words.html each shall reside at the court of the other.” Visit: 10The memorial gates were inaugurated in 2002 by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Sugauli

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after the democratic changes in 1990. through peaceful means and also for the Prime Ministers Manmohan Adhikary restoration of peace and democracy in the visited Britain in 1995, Sher Bahadur roof of the world; Britain sent Sir Jeffery Deoba visited twice in 1996 and 2002; and James as a Special Representative to Nepal KP Bhattarai in 1999. Over the past 200 in 2003. King’s decision to sack the years, a number of visits have been government was widely considered as an undertaken by the deputy heads of the unconstitutional step. But, the principal government, too, and the latest visit was reason behind King’s move was that the made by Kamal in 2016, in King himself wanted to play an active role connection with celebrating bicentenary. in politics. In addition, numerous visits have been The peace envoy, who was assigned the carried out also by high ranking ministers responsibility of assessing the political and officials from Ministry of Defence, situation, met with the leaders of the major Judiciary, Tourism, Foreign Affairs, political parties and also the . Home and Finance. The regularity of these He tried mainly to build confidence visits reflects both countries’ commitment between the palace and agitating political to furthering bilateral relationship. parties. However, King Gyanendra’s direct rule was short lived owing to the people’s Support to Democratic Transition: movement in 2006. The UK and As a close friend, with which she had a her allies supported the consecutive special relationship primarily due to the political changes including the Gurkha involvement as an essential Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) component in her military might, the UK between the government and Maoists candidly supported Nepal’s admission to rebels. The UK, and other European the United Nations, a critical political and governments, too, fully recognised Nepal’s diplomatic constituent to promote and strategy to involve the United Nations as a protect Nepal’s freedom and sovereignty. global and impartial entity in her peace Britain’s support for consolidating process. UN’s involvement was imperative democracy has also been unflinching, for the greater level of confidence not only especially after the democratic political for the primary stakeholders of the peace changes in 1990. HRH Princess of Wales, process but also for the confidence of Lady Diana’s visit to Nepal in 1993 was a international community to push the gesture of support in favour of nascent Nepalese peace initiatives forward. multiparty democracy in the Kingdom. In addition to it, as a member of UN’s Likewise, in these years, Britain Security Council, the UK lent its full significantly contributed in the cooperation in constituting the United socio-economic realms and also helped Nation’s Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) and reform political, constitutional and also liberally contributed to the Nepalese administrative sectors in Nepal. After the Peace Trust Fund (NPTF). In similar vein King Gyanendra reclaimed sovereignty on in 2010, the British PM dispatched a 4th of October 2002 while dismissing the special representative to Nepal to help the elected government, as part of the peace process that was struggling to commitment of HM’s government in move on. Of late, however, as Nepal preventing conflict and resolving them promulgated the new constitution, the UK

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Nepal’s Trade Balance with the UK

Year (2000 to 2009) Nepal’s Export to UK: Import from UK: Trade Balance Value in (NRs) Value in (NRs) 2000/01 980666 8827202 -7846 2001/02 808750 2795391 -1986 2002/03 1070737 1065335 +5402 2003/04 1677084 1035493 +641591 2004/05 1050009 1452168 -402159 2005/06 1184078 961421 +222657 2006/07 998689 1727103 -728414 2007/08 1066347 1643360 -577013 2008/09 1429686 6499879 -5070193 Total 10266046 26007352 -15741306

Year (2009 to 2013) Import from UK: Export to UK: Balance Value in (NRs) Value in (NRs) (NRs)

January to December, 2009 10,962,627,877 1,471,332,867 -9,491,295,010

January to December, 2010 2,603,242,134 1,292,168,947 -1,311,073,187

January to December, 2011 2,192,260,006 1,477,383,007 -714,876,999

January to December, 2012 1,786,677,499 1318011391 -468,666,108

January to December, 2013 2,677,463,138 1,924,334,331 -753,128,807

Total 20,222,270,654 7,483,230,543 -12739040111

Source: http://www.efourcore.com.np/tepcdatabank/countrywise.php?txtmode=search has welcomed it and labelled it as a establishment of the British Council in “significant milestone.” 19 1953 in Kathmandu. The relationship has grown over the years. Britain’s Chevening Development Assistance and Economic Scholarships were offered to meritorious Cooperation: students for higher studies. However, on Britain has been a long and trusted the auspicious occasion of the bicentenary, development partner of Nepal since 1950s. it was encouraging to note that the Educational and academic ties between Chevening Scholarships number had Britain and Nepal started with the significantly been increased as other

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fellowships too. Apart from this, it is vital way to shape political and social reassuring that the British Council has also change by generating economic been working to connect the UK and development.” The UK and Nepal have Nepali school sectors with an aim to also recognised the significance of trade enrich education of the Nepalese and and commercial relations in strengthening promote global citizenship. Likewise, it is bilateral ties. In this regard, some heartening to witness that, currently the initiatives are being taken and attempts UK’s DFID, is the largest bilateral donor have been made to organise the exchange for Nepal. It has almost doubled its of trade delegations from both sides over assistance on the eve of 200 years of the past few years. These interactions and relationship, which is about GBP 106 connections between the SMEs have million per year. DFID, in its programmes, furthered economic ties between the two has included works such as infrastructure countries. Britain is one of the major development, job creation, climate trading partners of Nepal. The volume of change, good governance and security, trade between the two countries seems health, water and sanitation, poverty gradually expanding over the past few alleviation, wealth creation and so on. years since it has surged from Rs. In this connection, DFID strategically 980666 (export) and 8827202 (import) in supports institutions such as Centre for 2001 to Rs. 1,924,334,331 (export) and Inclusive Growth, which aims to creating Rs. 2,677,463,138 (import) in 2013. It is an inclusive yet sustainable growth in rural an increase of Rs 1,923,353,665 in export Nepal. The centre is also engaged to and Rs. 2,668,635,936 in import, provide legal assistance to Nepal and other respectively. Moreover, the statistical concerned stakeholders, to unlock energy figures between years 2001 to 2006 development contracts in order to make illustrate that there had been almost available a reasonable share for them on alternatively negative and positive balance hydro resources. More importantly, the of trade between the two nations. British response to the recent devastating Nevertheless, in recent past years, ie. from earthquakes stands at £70 million 2007 to 2013, the trade balance of Nepal following further commitments made at against the UK has been going the International Conference on continuously negative. Although, since Nepal’s Reconstruction. inception of diplomatic relationship, the UK and Nepal have maintained their Trade and Commercial Relations mutual bond on social, political, military It is widely believed that a successful trade and cultural fronts; but the trade and and commercial relations not only bring commercial relations have yet to keep two nations politically and diplomatically the pace. (See table on p12.) closer but also helps in squeezing the irritants which could be potential for People to People Relationship regional conflict. So is the view of US It is said that the first settlement of the secretary of State, nonetheless, her Nepalese community in London was made emphasis was more on social change at 145 Whitfield Street in Camden in 1965. and economic diplomacy. She once said, In this effect, a memorial plaque now “Economic diplomacy is a powerful and stands on the site. Their presence

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significantly increased after 1990s. During this period, not only the Gurkha Of late, the populace of the Nepalese but economic and professional migrants, origin have started contributing to security besides the Nepalese refugees, also started and other socio-economic and health settling in the UK. It is estimated that sectors in the UK. Most of them have people of Nepalese origin have settled in invested in the restaurant and real-estate all regions and their population is sectors. Some of them contribute also to projected to be about 80,000 in the UK by the health domain as doctors and the end of 2012. The UK, as society, has professional nurses. In recent years, it is been viewed as a cultural mosaic. encouraging to note that the Nepalese are The elasticity in her socio-political and being elected as people’s representatives in cultural structure has meaningfully made a number of counties. Currently, they have rooms for multiculturalism. Thus, the bagged as many as six seats as the mayors presence of the Nepalese, at different strata and also councillors in different parts of in British society, has been an integral part the UK. In other words, their popularity of acculturation process. In the recent past, among British voters is steadily surging. partly due to cultural interactions and also There is more than one factor responsible partly because of exchanges of values for it and one important among them is related to lifestyle, the Nepalese are that British voters fully recognise the getting mixed-up with other communities Nepalese people’s huge sacrifice for their living in the UK. Particularly, British and causes. Their image, as the hard working Nepalese community’s socio-cultural human capital and loyal to the society, was interactions take place through a few evident too in the London riot in 2011, but effective informal and formal social in which not a single Nepali émigré institutions. found involved! Among them are the Nepalese Embassy and the Brigade of Gurkhas, wherein Esprit in Bilateral Relationship major Nepali festivals including , Nepal is the first country to have take place and Nepalese restaurants, and diplomatic ties with the United Kingdom Funfairs organised by cultural groups in from . the UK. Nevertheless, the British leaders’ But, after India’s independence, Britain graceful participations in the Nepalese was no more a big neighbour for Nepal. people’s socio-economic and cultural Nevertheless, Nepal’s geo-political endeavours also have reinforced the location, majestic , flora and exiting linkages at the people’s level. fauna, friendly people and cultural heritage On the other hand, British tourists’ annual sites have always been an attraction for the visits to Nepal in a big number and their British people. It was a happy coincidence stay in the Himalayan nation, too, are that, as London had begun celebrating responsible for heartening the process of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, the same exchanging socio-cultural values between morning media widely reported about the the two communities. The social as well news of first ascent of by as emotional bonds at the level of two Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. communities get extraordinarily boosted The news added as a jovial essence on the by the royal visits as well. happy occasion of coronation. Ever since,

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HM Queen Elizabeth II, adores this day of era, which had adverse global political her enthronement along with first ascent of effect, the relationship deepened Mount Everest. As a gesture of her love unhindered. Nepal and Britain have been and respect for the special day, HM The cooperating with each other on numerous Queen not only enjoys giving audience to occasions. The Gurkhas, under the the related people but also attends the command of the British Crown, not only associated functions. During a reception to defended the British territory in Falkland celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the war but also has been fighting wars in ascent of the Mount Everest, at the Royal different parts of the world for the noble Geographical Society in Kensington, west causes of peace and stability. On the other London; The Queen personally met hand, the UK has always been on Nepal’s Nepal’s Sherpa mountain climber Jamling side through her thick and thin as she Norgay, son of Tenzing Norgay. On the underwent socio-political transformation occasion of diamond jubilee of scaling of in an unprecedented way. The bilateral Mount Everest, she also wrote to the relations- as it continued to grow; have . In her message she catapulted into multi-faceted engagements. said, “On the 60th Anniversary of the first Of course, it has been possible through ascent of Mount Everest I wish to send my historical ties, development assistance, warmest regards to the Government of continued military cooperation and an Nepal and re-affirm the strong ties that enduring support for democratic peace in exist between our two countries. The news Nepal. In contemporary world order, their of the successful ascent reached me at a relationship has been boosted further also particularly memorable time, the day because of pressing trans-national before my Coronation. The Everest challenges. As the existing global Expedition was an historic example of challenges such as terrorism, cyber crimes, UK-Nepal co-operation and I hope that the climate change, drug trafficking, deadly special relationship between our two diseases etc., need concerted efforts of countries will continue to grow in the intercontinental alliance of all nations- be years to come.” it small or big, developed or least The relationship has become diversified developed; Nepal and the UK have and enriched over the course of two recognised them as shared challenges and centuries. Even, precisely during cold war cooperate with each other in a number of

12. Nepal’s fragile environment is a matter of concern malaya_1/index.php for the world, as, of the fourteen world’s highest 13 .https://www. gov.uk/government/publications/2010- peaks; eight are located in Nepal, including the to-2015-government-policy-cyber-security/2010-to- Mount Everest. Their conservation is imperative for 2015-government-policy-cyber-security the security of regional ecology and biodiversity as it 14. During the conference with the Nepali Ambassador is the main source of fresh waters. It is estimated that to the UK, at the parliamentary building, about 1.4 billion people in the region are dependent Westminster, in 2010, one of the members of All Party on the rivers of Himalayas. Actually, talks had taken Parliamentary Group on Nepal (APPGN), expressed place at the both governments’ concerned ministry his surprise and remarked, “Is not it so shocking that level and the concept of establishing the foundation our Prime Minister has not visited Nepal in two hun- had received due significance as well. But, as dred years!” Later, as, in certain political sections, government got frequently changed in Nepal, opinion continued for PM's visit to Nepal; APPGN, the notion has now been in doldrums. Also See: headed by Sir John Stanley, on 29th of May 2013, http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/hi- unanimously requested the PM Cameroon for his visit

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bilateral as well as international podia, at the government and also at the people’s including that of the United Nations. levels. Now, as both the nations celebrate In the meantime, Nepal’s immediate their bicentenary, it is high time for them neighbours are rising economically and for stocktaking and envisioning as to how also militarily. This has, mainly due to they could work in-concert to take the geopolitical location; suddenly graduated relationship to the next level. In this Nepal’s eminence in the diplomatic context, it would be apposite to talk about domain of the region and also beyond. It is a shared gift between the two nations. indeed a blessing in disguise for a least In 2014, they happily agreed and developed country Nepal, as coincidently, established Consultation Mechanism on the of late; Britain’s interest has also great occasion of bicentenary. As the considerably ascended evocatively in bilateral body of consultation is in South-Asia region. Now, her economic ties operation and the third of its meeting is to have substantially heightened with the be held again in Kathmandu in coming world’s two affluent economies and also months; Nepal and the UK should seize the largest markets as Britain receives the opportunity to develop concrete huge investments from them. Explicitly, strategy for future cooperation. However, after the Brexit verdict, the UK is likely it has been ventured here to explore some opting for more independent trade and of the areas, which could be helpful in political relations in the Asian continent. taking the relationship to a new height. Additionally, as globally, realms of industry, defence and other vital Probable New Areas of Mutual governmental organs are increasingly Cooperation reliant on modern Information Technology Social integration of the Nepalese, systems, security challenges have also including that of the Gurkhas, in the UK been accordingly enlarged in recent years. through appropriate measures such as jobs, In such a political, economic and security social security, trainings and orientations situation, coupled with growing cyber on British language and culture. crimes in the region and also in Nepal, the UK and Nepal could ponder over A sizeable percentage of British-Nepalese, some new areas of cooperation also in the being in the UK, are exposed to the cyber technology field. world’s better knowledge and technology. In the meantime, they have also developed Conclusively, one can safely comprehend commercial and trade linkages, in both that the relationship between the UK and countries. These sections of human capital Nepal has been varied and strengthen should be encouraged not only for the significantly over 200 years. Bilateral level initiatives for transfer of knowledge and engagements have bolstered the relations technology into Nepal but also to develop

to Nepal on the occasion of Bicentenary. Likewise, a further writes, “I would love to go: it is a question of number of members of Parliament also personally fitting it into a …packed schedule….”Meanwhile, wrote to the PM in that effect. PM, in reply to the Nepal’s PM has formally invited British PM to pay an APPGN on 14th June 2013, expressed his desire to official visit to Nepal. Pl. visit Nepal in future. He, however, said, “I have asked visit http://nepalforeignaffairs.com/prime-minister-in- that my office take note of the APPG’S suggestion for vites-david-cameron-to-visit-nepal/ future consideration.” In his post-script, the PM

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Business to Business relationship. Nepal’s channel. In this connection, British SMEs and However, Nepal side, too, requires taking Non-Resident Nepalese (NRN) care of DFID development assistance by organisations could be strategic resources dint of good governance and transparency for furthering the ties. measures. The major joint ventures, as of now, are in 1. Reassurance for the Nepalese products the areas of tourism, banking sector, in the UK markets as there has been a education, tea, readymade garments, trade imbalance between two countries. bio-technology, consultancy sectors and so A British FDI in this effect, under on. These sectors and others, too, in bilateral arrangement, could be a addition to energy security, require cyber strategic move on the part of the UK to security as well. They need to be equipped lessening the exiting trade shortfall with advance technology and innovation. of Nepal. Such a course, if taken, should attract 2. Establishment of Research more joint ventures in other areas as well Foundation, as a bilateral tool, in the as enhance the level of confidence of name of Dr Francis Buchanan the investors. Hamilton, which will work for the conservation of ecology and Especially, in the tourism sector, as it has environment in Nepal 12 been recorded that about 30-40 thousand 3. Britain, which is one of the best British tourists visit Nepal annually; both developed e-business in the world,13 the governments need to make sure of the could help Nepal in addressing the tourists’ air and land safety. challenges of cyber-security in various As Nepal is struggling to recover from the domains and make Nepal one of the woes of a decade long conflict and secure places to do business. earthquake disaster, she deserves a 4. British Prime Minister’s visit to Nepal continuation of present volume of has been due since 1816! 14 development assistance from the UK Specifically, this category of visit shall government, which may be provided, as enormously reinforce our subsisting far as possible, through the government of bilateral ties at all levels.

SOCIETY ARCHIVES & JOURNAL The Society has an archive of papers, documents and other ephemera relating to its work since it was founded in 1960. This archive is currently lodged at The Gurkha Museum in Winchester. Anyone who wishes to view the BNS Archive should first make an appointment by contacting the Curator on 01962 842832 or e-mail [email protected] Duplicate copies of the journal can be obtained from the editor and a limited number of back editions may also be purchased for £3.50 per copy plus p&p. Contact the editor at email: [email protected] Past editions can also be viewed on the Digital Himalaya website: www.digitalhimalaya.org

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Best wishes from Mr and Mrs Gopaul & Family

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THE GENEALOGIES OF THE SHAH, RANA AND RELATED FAMILIES By Greg Hickman (This article is based on the talk given by Greg Hickman to the Society on 4th November 2015. The Shahs and Ranas are vast families and this piece gives us a glimpse of their histories and inter-marriages.) The are descendants of Shah who succeeded as of Gorkha in Drabya Shah of Lamjung who became the 1743 aged 20. From his hill-top first (Shah) Raja of Gorkha (from which durbar at Gorkha, he started the campaign Gurkha) in 1559. They claim descent from for the and finally the of Chitore (later completed the conquest of Kathmandu on Udaipur) in Rajasthan. The 9th generation 24 September 1768 becoming the first descendant of Drabya was Prithvi Narayan King of Nepal and earning the epitaph of “The Great”. Here is the line of 12 and 1 Crown Prince from Prithvi Narayan to Gyanendra:

Prithvi Narayan Shah 1722-1775 Raja of Gorkha 1743-1775 King of Nepal 1768-1775 | Singha Pratap Shah Dev 1751-1777 King 1775-1777 | Dev 1775-1806 King 1777-1806 | Girvan Juddha Bikram Shah Dev 1797-1816 King 1806-1816 | Rajendra Bikram Shah Dev 1813-1881 King 1816-1847 | Surendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev 1829-1881 King 1847-1881 | Crown Prince Trailokya Bir Bikram Shah 1847-1878 | Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah Dev 1875-1911 King 1881-1911 | Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah Dev 1906-1955 King 1911-1955 | Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev 1920-1977 King 1955-1977 | || Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev 1945-2001 King 1977-2001 born 1947 King 2001-2008 | Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev 1971-2001 King 1-4 June 2001

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The Royal Massacre occurred on 1 June Kumar Raj B Singh - husband of Prearana 2001 and Crown Prince Dipendra Parthav Singh - son of Prearana and Raj succeeded as the 11th King for three days - Kumar Gorakh SJB Rana – widower of although in a coma. Our Patron Prince Princess Shruti (daughter of King Gyanendra succeeded as 12th King on 4 Birendra) June 2001 and reigned until the Girwani Rana - daughter of Shruti was abolished on 28 May 2008. The Shahs and Gorakh had reigned from 24 September 1768 to 28 Surangana Rana - daughter of Shruti May 2008 - just under 240 years. and Gorakh HRH Princess Shova - sister of Gyanendra The of today comprises only Kumar Mohan B Shahi - husband of the descendants of King Tribhuvan and his Shova two sister-Queens Kanti and Ishwari from HRH Princess Pooja - daughter of Prince Sitapur in Oudh, India. King Gyanendra, Dhirendra (brother of Gyanendra) Crown Prince Paras and Nava HRH Princess Sheetashma - daughter of Hridayendra are now the only male heirs Prince Dhirendra (brother of Gyanendra) of Crown Prince Trailokya eligible to HRH Princess Dilasha - daughter of Prince succeed to the throne. There are, however, Dhirendra (brother of Gyanendra) hundreds of other male line descendants of HRH Princess Nalini, Rajmata of Poonch King Prithvi Narayan living today - daughter of King Tribhuvan amongst whom the next Shah heir is the HRH Princess Bharati, Rajmata of Mukhya Sahebju (descended from Mayurbhanj - daughter of King Tribhuvan Trailokya’s brother Prince Narendra) who Mrs Ketaki Chester (formerly HRH lit the funeral pyres of King Birendra and Princess Ketaki) – daughter of Prince Queen Aishwarya. The members of the Basundhara (son of King Tribhuvan) Royal family are: HRH Princess Jotshana – daughter of Prince Basundhara (son of King HM Queen Mother Ratna - widow of King Tribhuvan) Mahendra and step-mother of Gyanendra HM King Gyanendra - son of King Mahendra and Crown Princess Indra The are descendants of HM Queen Komal - wife of Gyanendra Ahiram Singh KUNWAR who came from HRH Crown Prince Paras - son of his native Kaski and served under the Raja Gyanendra and Komal of Gorkha around 1740. Ahiram’s great- HRH Crown Princess Himani great-grandson Jung Bahadur KUNWAR - wife of Paras rose in the army and the ministries HRH Princess Purnika becoming General and (Minister). - daughter of Paras and Himani In the courtyard of the armoury “Kot” HRH Hereditary Prince Hridayendra (still used by the army for pujas to this - son of Paras and Himani day) he and his six younger brothers HRH Princess Kritika carried out the Kot Massacre on 19 - daughter of Paras and Himani September 1846 in which about 40 HRH Princess Prearana members of the palace court families were - daughter of Gyanendra and Komal killed. Jung Bahadur was appointed His

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Excellency Prime Minister and of Kaski and Lamjung in 1856 Commander-in-Chief by Queen and His Highness in 1857. From this time Rajya Laxmi on the same day. The family on the Shah Kings were titular rulers only - later also claimed pure descent brought out of the palace for ceremonial from Rajasthan but this was almost purposes - the Ranas were now in total certainly an invention for Jung Bahadur. control. Here is the line of 10 (plus 1 However, King Surendra did issue a Lal Acting) Prime Ministers 1846-1951 (1967) Mohar in May 1848 granting Jung and their 5 would-be successors 1967-2015 Bahadur and his male relatives the name (according to the succession rules of RANA suggestive of Thakuri caste. prevailing in 1951): was created

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Ahiram Singh Kunwar 1668-1743 | Ram Krishna Kunwar 1728-1788 | Ranjit Kunwar 1753-1815 | Bal Narsingh Kunwar 1783-1841 | ______||||

Jung Bahadur Bam Bahadur Krishna Bahadur Ranaudip Singh Dhir Shumshere Rana 1817-1877 Rana 1818-1857 Rana 1823-1863 Rana 1825-1885 Rana 1827-1884 PM 1846-1856 PM 1856-1857 Acting PM May- PM 1877-1885 C-in-C and 1857-1877 June 1857 | ______| || | |

Bir SJB Rana Deva SJB Rana Chandra SJB Rana Bhim SJB Rana Joodha SJB Rana 1852-1901 1862-1914 PM 1863-1929 1865-1932 1875-1952 PM 1885-1901 March-June 1901 PM 1901-1929 PM 1929-1932 PM 1932-1945 || | | ||||

Mohan SJB ShinghaSJB Shanker Padma SJB Bahadur SJB Hari SJB Narayan SJB Rana 1885- Rana 1893- SJB Rana Rana 1882- Rana 1892- Rana 1895- Rana 1912- 1967 PM 1977 Heir 1909-1976 1961 PM 1977 Heir 1979 Heir 2007 Heir 1948-1951 Oct-Nov 1977 1945-1948 1967-1977 1977-1979 1979-2007 | Sridhar SJB Rana 1928- Heir 2007-

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Prime Minister Ranaudip was murdered in RANA-SHAH INTERMARRIAGES 1885 by the Shumshere brothers (sons of Following King Surendra’s Lal Mohar of his youngest brother C-in-C Dhir 1848, granting the name Rana (suggestive Shumshere) - all subsequent PMs and of Thakuri caste), PM Jung Bahadur Heirs were descendants of Dhir married no less than eight of his children, Shumshere. King Tribhuvan and his family and one niece, to Shahs - including three fled to the Indian Embassy, and then to daughters to Crown Prince Trailokya and India, in November 1950 leaving behind the niece to Bir (later PM). King Prithvi’s Prince Gyanendra who was crowned King mother (Lalita Kumari) was one of the (for the first time) by PM Mohan. King three daughters so all of the later Royal Tribhuvan returned to Kathmandu in 1951 family are descended from PM Jung and PM Mohan lost his powers but Bahadur. A few of the many hundreds of remained Heir until his death in 1967. other Rana-Shah intermarriages were: The Ranas were the de facto rulers of Nepal from 19 September 1846 to 18 PM Bir’s two daughters from his second February 1951 - almost 105 years. wife married King Prithvi PM Chandra’s three sons (Kaiser, Shingha SHAH-RANA INTERMARRIAGES and Krishna) and PM Bir’s grandson (Sur) This is a brief overview of the main Royal married King Tribhuvan’s four sisters line but there are many, many more in (Princesses Laxmi, Rama, Tara other Shah lines. and Suman) PM Joodha’s two granddaughters (sisters Four children, one niece and one nephew Indra and Ratna) married King Mahendra of King Surendra married Ranas - PM Joodha’s two great-granddaughters including Princess Munindra to PM Bir (sisters Princep and Helen) married King Prithvi married four wives including brothers Prince Himalaya and Prince two daughters of PM Bir - although they Basundhara were not the daughters of Princess PM Joodha’s three great-granddaughters Munindra (sisters Aishwarya, Komal and Prekshya) King Prithvi’s four daughters (full-sisters married brothers King Birendra, King of King Tribhuvan) were married to three Gyanendra and Prince Dhirendra Rana brothers and one of their Rana Three other Ranas (Kumud, Gorakh and cousins King Mahendra married two Rana Adarsha) married Princesses Ketaki, sisters (Indra and Ratna) and his two Shruti and Dilasha brothers, Himalaya and Basundhara, also married two Rana sisters UK AMBASSADOR CONNECTIONS (Princep and Helen) Twelve of the first seventeen Nepalese King Birendra and his two brothers envoys to the UK are descended from (Gyanendra and Dhirendra) married three and/or married to descendants of C-in-C Rana sisters (Aishwarya, Komal Dhir Shumshere. and Prekshya) Princesses Ketaki, Shruti and Dilasha (1) Bahadur SJB Rana married three Ranas (Kumud, Gorakh - son of PM Joodha and Adarsha) (2) Krishna SJB Rana - son of PM Chandra 23 G Birch Britain-Nepal Society 2016 48396_Layout 1 19/06/2017 13:40 Page 24

(3) Shingha SJB Rana he became King) and Princess Jotshana - son of PM Chandra 2001-2006. Six founders (or founder (4) Kaiser SJB Rana members) – Mrs Mayura Brown great- - son of PM Chandra granddaughter of PM Jung Bahadur, Rani (5) Shanker SJB Rana Bhuban RL Singha descended from both - son of PM Chandra Rana and Shah, her husband Jharendra (6) Daman SJB Rana - nephew of both Narayan Singha (when he was First PM Chandra and PM Joodha Secretary) descended from both Rana and and uncle of (12) Shah, General Shanker SJB Rana former (11) Kiran SJB Rana - son of PM Joodha ambassador, Pashupati SJB Rana (when at and father of (17) University in the UK) grandson of PM (12) Jharendra Narayan Singha Mohan and co-founder of the Yeti - great-grandson of C-in-C Dhir, Association and Prabal SJB Rana nephew of (6) and son-in-law of (3) (when at University in the UK) grandson (13) Ishwari Raj Pandey from the Royal of PM Joodha and co-founder of the Preceptor “Bada Guruju” family Yeti Association (who crown the Kings) and husband Two members of our sister-society The of Gita granddaughter of PM Joodha Nepal-Britain Society – Kaiser SJB Rana (14) Bharat Kesher Simha – grandson of (Founder) son of PM Chandra and Mrs PM Joodha and husband of Cherry Pratima RL Pandé (President) great-great- daughter of (11) and sister of (17) granddaughter of PM Deva (16) Singha Bahadur Basnyat - great- Three Committee Members – Mrs Minu grandson (?) of PM Dev and husband RL Chhibber great-granddaughter of PM of Princess Jotshana (daughter of Padma, Mrs Sneha M Rana daughter of Prince Basundhara and Helen grand Princess Bharati and wife of Sarad SJB daughter of (1)) Rana (grandson of Shanker) and Siddhant (17) Prabal SJB Rana – grandson of PM Raj Pandey son of Ambassador Ishwari Joodha, son of (11), brother-in-law of Raj Pandey and great-grandson of PM (14) and husband of Shanti granddaughter Joodha of PM Joodha Two Young Members Committee Members – Kirtijai Kumar Pahari BNS CONNECTIONS descended from Shah and Rana and Rory The following are all descendants of King Singh grandson of founders Jharendra Surendra and/or Bal Narsingh Kunwar and Bhuban (father of PM Jung Bahadur and C-in-C Dhir) After more than 40 years researching the genealogies of these families, I would be Our three Patrons – King Mahendra 1960- pleased to receive and additions or 1972, Prince Gyanendra 1972-2001 (when corrections from family members.

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SOCIAL MOBILITY OF NEPALIS IN THE UK: A CASE STUDY OF FAIRFAX ROAD, FARNBOROUGH By Dr Chandra K. Laksamba, Dr Krishna P. Adhikari and Mr Lokendra P. Dhakal (This paper was presented by Dr Chandra K Laksamba at the Britain Nepal Academic Council conference in Liverpool in April 2016. Ed.) Introduction community is performing in terms of The Nepali community in the UK is new education and occupation in relation to and yet it is one of the fastest growing British classes, and what their likely status ethnic minority groups in England.1 There would be in the future. Since standard has been a steady rise in their numbers in sociological studies of class dynamics and the UK between 2001 and 2016 (currently social mobility tend to exclude many estimated at around 100,000). This is due small, yet growing, ethnic minority to changes in the immigration rules in communities in the UK, this study is 2004 and 2009 allowing Gurkhas and their expected to be of significance to the dependants to settle in the UK. Keeping community, policy makers and academics. this population growth in mind, the Centre This short piece presents a case study of for Nepal Studies UK (CNSUK) Nepali migration and mobility in Fairfax conducted a survey in 2008 and Road, Farnborough, a place that has seen established a demographic benchmark and an exponential rise of Nepalis, mainly came up with several useful findings, ex-Gurkhas and their families since they which were reported in a book Nepalis in first settled there in 2001. In 2004 there the United Kingdom: An Overview, 2012 were approximately 25 Nepali households (Adhikari, 2012). Building further on this (comprising 100 people) in whole of study and focusing specifically on youth Farnborough and three of them were in and their families, the CNSUK is currently Fairfax Road. conducting a pilot project to study the social mobility of the Nepalis in England During the 15-year period, since 2005 by undertaking case studies in Nepali households in Fairfax Road have Farnborough and Reading. The aim of the increased 10-fold to 36, which makes up study is to understand how the Nepali about 80% of households in Fairfax Road. Our preliminary case analysis suggests that there is a reasonable socio-economic progress (measured mainly through educational achievements, employment and house ownership) among the Nepali community in Fairfax Road. The majority (30) of these households own property, and their employment rate is nearly 100%. This suggests that they are laying the essential foundation for future social

1We would like to acknowledge that the results presented in this paper come from the Big Lottery funded research project (2015-2016) (Project ID: 0010253632) on “Ethnic Minority and Social Mobility: A Case Study of the Nepali Community in England:. ad 26 G Birch Britain-Nepal Society 2016 48396_Layout 1 19/06/2017 13:40 Page 27

mobility. We define social mobility as a the house. Before moving here, the head of movement of individuals or groups in the this household used to live in Aldershot social class order or social position over a where he retired from his job as British period of time. It takes place in many Gurkha. A kind of chain migration started ways: vertically (upward and downward) thereafter: within three months, his or horizontally; intra-generationally; nephew and another friend (Rai) also relatively or absolutely (Goldthorpe 1980; bought properties next to his, totalling Platt 2005). There are primarily two major three Nepali families living on the same theoretical traditions to study social class stretch of road. At that time, they used to in the UK: Goldthorpe’s seven-class have a joint family dinner every Friday on scheme based on occupations; and, Savage a rotational basis. Made of nine Limbus and Devine’s seven-class scheme based on and four Rais, there were altogether 13 economic, social and cultural capital as people, of whom eight were males and five used in the BBC’s Great British Class females. Among them were five boys (one Survey (Savage and Devine, 2013). born in the UK in 1997) and two girls. Delving into theoretical discussions is The average family size was 4.3. All beyond the scope of this paper. In this eligible adult members were in full-time paper, we simply aim to describe some of employment. None of them were elderly the findings of the case study to suggest or on pension credit. Today (2016), the the dynamics and the direction of the total population of Nepalis living in this nascent Nepali community in the UK. road has risen to 139. They are of diverse backgrounds, but they are predominantly Fairfax Road, Farnborough ex-Gurkhas and their families. Of them, 51 The study began with an exploratory are Gurung, 26 Rai, 23 Limbu, 21 Magar, exercise that we call social mapping to 6 Tamang, 5 Ghale, 4 Sunuwar and 3 collect data. While the overall study Newar. 14 Limbu members moved out of applies a mixed-method (quantitative and the road over the years. The road has qualitative) to collect data, this paper is conspicuously metamorphosed today in based on a case study, which employs terms of race or ethnicity: the majority of ethnographic methods including the houses (30) on the road are owned by interviews, observation, and formal and Nepalis. There are more Nepali females informal interactions, to acquire in-depth (74) than males (65). Among them, there is insights into the community dynamics. an elderly ex-Gurkha couple, and one The data have been analysed using simple elderly Gurkha wife (widow) who live on quantitative tools, such as tabulation and state benefits (pension credit). The qualitative content analysis. remainder are in full-time education or employment. The average family size Results: Demographic changes between is 3.9. 2001 and 2016 in Fairfax Road Below, we explore further the migration of In 2001, there were 3 Nepali households Nepalis in Fairfax Road, their educational on Fairfax Road. The first Nepali to move and employment situation, and property and live in this road was a Limbu family, ownership, while making passing the family continues to live there and own reference to the existing local community.

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In Table 1, we present educational and Gurkha spouse is with the NHS. However, employment information of the second the first-generation Nepalis here have generation who are out of education (about faced a number of difficulties in the course half of them studied in Nepal, and most of of their attempts to integrate. Some of them are counted as first-generation them have language difficulties, leading to immigrants), and in Table 2, information reduced opportunities for better-paid job about the second generation who are prospects. Those elderly Gurkhas, who currently pursuing higher education. migrated within the past seven years, have reported language and other barriers to Education and Employment access welfare services, while bearing Almost all of the first-generation Nepalis social pain of living separately from residing in this road are ex-Gurkhas. As their families, who are denied visa due to mentioned above, they are in full-time their age. employment. Some of them have also pursued further educational qualifications In order to improve understanding of the after leaving the Army. One ex-Gurkha differentiated positions of the second and another Gurkha’s wife started their generation Nepalis in terms of their studies from GCSE and completed a BSc education and employment, we divide Hons in sociology and BSc Nursing them into two distinct cohorts on the respectively from the University of Surrey. basis of their place of studies (country) The graduate ex-Gurkha is working in the (Table 1). hotel industry while the graduate ex-

Table 1: Education and Employment of Second-Generation Nepalis

Place of studies Education level Occupation achievement

Educated in Nepal 1 x B Com, Army (1), Care Assistance (3), Security Officer 5 x BAs (TU)* and (2), House Keeping (2), Airport Baggage 1 x BBA (KU)*, Handler (1), Bus Driver (1), Chef (1), NHS 6 x Class 12 and Porter (1), Sales Assistant (1) and Food Service 2 x SLC Assistant (2)

Educated in the UK 1 x MA, Cohesion & Integration Officer (1), Computer 6 x BSc Hons and Engineer (1), Cashier (1), Nurse (2), Hospitality 1 x BA Manager (1), Business Manager (1), Insurance 2 x Dental Nurse, Broker (1), Dental Nurse (1), Care Assistant (2) 5 x A Level and Army (1), RAF (1), Assistant Manager (1), 1 x GCSE Warehouse Operator (1) and Plumber (1)

*Tribhuvan University (TU) and Kathmandu University (KU)

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The highest level qualification of the first Nepalis (Table 2) are currently pursuing group who studied in Nepal is BA and the higher education in the UK and other lowest is the School Leaving Certificate European countries and we need to see (SLC) level (roughly equivalent to GCSE). how they will do in the future. Below, Those who studied in the UK have a we look at their educational status. similar position on average with the exception of one, who has a Master’s The majority of this group received their degree qualification. Though both groups primary to higher education in the UK and are in full-time employment, the table consider English as their first language. clearly shows the differences in terms of So far, their educational performance is their occupational status: those who promising. As Table 2 shows, there are graduated from Nepal are working as low four persons studying for post-graduate level menial workers, such as baggage degrees specialising in highly handlers, porters and care assistants, and technical/professional disciplines: so on. On the other hand, most of those Aeronautical Engineering, Pharmacy, Law, who were educated in the UK are working and Computer Networking. Eight of them in areas of employment that require are pursuing undergraduate degrees in managerial expertise. This shows that attractive professional fields, such as those educated in the UK are likely to have Medicine, Business Administration, and an edge over those educated in Nepal, Finance and Accounting. There are two perhaps in comparative terms it is due to in the local Sixth Form College who are variations in academic quality and aiming to become a medical doctor or employability. We are unable to explore a linguist. this fully because a number of younger

Table 2: Currently Pursuing Higher Education

Highest education The level currently studying The area of specialisation level passed BSc (Hons) MSc (Final Year) Aeronautical Engineering BSc (Hons) MSc Pharmacy (Final Year) Pharmacy BSc (Hons) LPC (Final Year) Law BSc (Hons) MSc (First Year) Computer Networking A Level BA (Final Year) Business Administration A Level BSc (Final Year) Nursing A Level BSc (Final Year) Nursing A Level BSc (Final Year) Occupational Therapy A Level MBBS (Second Year) Medicine A Level BSc (Second Year) Computer Science A Level BSc (Second Year) Nursing A Level BSc (First Year) Finance and Accounting GCSC A Level English Language GCSC A Level Physics, Chemistry and Maths

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Heading towards better social class? “I am sure, with ability and hard work, Initially Fairfax Road was a relatively less Nepalis will achieve top-level positions in vibrant settlement with many unemployed the Britain in the next 20 years.” We noted people, with falling population due to the Nepali youths being attracted (or continuous outmigration of the local encouraged by parents) predominantly to community. Our study shows that this technical fields. There is therefore a settlement has gone through a tremendous distinct lack of diversity across other transformation in the past 15 years due to disciplines. The number of those studying immigration. There were only three Nepali for a degree in the arts and social science families living here in the early and fields is negligible. the number today has risen to 36. The majority of the Nepali families own The younger generations are integrated their own property and hardly anyone is relatively well locally with the British unemployed. The property value has system and society. In a way they have increased over the years with the area the best of both cultures (origin and becoming more attractive to live in. destination). However, the attachment to The community is getting vibrant and is Nepal for some is not as strong as it is for productive as far as economic activities are the older generations (Adhikari and concerned, indicative of conducive Gellner, 2012). Perhaps these youths can environment for, and possible achievement be categorised safely as a true ‘British- of upward social mobility. This is also Nepali’ generation. reflected in the satisfaction with members’ achievements expressed by the Nepali Conclusion community in the area. A father of two The social mapping and the case study of children said: “I am fully satisfied with the the Nepali diaspora of Fairfax Road, educational achievement of my children. Farnborough, suggests that the Nepali My son is studying for an MSc community is making productive use of Aeronautical Engineering degree and my available means and social environment, daughter for MBBS.” Another parent while accumulating and enhancing capital (lady) expressed her satisfaction very assets necessary for social mobility. pragmatically while also making reference The in-depth household and individual to the local community: “Yes, our children interviews have further indicated that the are doing well in the sense that those social, cultural, and economic capital, capable are studying and those not so brought in by the community, has played a capable are working full time. We, parents, pivotal role in charting the pathways of are also doing well. I feel we are doing far social mobility of the Nepali diaspora in better than the original local residents in the UK. The hardworking culture of Fairfax Road socially and economically. Nepalis has also added economic value in The majority of them live in former the process. Nepalis are culturally active, council houses belonging to the Rushmoor and have high social capital at bonding Borough Council (now First Wessex (community level) even though they lack Housing Association).” One of our young social capital at wider level (both second generation respondents stated: vertically and horizontally). However,

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these resources and limited successes have References: not yet ensured a broad-based achievement Adhikari, K. P. (Ed.) (2012). Nepalis in the in terms of class schemes in the UK. United Kingdom: An Overview. Nepalis may be deemed to be doing Reading: Centre for Nepal Studies UK relatively well in terms of Savage and Adhikari, K. P. and Gellner, D.N. (2012). Devine’s class schema (which ‘Conclusions: Pathways to Integration’ In considers economic, social and cultural K.P. Adhikari (ed.) Nepalis in the United capital) than Goldthrope’s schema (which Kingdom: An Overview, pp. 123– considers occupations). To identify the 50. Reading: CNSUK. trajectory and the degree of social mobility Goldthorpe, J. H. (1980). Social Mobility of the Nepalis in the UK, further in-depth & Class Structure in Modern Britain, research is being carried out in Clarendon Press: Oxford. Farnborough and Reading. We need to Platt, L. (2005). Migration and Social make a longitudinal analysis, and learn Mobility: The life Chances of Britain’s from the experience of other communities, Minority Ethnic particularly the South Asian, to see to what Communities, The Policy Press: Bristol, extent the current trend of higher UK. educational achievements of the Nepali Savage, M., F. Devine (2013) youths will result in the higher The Great British Class Survey, URL: occupational achievements and in upwards http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/0/21970879 social mobility in the future. (Accessed on 25 September 2014)

SOCIETY TIES SCARVES AND LAPEL BADGES

Mrs Jenifer Evans has kindly taken on the sale of the Society ties and scarves which cost £15.00 each including postage. They are available from her at: Bambers Mead, Lower Froyle, Alton, Hampshire GU34 4LL or at the AGM or one of our major functions.

Miss Jane Loveless has supervised the production of a very attractive lapel badge which is available for sale for £3.00 at the AGM and other major functions.

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THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON CONSERVATION & BIODIVERSITY SYMPOSIUM 26 FEBRUARY 2017 (This is an extract from some of the presentations given at the symposium. I have chosen a selection of those considered to be of particular interest to Society members. Ed.) The proceedings of the day were divided In the second phase a succession of British into various perspectives of ZSL’s work Residents - most notably Brian Hodgson - and programmes in Nepal. The overview seek to prevent the dominant Khas war was chaired by FM Sir John Chapple; faction within the Nepal Durbar from historical perspectives by Dr Mark Watson forming hostile alliances against the EICo of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; while also working, with little success, biodiversity by Dr Gitanjali Bhattacharya to expand its interests in Nepal. This ends of ZSL; conservation by Dr Hem Baral, with the Kot Massacre of 1846 and the ZSL representative in Kathmandu. assumption of power of Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana as the de facto ruler of A history of Britain-Nepal relations Nepal, leading to the third phase, Mr Charles Allen, Author characterized by the quasi-feudal dominance of the Rana family dynasty of This talk summarises two centuries of hereditary prime ministers and the Anglo-Nepali relations, divided into five continuation of their predecessors’ periods. In the first phase the Gorkha isolationist policy, with the tacit approval unifiers of Nepal and the East India of the British Government of India content Company (EICo), equally bent on to maintain Nepal as a ‘buffer state’. territorial expansion, clash over three rounds of warfare that conclude with the A century of stagnation ends with the former forced to accept the terms of the ‘Palace Revolution’ of 1951–1952 when Treaty of Segauli, ratified at Mukhwanpur King Tribhuvan, with the connivance of in March 1816, with the loss of plains the Indian Congress Government and the territory and the imposition of a British active support of the Nepal Congress Resident in Kathmandu. Party, overthrows the Rana regime to assume sovereign power, with limited democracy and reforms but promoting ‘development’ and foreign aid from competing foreign powers, dominated by India, China and the USA.

The fifth - and present - phase begins with the Maoist ‘People’s War’ launched by the Nepal Communist Party after years of corrupt government, developing into open rebellion in 2001, complicated by a palace Asian one-horned Rhino from the massacre that sees the death of the king Hodgson collection. ©ZSL. and his murderer, the crown prince.

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Finally, a peace treaty and a new, if approaches have evolved over the time, controversial, constitution ratified in 2015. what has been achieved, and where the gaps are. An overview of landscape level conservation initiatives in Nepal Key achievements include increases in KP Acharya, Joint Secretary, Ministry of populations of mega-wildlife species, Forests and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) restoration of fragmented habitats, strengthening of the protected areas Nepal, relatively small in geographical network, expansion of biodiversity area, is one of the richest countries in the conservation outside protected areas, world in terms of its biodiversity and increased community awareness, creation culture. In recent years, Nepal has been of conservation activists and volunteers, proactively adopting the emerging concept ownership and diversification of of a landscape approach, evolving through livelihoods, employment and income, the protected area management buffer zone strengthening of community mobilization/ concept to landscape-level conservation institutions, increased conservation and developmental practices. investment and enhancement of The multidisciplinary landscape approach trans-boundary cooperation. started in the Arc Landscape in 2004, The assessment has identified gaps in areas and has expanded to include the Sacred of institutionalization, collaboration and Himalayan Landscape, Chitwan partnerships,and found that not all Landscape, transboundary ecosystems received equal priority. initiatives in Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiative, The talk concludes with key and the Landscape recommendations for developing a Conservation and Development Initiative. strategy and action plan for the future. These initiatives have created a unique The elements for consideration include opportunity for Nepal to showcase and ecological integrity, conservation-friendly learn from socio-ecological, cultural and economic development, climatic risk environmental transformations and move reduction, resilience building and closer to understanding the distance that partnership and institutional strengthening. humanity has covered for the thousands years of its development. A One Health case study in wildlife conservation – Nepal This presentation is based on the Professor Richard Kock, development, planning and Royal Veterinary College implementation experiences of the landscape approach in Nepal. It was found In the first decade of this century Nepal that implementation of the TAL has was at a political cross road and at war generated significant contributions to with itself. This brought extreme suffering scaling up landscape level conservation to both rural and urban communities and initiatives. It will highlight specific caused displacement and compounded learning and successes in landscape poverty. In addition, huge environmental planning components, how landscape challenges faced the authorities, created by

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a growing population, and degradation of The long-term goal of the conservation land and natural resources. This included, and sustainable use of natural resources tragically, the decline in the iconic Greater must be built on a solid foundation of one-horned rhinoceros, a species of almost knowledge and understanding of the mythical nature. ZSL conservation organisms involved, the dynamics of their programmes, working closely with the populations and their relationships with NTNC, the Department for Wildlife man and nature. But this alone is not Conservation, local communities, the UK enough as effective conservation also trust and DEFRA, implemented a Darwin requires the support of people, both to project in One Health which built on push for national policies by government earlier efforts that had included developed and to be involved in practical action. veterinary clinics around Chitwan. One Animal conservation in Nepal is far ahead Health addresses concerns at the nexus of plants in both of these areas. Although between humans, animals and the there is an impressive network of protected environment. The focus of the Darwin areas in Nepal the knowledge of what Initiative was on reducing conflict between plants occur in them is inadequate, as is people and the natural resource; enhancing the case for most parts of Nepal. The birds benefits for communities living adjacent to and mammals of Nepal are well protected areas; on health services delivery documented and Red Data Books highlight to all sectors, human and animal; those of most conservation concern. identifying ecosystems health concerns As yet there is no Flora of Nepal and improving skills and capacity in describing all the plants and giving wildlife management. The outcome was a accurate distributions. The international healthier environment for people, animals Flora of Nepal project and wildlife and contributed to a reversal (www.floraofnepal.org) is addressing this in the decline of rhino and other species in need with one of 10 volumes already the Terai. This project predicated a period published, and three in preparation. With of relative social political calm and 7000 plants species in Nepal, and many considerable progress has been possible in poorly known, this is a major task, but wildlife conservation. We cannot predict when complete will not only be an the future and challenges continue to arise, invaluable national resource but also of seen most recently with the catastrophic international significance as Nepal earthquake, but a willing community, includes over 30% of plant in the motivated to survive and equally to Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot. support the survival of fellow species, Important as it is, this scientific with a little support from multiple publication (in print and free online) is not disciplines can achieve miracles. Nepal is enough to raise awareness of the general the case study. public and put knowledge in the hands of the people who need it. DFID-funded Plant conservation in Nepal: Plants and You has taken a new approach current situation and future needs by producing bilingual, image-rich Dr Mark Watson, Royal Botanic Garden, knowledge products in the form of plant Edinburgh profiles for multiple stakeholders: from local communities to policy makers.

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These projects are addressing the to reverse the declines and to ensure these knowledge gap identified by Nepal’s and other scavenging bird species have a National Biodiversity Strategy safe future. Vulture Conservation Breeding Implementation Plan, and are setting a Centres were developed in India, Nepal solid foundation for the future. The Flora and Pakistan initially providing a safe of Nepal will take a long time to complete, environment for the vultures. These have but the information it contains is needed gone on to breed all three species with now. The online publication and digital vultures being available in the future to delivery of the Flora means that plants of re-establish wild populations in the region. conservation concern, be they endemic Nepal has developed a ground-breaking species, medicinal herbs threatened by initiative to try to conserve the remaining over-harvesting from the wild, or invasive wild populations of vultures and to provide plants spreading into new areas and safe environments for vultures in the degrading habitats, can be targeted and future. A network of Vulture Safe Zones published in advance of the printed now exists in Nepal proving a model for volumes, and Plants and You knowledge organisations to introduce into States products disseminated. This should also in Northern India bordering the include the production of a Plant Red Data Nepal/India border. Book for Nepal as a focus for national- level conservation policy. It is well known The skills of staff in Central Zoo and in the that the mid hills are botanically the most Gharial Conservation Breeding Centre species rich areas of Nepal, yet they are have proved invaluable in the poorly covered by protected areas. Plant establishment of the vulture centre. distribution data from the Flora of Nepal Both gharials and vultures are good dataset can be used to model national examples of how breeding centres hotspots and so inform the establishment established in range countries can play a of new protected areas in the future. significant role in the conservation of These data can also feed into climate species. Conservation breeding is a tool change modelling studies to ensure that that is available in Nepal but can only be our conservation plans for today will still used as part of a wider conservation plan be effective in the future. including the protection of species and their environment in the wild. V ulture conservation in Nepal, and the role of conservation breeding in Gharial conservation in Nepal: supporting conservation initiatives past, present, future Nick Lindsay, Zoological Society Iri Gill, Zoological Society of London of London The gharial Gavialis gangeticus is a highly The catastrophic declines of Gyps vultures specialised crocodilian endemic to the throughout South Asia recorded in the . Historically, the 1990s led to considerable efforts by species occurred across the Indus, Ganges, conservation organisations in the region to Brahmaputra, Mahanadi and Irrawaddy prevent three species going extinct. drainages. However, they are now The programme went on to identify ways restricted to a few, scattered locations in

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India and Nepal, largely within the has assessed 37 species as globally Gangetic Basin. This species is of threatened and 30 species as Near- conservation concern and is listed as Threatened in Nepal. Critically Endangered on the IUCN red list. Across its range gharials and their The recently completed Nepal National habitat are under threat from human bird Red Data Book (RDB) is the first activities; fishing nets, unethical fishing comprehensive status assessment of all methods, poaching and water dams are bird species in Nepal using the IUCN cause for concern. In Chitwan National Categories and Criteria. 167 species (19%) Park a Conservation breeding centre for have been assessed as nationally gharials was established in 1978, to help threatened. These comprise 40% which are increase numbers in the wild. There are considered Critically Endangered, 23% around 600 gharials held at this facility Endangered and 37% Vulnerable species. and 100 animals per year are released in to 62 species have been assessed as Near- the wild. Since 2010, the numbers of ani- Threatened. The non-passerines (larger mals produced here have gradually dwin- birds) were found to be the most dled, with no animals propagated in the threatened. During the assessment Nepal’s past three years. An international plea has protected areas’ system, which covers been sent out by government agencies, around 23 per cent of the country, was in Nepal, to crocodilian specialists found to provide good protection for many worldwide, asking for assistance to bird species. However, it is a concern that improve conservation activities for some species, notably lowland grassland gharials. In addition to this a 2015 survey specialists and some specialist forest birds, suggests that there is only one male left in were found to be limited mainly or entirely the wild in Nepal. Much needed research to protected areas. A total of 36–38 is required to further our understanding of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas G. gangeticus and their habitat, from (IBAs) which are of international which a much needed conservation importance for birds, have been identified strategy can be formulated for this critically by Bird Conservation Nepal, the country’s endangered crocodilian. Led by our leading bird conservation NGO. in-country hub, ZSL has a strong representation with conservation initiatives The RDB assessment found that habitat in Nepal, and with a collaborative losses, damage and fragmentation were approach, ZSL intends to provide support for the most serious threats to Nepal’s birds. the gharial conservation crisis in this region. Some other major threats are over-exploitation, including over-fishing, 15.15 Nepal birds and their hunting, trapping and persecution, invasive conservation species, climate change, and lack of Carol Inskipp, Author conservation awareness.

Considering Nepal’s small size, it has an The Nepal National RDB makes especially high diversity of bird species, recommendations for bird conservation 878 in total, around 8% of the world’s including ways to help reduce habitat known bird species. BirdLife International losses and damage and addressing

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over-exploitation; the urgent need for more Series was launched. This has been a conservation awareness engagement mammoth task to produce, and Carol and programmes, especially with local Tim Inskipp, Dr Hem Baral, Nepali communities; protection of all IBAs; counterparts and others have been working improving the capacity of wildlife on it for the past four years. The final agencies in bird conservation, research on document ran to six volumes – and for nationally threatened and data deficient those of you with stamina, they can be species, and setting up a Nepal bird status found on the ZSL website – and distribution database. https://www.zsl.org/conservation/regions/a Launch of ‘The Status of Nepal’s Birds: sia/national-red-list-of-nepals-birds The National Red List Series

Towards the end of the day, The Status of Nepal’s Birds: The National Red List

WEBSITE & EMAIL CONTACT Members will have noticed considerable changes & improvements to the Society’s website: www.britainnepalsociety.org

In addition the Secretary is increasingly using email to contact members about events and Society news. This makes it much easier, cheaper and faster to pass information. However members are asked to ensure that the Secretary’s email address: secretary@britainnepa lsociety.org is firmly listed in members’ safe contact list.

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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE OF TREKKING IN NEPAL By Robin Marston

One fine, clear morning fifty years ago in entails a lot of ‘stamping of the feet’, so, October 1965, three ladies from the a long lasting ‘chang’ (local beer) party, American mid-west, bumped their way In sherpa music and dancing on the airstrip an old jeep over a rough dirt road to the was organised. Soon after, with the airstrip eastern end of the . From firmed up, the first ever successful landing there they walked-or rather ‘trekked’ (a of a single engine Pilatus Porter aircraft word taken from the ‘Vor-Trekkers’ in took place. South Africa) - for the next three and a Life for the Sherpas, who were to become half weeks to the foot of Mount Everest. the backbone of the trekking industry in Thus began commercial trekking in Nepal. Nepal, had always been hard. Some three Colonel J.O.M. Roberts MVO, MBE, to four hundred years earlier, groups in MC, recently retired from the British search of ‘Beyul’ (Shangrila) arrived in the Embassy in Kathmandu, registered Nepal Solu Khumbu area. They crossed the and the world’s first trekking company Himalayas via the Nangpa La (pass) ‘Mountain Travel Nepal’ with the 5800m from Tibet. They settled in areas Department of Industry in 1964. ‘Colonel where now lie the villages of Thame, Jimmy’ had spent much of his youth Namche, Khunde and Khumjung. trekking and climbing in the Himalayan They later built a Gompa with views of Karakoram and served with distinction in Chomolongma (Everest) on the plateau the British Gurkhas during the Burma at Thyangboche. campaign in the Second World War. Those three American ladies were accompanied by a team of Sherpas- a (trek manager) cook, guides, kitchen crew and locally employed porters. Aside for some fresh food purchased along the way, they carried everything they needed for their seven week trek. Sleeping, dining and toilet tents, sleeping bags, tin plates and cutlery, cooking pots and ladles, rice, flour, sugar salt, oil and tea. There were no roads or airfields in the foothills east of the Kathmandu valley at that time. The air strip at Lukla was being constructed by Sir Edmund Hillary, with the help of the hands and yes, the feet, of 100 local Sherpas! The ‘feet’ aspect came in when it was found the prepared surface of the airstrip was too soft to allow for an aircraft landing. However Sherpa dancing Col Jimmy Roberts.

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At altitude crops grow slowly, but buck- successful climb of an 8000m (26400ft) wheat, barley and radishes survived. peak- Annapurna 1 with a French team. Later, the potato was introduced in the The Swiss almost conquered Everest using area, perhaps from the grounds of the the South Col route in 1952 and then British Residency in Kathmandu and this finally on the morning of 29 May 1953, has been the staple crop ever since. Trade Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and (the soon to became the Sherpas main livelihood, be) Sir Edmund Hillary, climbing with bringing salt from Tibet and bartering John Hunt’s British expedition, finally grain from the south. Tibetan wool and tea ‘knocked the ba.....d off’ as Hillary from Yunnan and Sichuan was also in quaintly put it. demand in the Indian plains. Subsequently more expeditions arrived, Until 1950 Nepal remained closed to giving employment to the Sherpas and (almost all) foreigners. So British climbers then in 1965 came that first commercial seeking access to Everest turned east to the trek. At last access to the beautiful Darjeeling area from where a route led villages and foothills of Nepal, high pass 150km north to the Nathu La (4310ms). crossings and views of Everest itself were This off-shoot of the old Silk route lead open to those with determination, a little from the plains of Bengal to Lhasa. The spare time and enough ‘huff and puff’. pass offered the easiest access route to the Through the 60s, 70s and most of the 80s north side of the Himalayas. trekking was a ‘ camping experience’. Darjeeling based Sherpas were already It quickly became popular with clients heavily engaged in trading and were well from America, Europe, Australia and adapted to high altitude, so were recruited elsewhere. Groups of friends or families by the British expeditions. In 1921, 22 trekking (walking) for 6-7 hrs a day, and 24 teams including Bruce, Young sleeping in tents and being guided and husband, Mallory and Irvine, crossed north looked after by the now famous, ‘Sherpas into Tibet then rode and walked west of Nepal’. As a result the Sherpas to Tingri. Then south to set up base camp themselves also prospered. below the north Col. They relied for logistic and climbing support at high In the 80s and 90s things gradually altitude on the Sherpas and an enduring changed as local villagers in the bond was created. But the tragic loss of Annapurna, Langtang, and Solu seven Sherpas in an avalanche in 1922 and Khumbu/Everest areas built ‘tea houses’ or the death of Mallory and Irvine (did ‘lodges’ to cater to these same trekkers. At they reach the Summit?) in 1924, brought first they were simple, offering this period of climbing to a close. dormitory accommodation, basic food and outside washing and toilet facilities. Little happened in the eastern Nepal Over time conditions improved and today Himlayas until after the Second World War it is possible to have comfortable beds, hot when, in 1950 Nepal finally opened its showers and even ‘en suite’ facilities. doors to foreigners. This allowed access Add warm and welcoming dining areas, a to the Nepal Himalayas from the south. hot rum punch, good food and life after a Maurice Herzog led the first ever day on the trail, is well rewarded!

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As more and more people used the lodges, on Everest, an avalanche on the Thorong support for tented trekking fell away. Pass area of the Annapurna’s and more The lodge owners and villages got a bigger recently, on 25 April, a major earthquake ‘share of the cake’. causing damage and loss of life from Gorkha east across Nepal as far as More recently roads have pierced their the Khumbu. way north up the Himalayan valleys. Most noticeable is the route from via Since the promulgation of the long awaited Beni and Tatopani up through the Kali new Nepal Constitution, political Gandaki gorge to Jomsom. There the route disturbances are adversely affecting divides, one track leading to Muktinath conditions across the Terai including and the other northwards to the ancient the tourist areas of Chitwan, and walled city of Lomantang and the Tibetan Bardia. There are fuel and other shortages border. Rough as it is, the road has allowed in Kathmandu and throughout Nepal and many thousands of pilgrims (mostly Indian the post monsoon trekking and tourist and Nepali) to visit the shrine at season is being hard hit. Muktinath, but the number of trekkers in the area has halved. If Nepal’s trek industry is to grow and prosper, it urgently needs to innovate, The quality of the ‘Around Annapurna’ diversify and recover its good image. trek, listed as one of the ‘Seven Great Nepal still has much to offer, the beauty of Treks of the World’ was degraded and the country, the friendliness of its people’s roads also opened the Manang valley, and the awe that the mighty Himalayas can the Helambu area and spread east from inspire. Post monsoon and the peaks, Jiri into classic Solu Khumbu/Sherpa hill freshly coated with monsoon snow, break country. Inevitably they affect trekking through the clouds to reveal the greatest trails, reduce choice and detract from the and mightiest range of mountains in classic trek experience. the world.

Across the world, there are political and It has indeed been a wonderful first fifty economic traumas and security is a major years for trekking in Nepal, but now what? concern. In the last three years Nepal ………which way forward? itself has experienced two major dramas

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THE GURKHA EVEREST EXPEDITION 2015 By Major Andrew Todd, Royal Gurkha Rifles

Rifleman Dawa was slowly losing his decorated with honours, looking puzzled hearing as I sat beside his bed, talking and confused by the Alpine hitch, directly into his ear. It was 2010 and he a bowline, crampons on back-to-front. had been injured in an explosion while One soldier commented that my ability to serving with the Gurkhas in Afghanistan. tie a figure of eight so quickly was a magic Dawa showed me pictures on his laptop - trick. I have learned that, for Gurkhas, photographs of his family in Nepal, the petrol stoves, snow holes and their proud moment that he passed Gurkha eyebrows do not mix well, and neither do selection. A photograph of Dawa with his their crampons and my inflatable mattress. brother Tshering Pande Bhote was especially striking. Tshering is an Training, however, is something that we International Mountain Guide and one of Gurkhas take seriously, and it took three the first Nepali citizens to qualify under years to develop, train and select a team the rigorous IFMGA process. that had never before worn a harness or The brothers were pictured with General crampons to climb Everest. Before we Sir David Richards, then head of the arrived in Kathmandu, in March 2015, British Army, who held up four fingers to the team had trained in North Wales, signify the number of successful ascents of Scotland, the Swiss Alps and on the South Mount Everest that Tshering had East Ridge of . From the 2,700 completed (he has since summited twice Gurkhas in the British Army, we took more). Later that year, my wife and I went ninety of the best and selected just out to the Everest region to climb Ama thirteen for our Everest endeavour. Dablam with Tshering. The long acclimatisation process provided plenty of On 25 April 2015, our team stood at the time to think and I vowed that were there foot of the Khumbu Icefall on Everest’s ever to be the opportunity to take a team of southern flanks. Our climb up the new Gurkha soldiers to the area, it would be steeper route set this year to avoid the something with which I would make sure I dangerous seracs that had caused the fatal was involved. The 200th anniversary of avalanche in 2014 was uneventful until Gurkha service to The Crown in 2015 around 7am. We had moved fast through presented this exact opportunity to be part the icefall and three of us waited for the of a Gurkha team attempting to climb rest of the team at the top of four vertical Mount Everest - despite it existing in their ladders that were lashed together. One of back yard, no serving Gurkha soldier has the Gurkhas said that his feet were getting ever summited the mountain. cold and we debated carrying on to Camp 1, but we made the decision to wait for the Gurkhas are first-class soldiers but they rest of the team before moving on. Soon are not natural mountaineers. As a Gurkha after, a loud crack like a gun shot made us officer in The Royal Gurkha Rifles, I have turn and look up to see a huge block of ice witnessed both - a courageous soldier, the size of two lorries come crashing down

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on to the route. It would have hit us if we and our Icefall team were dead. The had continued climbing. It was the gypsy’s indescribable feeling when soldiers die hit warning that something was not quite right me; this was not part of the plan and there and, with the team back together, we was nothing I could do. continued cautiously to Camp 1. Suddenly, the ice fall team came booming Camp 1, at 6,200m, is perched on a glacier through on the radio. They had survived between three of the highest mountains in the earthquake and were hurriedly the world, Lhotse, Nuptse and Everest. descending to Base Camp. The story they Disappointingly, we couldn’t see any of later told of blocks of ice falling around them as the camp was cloaked in low- them, the avalanches and the blast wave as hanging cloud. We rested in our tents, they made their descent was harrowing. spoke to our basecamp manager Captain As the snow cloud settled they reported Buddhi on the radio about the weather and that Base Camp was gone and everything checked in with the three team members was chaos. They began to look for Captain who were still in the icefall - their plan for Buddhi, who was still missing, and the day had been to climb to the first of the assisted with the evacuation of the injured vertical ladders and return to Base Camp. climbers and Sherpas.

At 11:48am, Captain Buddhi was at Base At Camp 1, we were relieved that we had Camp, three team members were climbing survived, terrified of the aftershocks and in the icefall and eight of us were at Camp subsequent avalanches, but above all 1. Some of our Sherpas were at Camp 2, heartbroken by the thought that Buddhi some at Camp 1 and some at Base Camp - had been killed. He was supposed to have it had been a brilliant day that should have been safe at Base Camp. These thoughts been topped off by the safe return of our went through our minds for more than Icefall team to basecamp. At that moment, three hours before we received an update the glacier under Camp 1 shook violently, from the icefall team. We heard that they crevasses opened up behind our tents and had found Buddhi, but it took another 10 the mountains exploded. I couldn’t hear minutes to confirm over frustratingly anything except the earth and the mountain broken radio signals that he was alive. crashing around us. The ground dropped He had been thrown some 30m from his beneath us with a swing from side to side, tent and face-planted into a small hollow and as I put my head out of the tent I was where he and our Base Camp Sherpas hit by a cloud of snow - a blast wave from sheltered awaiting their fate. They all the massive avalanche at basecamp. survived unscathed, less Buddhi who suffered a cut to his head. It needed Reaching for the radio, we tried to raise stitching but nothing more. our icefall team and Captain Buddhi at Base Camp. There was silence. As things We set about planning the rescue of the calmed, I could hear the Sherpa on the climbers and Sherpas stranded at Camps 1 radio saying in Nepali that they’d been and 2. Argentinean climber Damian buried and Base Camp was destroyed. Benegas went to examine the state of the I immediately assumed that Buddhi route back through the icefall and

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confirmed that it was completely Lip-reading in both Nepali and English, he destroyed and impassable. We had enough took in our story on Everest before food for a few days. At night, the describing his own tale of the earthquake. aftershocks got louder and triggered He narrowly escaped death for a second avalanches closer to our tents. We were time as the earth shook around him while sitting ducks and extremely thankful when working on a hydroelectric dam project we were extracted by helicopter to near the small town of Gorkha. “I have Base Camp on the third day after the always been good at running, Saheb,” he earthquake. We returned to find that our explained. Dawa is a battle-hardened Base Camp was completely destroyed veteran and he summed up how we both and our possessions blasted across the felt when he said, “It was the single Khumbu glacier. scariest thing that has ever happened in my life, simply more terrifying than anything Our Gurkha climbing team all had I did in Afghanistan.” immediate family spread across Nepal and some of their houses had been flattened by So the summit of Everest remains the earthquake. Many of our team had untouched by a serving Gurkha soldier, specialist engineering skills and remained and though it would have been a good in Nepal until August to assist the story to have made a successful attempt in Gurkha Welfare Trust with the earthquake this anniversary two hundredth year of relief effort. service to The Queen, our thoughts are with the families of our soldiers and the The day before I left Kathmandu, I had as they recover from this one more job to do. I had to meet the extraordinary event. brothers, Tshering and Dawa who, for me, had inspired the Everest expedition. Dawa has always had a way with words that is typically Gurkha.

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MCC v NEPAL AT LORD’S TUESDAY 19 JULY By Gerry Birch

As part of the celebrations marking 200 Gurkhas performed to their usual years of Anglo-Nepal friendship with the high standard. signing of the Treaty of Segauli, a side from Nepal was invited by the MCC to The afternoon session was very play a 50 over match at Lord’s, the home interesting. Whilst Nepal had amassed a of cricket. Most of us know that in India good total against the MCC’s fast to cricket is almost a religion. The Maidan in medium-, the slower bowling Calcutta is always full of teams playing on and greater use of spin by the Nepal this open place. In recent years this has bowlers soon had the home-side in spread to Nepal and the much-reduced size difficulty. A situation not unknown to of the is where Nepalis can be teams from England these days! In the seen playing with great enthusiasm. event MCC were bowled out for 176 in 47.2 overs. The relatively inexperienced Tuesday 19th July turned out to be a very Nepal team had achieved a very creditable fine and warm day – no likelihood of win. For cricket buffs I have included a interference by rain. The London-based copy of the full scorecard. The match was Nepali population turned out in force to followed by a reception for the teams and support their team with noisy some lucky guests in the hallowed Long encouragement in the tradition of matches Room. This was very much appreciated played on the Sub-continent! I was told by by the visitors and those of us invited. the MCC that at least 5000 supporters were The Long Room is a truly historic place in the stands which is good percentage of with wonderful pictures relating to the UK-based Nepalis (estimated at around early days of cricket and of course the 90,000 – 100,000 uk wide). This was, in records of those who have made MCC’s experience, one of the highest significant bowling and turnouts noted for a minor game of this performances. We all left with good nature. Nepal won the toss and opened the memories of the occasion and our thanks batting, achieving a score of 217 for 8 to the MCC for this wonderful day in the in their 50 overs. During the annals of Nepal cricket. lunch interval the Band of the Brigade of

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60p M.C.C. v. NEPAL Tuesday 19th July 2016 50 overs per side

NEPAL Innings 1. G. Malla ...... c and b Dutch ...... 39 2. A.K. Mandal ...... c and b Barrett ...... 2 3. S. Vesawkar ...... b Clark ...... 27 †4. P. Khadka ...... c Clark b Reingold ...... 30 5. Sagar Pun ...... b Barrett ...... 26 *6. R. Rijal ...... c Senneck b Dutch ...... 24 7. B. Bhandari ...... c Barrett b Perren ...... 9 8. Sompal Kami ...... run out ...... 20 9. B. Regmi ...... ...... 24 10. S.P. Gauchan ...... not out ...... 0 11. S. Lamichhane ...... 00 b 00, l-b 00,w14, n-b 02,p00, 16 Total ...... (8 wkts, 50 overs) 217 FALL OF THE WICKETS 1—18 2—58 3—104 4—107 5—141 6—169 7—174 8—216 9— 10— ANALYSIS OF BOWLING Innings Name O. M. R. W. W. N-b. Senneck ...... 3 0 19 0 ...... Barrett ...... 10 1 35 2 5 ... Clark...... 5028131 Wilkinson ...... 6 0 26 0 ...... Dutch ...... 10 1 36 2 2 ... Reingold ...... 9038121 Perren ...... 7 0 35 1 1 ... M.C.C. Innings 1. S. Clark ...... b Gauchan ...... 16 2. G.A. Adair ...... c Rijal b Regmi ...... 100 *3. G.D. Phillips ...... b Pun ...... 0 4. C.T. Perren ...... lbw b Pun ...... 3 5. J.M. Overy ...... lbw b Pun ...... 9 6. M.S. Coles ...... c Bhandari b Lamichhane ...... 6 7. R.M. Wilkinson ...... b Kami ...... 20 †8. K.P. Dutch ...... b Regmi ...... 6 9. C.A. Barrett ...... lbw b Kami ...... 6 10. Major A. Senneck ...... b Regmi ...... 0 11. M.S. Reingold ...... not out ...... 0 b 01, l-b 05,w04, n-b 00,p00, 10 Total ...... (47.2 overs) 176 FALL OF THE WICKETS 1—35 2—36 3—44 4—72 5—107 6—157 7—168 8—169 9—176 10—176 ANALYSIS OF BOWLING Innings Name O. M. R. W. W. N-b. Kami ...... 9 1 33 2 2 ... Khadka ...... 6 1 19 0 1 ... Gauchan...... 7 0 21 1 ...... Pun ...... 10 2 35 3 ...... Regmi ...... 9.2 1 37 3 1 ... Lamichhane ...... 6 0 25 1 ......

Umpires—M.J.D. Bodenham & J.H. Evans Scorers—J.G.E. Jarvis & R.A. Reeder †Captain *-keeper Play begins at 10.30 Luncheon Interval Between Innings Nepal won the toss Nepal won by 41 runs Middlesex won by 4 wickets 46 G Birch Britain-Nepal Society 2016 48396_Layout 1 19/06/2017 13:40 Page 47

NOT YOUR AVERAGE HOLLIDAY - WATERAID IN NEPAL By Craig Holliday (This article is based on the talk given by Craig Holliday to the Society on 7th October 2015) In March 2014, I was incredibly privileged WaterAid started working in Nepal in to be able to visit Nepal with the 1987. The country’s extreme landscape international charity WaterAid. Having presents a range of challenges to providing worked for Essex & Suffolk Water for 12 water and sanitation services including years - during which time I helped to raise remote water sources, contamination and thousands of pounds for the charity - this dwindling supplies; 2.3m people across was a great chance to see first hand how Nepal currently don’t have access to safe money raised can benefit people’s lives. water. Many urban areas have a clean water supply but water tables are dropping Since 1981 WaterAid has been providing rapidly. And as traditional sources dry up, safe water, sanitation and hygiene the population continues to grow with education to some of the world’s poorest people migrating to escape conflict or find communities. Approximately 1 in 10 work. In mountainous areas the routes to people around the world do not have water sources are often long and difficult. access to safe drinking water and 2.3 Communities carry heavy loads across billion people don’t have a toilet; steep paths and ravines, commonly WaterAid wants to change this and ensure resulting in serious injuries. that everyone, everywhere has access to these basic rights by 2030. In Nepal, 600 children under five die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation. This accounts for a third of all child deaths. Only 48% of the population in Nepal have access to a proper toilet, and many people have no option but to defecate in the open, causing widespread disease. Hand-washing is not yet common practice in some areas and the causes of ill health are often covered up by superstition, making it particularly hard to make improvements. Effective hygiene education along with safe water and sanitation services, are vital for making long-term changes to health.

All these issues set the context for our visit and while we were there to enjoy the stunning scenery as we trekked through Craig Holliday at Poon Hill. the Annapurna range, raising money and

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awareness for WaterAid was always in my thoughts. Our trek lasted six days and took us from Bajung, just outside Pokhara, to Poon Hill. We took in the stunning vistas stretching from the range to the Annapurna Massive before joining the main Annapurna circuit and descending to finish at Syaule Bazaar. The first three days away from the main trails was a fascinating experience. We wound our way up the valley slopes and through the terraced farming villages and it felt I was experiencing the real Nepal. Small farmsteads each growing their own crops and each with a set of eager children keen to say hello to strangers! Villages like Palate in the Surkhet region were among the ‘real’ Nepal we Laxmi collects water after her experienced. Palate is a small community hour long trip. in Surkhet, a remote region of western close the shop every time she goes. Her Nepal. For the villagers here, it takes an eldest daughter often misses school to hour to fetch water and the water they fetch water so Laxmi doesn’t have to close collect is not safe to drink. Palate also has the shop, and her six year old daughter, a government water supply but the only Puja, has a small bucket to help with the two standpipes in the village are over 20 water collection. years old and badly contaminated. Laxmi Karki’s story: 28 year old Laxmi When her children got sick from the water, has been married for 15 years - since she Laxmi had to take out a loan of 7000 was 13 - and has three children: two rupees to pay for medicine - seven times daughters (aged 12 and six) and a nine what she earns each month from the shop. year old son. She and her children live in a house on the corner of one of the main ‘streets’ in Palate and she runs a small shop in the downstairs room of her house. Most days there is no water from the water points, so Laxmi has to walk to collect water. “The water rarely flows and when it does we find dead snakes and rotting frogs coming through the pipe. Most days we have to walk through the forest for water instead,” Laxmi says. She goes up to five times a day and says WaterAid group being welcomed each trip takes about an hour so she has to by the people of Nala.

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She couldn’t pay back the loan, so her a water and sanitation users committee husband had to go to in search of with the village elders. With the full work. She said she hates giving the engagement of the community, children water she knows will make them improvements are made giving them the sick but there is no alternative. best possible chance of long term success. While walking along the trail we came across many disused water points, many We went for a walk around the village and are them are susceptible to drying up saw that six wells in the village that had during the dry season or being damaged by been open to contamination were now high flows or land slides during the covered and the water was safe for monsoon season. The impact of poor drinking; additional tap stands had also water and sanitation on Laxmi and her been built for washing. Each house pays family is clear to see and is the reason I’m approx 50 rupees (30p) in water rates per such a passionate WaterAid supporter. month. This is paid to a village account to After we returned safely from our trek and maintain the facilities. Each household had headed back to Kathmandu we were taken also been taught about improving the to visit a village where WaterAid had safety of their water supply by boiling, been working to improve the water and chlorinating or filtering the water before sanitation situation. drinking. The main philosophy behind this is prevention being better than cure. Nala is approximately 30km east of Kathmandu in the Kavre district and is A community-led total sanitation approach home to 1,400 people. With WaterAid’s has been developed with the Nala Water support, the village has introduced two and Sanitation User committee (WSUC). projects to improve water and sanitation This involved building storm drainage in services. the village to take away rain water and prevent flooding during the monsoon WaterAid works with the poorest and most season. A sewer network was also marginalised communities and focuses on installed and connected to 355 homes delivering sustainable solutions. The first giving everyone in the village a toilet. step in this approach is engaging with the The sewers were paid for by WaterAid community to understand their issues and and the local partner and the villagers educate them in the benefits of safe water bought their own squatting latrine for and sanitation. This involves establishing 1000 rupees.

Nala is an open defecation free zone. Nala’s reed bed sewage system.

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Hygiene education was the biggest barrier they are still learning how to get the best to success and it took a year of discussions out of it. Local people are in charge of and preparations with the WSUC and operating and maintaining the system. villagers to get the buy in. This is why the villagers paid for their latrines, if they had Outside the main part of Nala are smaller just been installed for them the danger is villages where gravity-fed water systems they would not use them or understand supply the communities with water. the need. The village is now an ‘open We walked up into the hills to see the defecation’ free zone, a fact they are secure concrete reservoirs that have been very proud of. built to capture water from the streams above the village. This stores water for the The sewer network feeds into a reed bed dry season, when water can be scarce, and treatment plant on the edge of the village. prevents contamination. Three of these Effluent flows through three settlement systems provide nine tap stands for locals chambers where solids settle out before to use. Previously there was only one going through a larger reed bed, finally system which resulted in long queues for going out into the local watercourse. water, the only alternative was to collect All the design and operating parameters water from the local streams. are painted on the wall next to the plant so The health benefits of this infrastructure everyone knows how it works. The reed have already been seen with a reduction in bed has been in operation for a year and the incidence of diarrhoea, typhoid and jaundice. The local health organisation statistics show an 11% reduction in these diseases and there is real hope for a bigger reduction next year.

While we were there we met the Water and Sanitation User Committee to discuss how they feel about WaterAid’s work. The committee consists of 15 members: 10 men and five women. There is a requirement that 33% of the committee are from female, disabled or from a marginal sector of the population. Each household in the village is entitled to vote annually to decide the following year’s committee members. The committee were overjoyed to talk to us and thanked us for raising money for WaterAid projects. The emotion was there for us all to see.

They told us that WaterAid has been very The WaterAid group with the Water & supportive and has engaged with them Sanitation users committee in Nala. throughout the project. They said that

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WaterAid Nepal (WAN) had been working, were badly affected.

Working with local partners, WAN provided emergency WASH support to quake survivors in 11 districts. The key areas of response included improvement of water quality through purification tablets and community filters, rehabilitation of water supply systems, construction of Gokul Bajgain & Sushmita in their temporary temporary toilets, distribution of hygiene home following the earthquake. kits, and organisation of health and disease WaterAid had left a legacy - building the awareness campaigns. WAN’s community into a team, promoting good immediate response reached over 160,000 relationships and building team spirit. people. Further hampering the response The committee plans to install more water to the earthquake was the border blockade supplies over the next four years reaching in December 2015, relating to Nepal’s the remaining 30% of people still without new constitution. water and sanitation. Amazingly they are also investigating how to generate energy Gokul Bajgain, 40, had his house from their waste. It was inspiring to see destroyed completely, and his wife and the community driving forward the daughter-in-law were trapped under the improvements themselves, and that rubble. Neighbours were able to dig them WaterAid is using the money we raise to out but looking at the pile of stones that change people’s lives. Before leaving we remained, it was incredible that they were had a photo with the WSUC in the not more seriously injured; they were both sunshine and were presented with a ‘token badly scraped and bruised on their legs of love’ from them - a lovely framed and arms. Gokul was in Barabasi at the picture. Between us, the team of 20 had time and had to rush to return to them. raised nearly £100k for WaterAid’s work. After six days in Nepal it was great to see His daughter-in-law, Sushmita Bajgain, 20, how the efforts we had made are really cannot walk well due to her injuries and is making a difference. in pain, spending most of her days under a blanket, on the ground in a makeshift The Nepal Earthquake shelter of metal sheeting propped up with A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal on bits of salvaged wood against the hillside. 25 April 2015, followed by a second Her three-month-old son, not yet named, earthquake measuring 7.4, exacerbating is quiet and content but in badly soiled the damages caused by the first. Together clothing. Her husband, Gokul’s son, is the quakes killed over 9,000 people, and away working in Saudi Arabia. destroyed more than 600,000 homes. Sushmita said: “We haven’t had any The several strong aftershocks caused a illnesses, but I am not able to boil water huge amount of damage and trauma to the for the baby and I can’t look after him country. Seven out of 23 districts, where properly, keep him clean or change his

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clothing. I am able to wash some of his her grain, and her blankets. clothes but not as I did before. “We have paid more than nine lakh [100,000 rupees] for this house. We took My injuries have made it hard for me to a loan for it. Now we are so worried breastfeed my child. We have this tap - and we are staying outside. nearby, so we have water all the time. “My daughters are healthy so far, they We are using our neighbour’s toilet. But it have had no diarrhoea. We really depend is so difficult. We need shelter, and food. on having clean water here. The men “My husband’s father and brother will help mostly don’t work. It’s difficult to look rebuild our house. In everyday life it is after the children and get the water too.” quite hard without my husband, but it has to be managed. In our house, we had a Nepal still faces a long recovery to rebuild water source a little walk away, though it the damage caused by the earthquake. was not well managed. It took only a few WaterAid is one of a number of minutes to walk to the well but I had to organisations working on the ground to collect water three times a day for the help improve the situation for thousands family. We built this house only one year of people. ago and now it’s no more. The house is still standing, but it’s so badly cracked that For just £15 you can help provide one it looks like the slightest breeze might person with a lasting supply of safe water. blow it over.” www.wateraid.org She asks us if we think it’s safe to go in to retrieve her things - her cooking utensils,

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FROM THE EDITOR’S IN-TRAY

Honours and Awards many burn patients. The charity she helped to establish works alongside a Mrs Wendy Marston, Co-founder of BVS- range of partner organisations to Nepal, has been awarded a British Empire rehabilitate survivors of burns violence Medal by Her The Queen in the through an integrated and holistic Birthday Honours List 2015 for her approach, helping survivors live services to survivors of burns in Nepal. empowered and fulfilling lives with dignity. Through training courses, radio, Wendy and her husband Robin, an ex- street drama and other outreach BVS- Gurkha drove overland to Nepal 38 years Nepal also aims to prevent and diminish ago, as he was going to out to run Nepal’s the occurrence of burns in Nepal. first trekking and mountaineering company ‘Mountain Travel’, originally In 2013 BVS-Nepal provided 795 nutrition set-up by Colonel Jimmy Roberts. baskets, helped more than 110 patients Wendy’s first-hand experience of working receive daily counselling, ensured 82 with burns survivors drove her to work survivors received physiotherapy, and tirelessly to improve the quality and delivered plastic and reconstructive provision of burns care in Nepal. surgery to 65 people. BVS-Nepal is Concerned at the conditions she saw in working in 10 hospitals across Nepal. government hospitals, Wendy worked with With approximately 56,000 people doctors at Bir Hospital to support the suffering burn injuries every year in Nepal, creation of the first dedicated burns unit and only 15 plastic surgeons for in Nepal. population of 28 million, there remains much to do. BVS-Nepal and it’s small In 2008, Wendy was helped by her dynamic and dedicated team has also daughter to establish BVS-Nepal. played a significant role in recovery and The charity is dedicated to helping and rebuilding work since the April 25th and supporting survivors of burns, and aims to May 12th earthquakes in 2015. It has been ensure that the best available care and the primary partner on the ground for the treatment is provided to them. BVS-Nepal Nepal Earthquake Recovery Appeal provides medical treatment, counselling, (NERA), a funding appeal that has raised physiotherapy and nutritional support to £325,000 set-up by Alison Marston burns patients. It also provides recreational through the Bulldog Trust, where she is activities for the children in the burn ward Head of Grants and Philanthropy. The fund at Kanti Children’s Hospital. was set up to support the work of local Over the years Wendy has shown selfless grassroots NGO’s working in the local dedication to supporting burns victims. communities affected by the earthquakes, With the support of her family, she has by providing them with grants and conducted extensive fundraising and profiling their work through a series of awareness raising campaigns. Wendy has 12 short films. been personally involved in the care of

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The 2015 Journal frontispiece photograph I was grateful to receive a letter from Col JR Cawthorne concerning the black and white frontispiece photograph in the last journal showing a group of Brigade of Gurkhas COs and Gurkha Majors. From the uniforms I had concluded that this photograph must be pre-WWII. I had discovered this photograph when, as executor to the late Mrs Mayura Brown, I was sorting through her papers. The picture shows Mrs Wendy Marston Subsequently I noted a copy hanging in a being presented with her BEM by corridor in the Kaiser Library in Mr Olisa, Lord Lieutenant of London at Kathmandu. The library suffered the Tower of London. The Society considerable damage as a result of the congratulates Wendy Marston on her well earthquake. Colonel Cawthorne writes: deserved award. “Having done some research into the St Columba’s Lent Appeal 2016 appointments and succession of Nepalese Honorary Colonels and Colonels-in-Chiefs For a number of years the Society has held to Gurkha regiments in British Service, the annual Nepali Supper at St Columba’s I may be able to shed more light on the church hall. Members will be interested to photograph on the front-piece to the learn that St Columba’s Lent Appeal this 2015 Journal and your assumptions in year was directed to help Nepal. The the Editorial. appeal was to help a small overseas charity, House of Hope. Located on the “In 1934, Honorary Lieutenant General outskirts of Kathmandu, House of Hope HH Maharaja Sir Joodha Shumsher Jang (HoH) is a small orphanage (currently 25 Bahadur Rana GCSI GCIE Prime Minister children). HoH ensure that children are and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of cared for and educated in a family Nepal was appointed Honorary Colonel of environment and encourage community all the Regiments of the Gurkha Brigade. and educational skills in the local area. He was the first Maharaja of Nepal to hold The funds raised are to be used for a such an appointment; his predecessors had specific project: Children Basket Fund been Honorary Colonels of 4th Prince of & Income Generation Programme. Funds Wales’s Own Gurkha Rifles. will enable investment in chickens and goats, providing children with nutritional “The following year, Joodha Shumsher food (eggs & milk), and investment in a was invited to Delhi by the Viceroy, Lord kitchen garden. The aim is to help children Willingdon, and on 30th January 1935 develop teamwork, management and received a deputation of British and responsibility. In the event the Appeal Gurkha officers from each of the ten raised £6665.

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Gurkha Regiments, headed by Major and died in Dehra Dun in 1952 at the age General WLO Twiss Military Secretary of 77 years.” and Colonel 9th Gurkha Rifles; which I assume was when this group photograph Britain-Nepal Schools Link was taken. He presented to each of the Ashley Adams writes: “The Society Gurkha Regiments a signed photograph of continues to encourage and support himself, a silver shield and a sum of contact between schools in Britain and money. Dress for the presentation was Nepal to develop the seeds of a new Review Order – Khaki Drill – with orders generation of friendship and mutual and decorations. The sources of this interest between our peoples. information come from the respective In the last journal, the Chairman reported Gurkha regimental histories and the on the Society’s most successful and News Bulletin 2nd King Edward’s Own entertaining Kent Schools “Nepal” Goorkhas 1935. During his visit, he was evening, which I organised in November presented with the sword of a General 2015. A number of the Friendship Link Officer of The British Army from the Schools in Nepal were severely affected Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, by the Earthquake, and it was rewarding Field Marshal Sir Philip Chetwode. that so many British Schools undertook a variety of fundraising events for the “By making him Honorary Colonel of all appeals. New links continue to be forged, the Regiments of the Gurkha Brigade, it is but as so many Nepal schools are remote, assumed that the Government of India was have no internet, and at best erratic seeking his continued support for electricity, exchanges of pupil recruiting Nepalese citizens into its correspondence can be tortuous, and often Gurkha Regiments and in anticipation that rely on helpful on-line contacts in Nepal, Joodha Shumsher might be able to they receive emails and then make long persuade Nepal’s religious leaders to agree journeys into the hills. Solar power is, to Gurkhas once more being able to travel however, beginning to make an impact. overseas without the fear of being out- Despite the expense, and length of travel, caste. This was subsequently achieved, some British Schools are still visiting their with the attendance of Gurkha officers at Nepal counterparts, and find the the Coronation of King George VI and the experience richly rewarding. selection of four Gurkha officers as King’s If you know of any flourishing schools; Indian Orderly Officers in 1938, on the friendship links, or would like any advice understanding that they should return to in setting one up, do contact: Ashley Kathmandu to undergo the ceremony to Adams at: [email protected].” re-admit them to their caste (Pani Patiya). On the outbreak of the Second World War, Himal Southasian Joodha Shumsher not only agreed to a substantial increase in Gurkha recruitment Some readers may have read that Himal but also put the Nepalese Army at the Southasian, founded by Kanak Mani Dixit, disposal of the Government of India. has been forced at least temporarily to He stood down as Prime Minister and cease publication. Supreme Commander-in-Chief in 1945

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The late Robin Garton Post Earthquake Action at UNESCO sites in Kathmandu Members will be sad to learn that Robin Garton, founder of the Glacier Trust, died A team from Durham University is whilst on a solo hike in the Stob Coire working with national experts in nam Beith area of Glencoe in the Scottish Kathmandu as part of UNESCO’s Highlands. Sadly, he fell and died instantly post-disaster and pre-reconstruction whilst on a scrambling route. His death assessment of the Kathmandu World took place on the 25th September 2015. Heritage monuments. His body was found by members of the This will involve ground penetrating radar public on 1st June 2016, over 8 months survey and rescue excavations at three after Robin was reported as missing. major sites and the results of the six week The dedication and bravery shown by all season will inform both planners and members of the mountain rescue teams engineers in advance of the rebuilding and involved in the search was truly humbling. relaying of infrastructure. The trust describes Robin as a generous, Professor Robin Coningham described the kind, and enthusiastic individual, and was work of his team at a lecture to the Society respected and liked by those who met him. in May. I hope to be able publish more of His passion to help those less fortunate this work in subsequent editions of than himself was typified by his diligent the journal. work for the Nepal based charity he For further information, please see founded in 2008, The Glacier Trust. the UN website: His uncanny ability to convert this http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?Ne kind-natured enthusiasm into donations to wsID=52198#.ViDTM5NwZjo help those most in need was inspiring and has, and still does benefit poor, remote, mountain communities of Nepal.The trust has established the Robin Garton Memorial Fund in his memory. Details can be found at: robingartonmemorialfund.org

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Nepalese Tandoori Restaurant

We would like to wish you a very HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year & Merry Christmas

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REVIEW ARTICLE (This review was first published in the 2009 edition of the journal and has been re-produced here to coincide with ‘Nepal 200’. Ed.) John Pemble. Britain’s Gurkha War –The Invasion of Nepal 1814 – 16, which –The Invasion of Nepal, 1814 – 16. is reproduced below: Frontline Books, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd. Barnsley, S. Yorks, UK. “To respected Ean Ramsay, the great- 2008. pp. xv + 398. B&W plates. Maps. great-great-grandson of General Appx. Bibliog. Index. Hb. £19.99. ISBN Ochterlony from the great- great-great- 978 1 84832 520 3. grandcousin of Bhakti Thapa. Two hundred years ago we were enemies, This work was originally published in now we are friends.” 1971 under the title of The Invasion of Nepal – John Company at War by the This was written on the back of a painting Clarendon Press, Oxford. It had become of Bhakti Thapa especially commissioned difficult to obtain with a cost of up to $100 in Nepal by my surrogate Nepali hill man or more. Although the original price was son, Buddhiman Gurung, to Ean Ramsay, £4.50, thought to be expensive by its then the last direct descendant of the Great reviewer Sir Olaf Caroe in the Royal Man. Buddhiman, his wife and I gave it to Society of Asian Affairs journal, Asian Ean Ramsay when we met him in England Affairs, its scarcity had turned it into in 1994. something of a collectors’ item. The In my view, and I have lived with author, John Pemble, had completed a Gurkhas, militarily from 1944 and in spell as a civilian instructor at the Royal Nepal from 1976, almost one-third of the Military Academy Sandhurst (now a senior time of the British-Gurkha connection, it research fellow at Bristol University) and says it all. In straightforward un-poetical used this topic for research which led to words, it captures the mystical dimension initial publication. of the result of the Anglo-Nepal War Lt Col John Cross was approached by which John Pemble so vividly and Frontline Books for suggestions for any accurately describes in this book, arguably books on Nepal and the Gurkhas that they the best written and easiest to read book on could publish. Cross recommended that this subject ever produced. this work be re-published. John Cross, a I have read widely and am of the opinion member of the Society, is possibly the that, had Nepal’s army had the same pre-eminent authority on the history and resources as had the East India Company languages of Nepal. He is the author of and the ‘Royal’, British, Army, artillery many books on the history of the Gurkhas piece for artillery piece, elephant for and Nepal having served in Brigade of elephant et cetera, the British would not Gurkhas throughout his service life since have prevailed. But prevail they did: the 1944, finally retiring to live and study one column that beat the Gorkhas was in there. He was asked to write a forward ‘’ - ‘the new country’ - chiefly for the re-launched book re-titled in Kumaon and Garhwal; the three Britain’s Gurkha War columns that were beaten back from a few

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timorous toe-holds in the Tarai failed to without worrying about one’s life. I do not achieve anything positive. Apart from the know the originator of the quotation but incursion up to Makwanpur (and the Kaji Amarsing Thapa, a relation of Chinese incursion of 1792), Nepal’s heart- , the prime minister, who land cultural, religious and territorial started the Anglo-Nepal War and who also virginity is still unsullied. lost it, is reputed to have used the saying. Amarsing seems not to have There is no doubt that Ochterlony was an approved of the war but, not wanting to excellent commander but as a civil appear against the most powerful man in administrator he was not popular: This is Kathmandu, echoed, but did not originate borne out in letters written by William similar sentiments as expressed by the Linnaeus Gardner, 1770-1835, founder of Sikh, Mokhan Chand, in 1809 when Gardner’s Horse, still an Indian Army unit Ochterlony moved from Delhi to compel now designated 2nd Lancers (Gardner’s the Sikh durbar to give up its recent Horse). In a letter dated 16 September conquests, ‘It is better to die in honour 1820 he wrote: ‘I have no hesitation in than to live in shame’ and later by the saying that the English name is at present Afghan Muzaffar , defender of disgraced. … I wish for the sake of his Multan in 1818, ‘It is more honourable to character, that Sir David would die.’ die fighting than to capitulate without In an undated and earlier letter he wrote: firing a shot’. ‘Sir David is very unpopular here with all natives and all Europeans. Skinner But it is pertinent to ask if, in fact, such a [of Skinner’s Horse fame] told him on motto was ‘binding’? No: the Gorkha taking leave that it was a pity he (Sir D) commander, Bal Bhadra (Bahadur) had not died 16 years ago, for then he Kunwar (a.k.a.Thapa, Singh), at Kalunga would not have left a dry eye in Delhi, but (Nala Pani), gained immortality in that now, were he to die, there would be Nepalese annals by his bravery. His name public rejoicings, and the dhole [drums] is on the reverse of the same memorial that would resound in every house!!!’ was erected to Gillespie. Nepalese history (The Gardner Papers, NAM 6305-56. is silent that Bal Bhadra left the fighting after the battle of Kalunga and Nepalko I have walked well over ten thousand Sainik Itihas (Nepal’s Military History), miles in Nepal, am known to many and published by Headquarters of the Royal have spoken to thousands of Nepalis. Nepal Army, 1992, has it that such It is striking that the motto, ‘It is better to information only came from the British. die than be a coward’, reputedly the motto William Moorcroft, Chief of Stud at Pusa, that has become the motto of all Gurkha recorded in his journal, D248/59ff, that he soldiers to this day, has never once been saw Bal Bhadra killed as he led a Gurkha mentioned. This is, I believe, because it battalion of Ranjit Singh’s army that never was the hill man’s motto. Certainly, attacked the Afghans near Attock, in 1824. the hill Gurkha, like everyone else, does And much more recently, in 1996, not want to lose. What the hill man will the request for the required ‘constitution’ say is that, once there seems no hope of to set up a Gurkha Museum in Kathmandu staying alive, that is when one can fight was turned down by the Chief District

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Officer, his reason being that he would do trying to expand territorially. Likewise, nothing to help turncoats. the problems that were engendered by a ‘baby king’ in 1814 have, sadly in my People ask why the General of view, been all too frequent between then the time did not do more against Nepal and now. than was the case. While this is fully explained by Pemble, it is fair to say that, Those whom Ochterlony was fighting had he, without doubt the remarkable against were only partly men from relations the British and the Nepalis have heartland Nepal. The rigour of the had since the war would never have discipline and hardships encountered had fructified in the way they have. Of a truth, the effect of many of them deserting, first the opposite would have been true. One to Ranjit Singh’s army in Lahore and later proud Nepali boast is that it is still one of to the British. Although there was no the very few countries in Asia that was proof of this, I believe that those men from never a colony, albeit the Government to heartland Nepal thought that the British its south did affect its behaviour. would be able to take them back to their home areas. They were disappointed in Ochterlony’s victory was in a minor war that but the paternalistic attitude of the against a people unknown to those in British officers, the friendliness of the England. Only on India’s northern British soldiers and their own obvious marches were the Nepalis (or Gorkhalis, as superiority to the men from the plains, they were often called) known about. made them realise, probably for the first When the news of Ochterlony’s victory time ever, their value as fighting men. eventually did reach England, the euphoria This factor still pertains. As an aside, of Napoleon’s defeat was still heady in Bhakti Thapa’s weapons are in a cave at military circles. Its significance and the top of a steep mountain and are still long-term implications were totally lost in worshipped twice a year and the language England. And yet, today, not so far off the of the prayers is that of the now-dead two-hundredth anniversary of the Britain- language of the Duras, Bhakti’s mother Nepal connection, more respect is paid to tongue. At last I saw that there were the hill man Gurkha than, again probably, eight swords and five scimitars. to the vanquished of Waterloo. Since being soldiers in the Indian and Prior to the war, the tactics used in ‘the British armies, the Gurkhas’ record has new country’ between 1790 and 1814 were been and is unsurpassed. Just three sedulously copied by the Revolutionaries examples from modern times: without in the opening years of the civil war that them the land war in Burma would not started in the Far West of Nepal in 1996 have been won in 1945, maybe never; but this time the opposition to such was the Emergency in Malaya and insufficient to curb it - the government of Confrontation in Borneo would have the day could not use artillery against its rumbled on for many more years, probably own people. Another similarity is that, in inconclusively; and, with much panache both cases, one man from each house, and efficiency, in Afghanistan and Iraq. willy-nilly, had to serve the army that was

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On another level, too, even when the 1st of from the admixture of Rajputs fleeing Foot was no longer on the British Army’s north to avoid the Mogul invasion of India Order of Battle, the Gurkhas, albeit fewer and Nepal’s ethnic Mongolian inhabitants in number, were retained. And not only and predates them to a much earlier stage that: the Gurkha soldier has a worldwide in the . This well reputation of doing that bit extra for longer researched and thought provoking work and at a higher standard than, probably, makes clear that the Anglo-Nepal War of any other soldier. A high standard brings 1814-16 was fundamental to the its own penalty of expectation and, luckily subsequent relations between the two for Britain and independent India, Gurkhas countries leading to the recruitment of the are fully confident and able to maintain hillmen of Nepal, the Gurkhas first by the that standard to an almost mystical British in India and subsequently their dimension. employment separately by Britain and India. Even so, please read on from here. Pemble’s explicit and engaging writing In 1814 Nepal was a warlike expansionist shows how, against all expectations, this state whose highly efficient army had mystical dimension started.’ already invaded Tibet and now occupied JP Cross the sensitive North West Indian states of Kumaon and Garhwal .Already embroiled The book has attracted reviews from both elsewhere with Sikhs and Maharattas it Col Dennis Wood and Brig Bullock, both was a tricky situation for the surrogate of experienced historians of the Brigade of British power,The Honourable East India Gurkhas, having been serving officers of Company and it took drastic, if reluctant the Brigade and trustees of the Gurkha military steps to solve it. At first it limited Museum. itself to driving the Nepalese army out of the territories they had occupied and when Brig Bullock writes: this did not curb Nepal’s militaristic tendencies by invading Nepal itself. ‘This scholarly and erudite book throws a Clearing the Nepalese out of the territories particularly interesting slant on the causes they had occupied was a major of The Anglo –Nepal war and the warrior undertaking involving large numbers of state of Nepal which provoked it as well as King’s Service British troops and East covering the war itself in fascinating India Company sepoys but even so met detail. Most books about the causes of the with mixed success most of the columns war tend to follow the line that because being baulked by the determined Gurkha Nepal had occupied territories claimed by resistance. Fortunately in General the British East India Company war Ochterlony, his energy in no way abated resulted whereas Pemble looks much by the possession of two Indian wives and deeper in his quest for the reasons behind numerous progeny, the British had a leader it which were complex and owed as much of real quality in stark contrast to some of to personalities as politics . He also his fellow column commanders. His diverges from the commonly held view column’s victory in the first campaign was that the ruling class of Nepal originated enough to convince the Nepalese to agree

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to a negotiated settlement which they HEIC’s hierarchy knew very little about subsequently renounced believing, Nepal, and no one could have foreseen the erroneously, that the British were war’s future effects. Moreover it must over extended. have been eclipsed by the threat from the nearby French bêtes noires with their chief Ochterlony’s masterly conduct of the ogre’s escape from Elba and the crucial second campaign, the invasion of Nepal battle of Waterloo taking place in the itself, was a desperate race against the middle of it. Yet its consequences, onset of monsoon conditions and makes unimaginable at the time, have been of for compulsive reading. This second huge value to both Britain and Nepal. campaign, no longer bedevilled by the From it have followed 200 years of foibles and inadequacies of fellow alliance and friendship between the two commanders, showed just how quickly nations which provided peace in an Ochterlony had transformed his East India important frontier region of India and Company army after the first bitter extraordinary military support for Britain experience of being confronted by the ever since, including the long hard times formidable fighting power of the Gurkha of two World Wars beside the Indian army and its charismatic leaders. What Mutiny of 1857-58 when the going was distinguished the fighting throughout was also tough. In short, Britain has gained that despite its severity both sides behaved incalculable value from Gurkha soldiers with exceptional civility in regard to who have been enlisted for service under prisoners and wounded founded on a the Crown since 1815. Even now the mutual respect that has continued to the British army has nearly 4,500 Gurkhas in present day. its infantry, engineer, signals and logistics forces. In return, Nepal has also had great Colonel John Cross who writes the benefit from the inward flow of money, Foreword is probably the greatest living education and training of its people and an expert on the Gurkha state having spent external source of employment for a his entire adult life with them first as a country where jobs were once few except Gurkha officer and then as an inhabitant of in domestic agriculture and basic trades. Nepal itself. It is thus not surprising that he sets the scene so subtly for this Dr Pemble, a Senior Research Fellow at fascinating book.’ Bristol University and once on the staff at Sandhurst is an historian and author of Col Wood writes: wide interests and considerable skill. Here he describes the invasion of Nepal ‘The Nepal War could have been of very with clarity and accuracy in just over half little interest to the British public at the the book’s content, and adds extra value by time. It was fought in a remote part of the devoting almost a third of the book to world where British interests were then setting the scene in some detail for about controlled and managed by the 50 years or more prior to 1814. In this Honourable East India Company (HEIC), lead-in he gives lucid and interesting motivated as a trading organisation, rather descriptions and comments on the Gurkha than by the British Government. Even the people, their depredations and annexation

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of their neighbours’ lands, their quarrel and desertion. Importantly, the book also with the British, the geography and the describes the circumstances and origins of truth about Himalayan trade and the recruiting those Gurkhas and other hillmen Bengal army. His analysis of of the size who formed the 1st & 2nd Nusseree, and state of the Company’s and British Sirmoor and Kemaoon Battalions in April forces over several decades is an 1815; three of which later became the 1st, eye-opener and very helpful to a reader 2nd, and 3rd Gurkha Rifles. One of those trying to understand why they soften original recruits was senior Subedar in the performed poorly during the operations of Sirmoor Battalion, during the Indian 1814-16. Officers and men: their numbers, Mutiny 42 years later. Morale, organisation, dress, equipment, pay, promotion systems, age and service, This is a definitive account of a relatively training and the enervating effects of obscure war from which sprang the shoots the Indian climate are among the topics of that wonderful alliance and friendship covered and they make fascinating between Britain and Nepal which has been reading. of huge benefit to both countries for nearly 200 years. It is not only a splendid Although the Nepal war brought British historical record which everyone interested victory in the end, it was a sorry tale of in Gurkhas and in India should have for many military failures. John Pemble reference but good reading and excellent describes the strategy and tactics, the value for money as well.’ problems caused by immensely difficult terrain, and the qualities of people on both As both the reviews above fully sides including those of the opposing demonstrate, there is a great deal of very commanders (most of the senior British detailed information contained within this ones proving to be inept). There are good work. Members who attended will long descriptions of the invading columns, their remember Pemble’s thought provoking opponents and their success and failures; lecture that he delivered to the Society in although it is a pity that the black & white March. He postulated that at the time the maps show only the basic geography and British were, may be subconsciously, not the columns’ routes or the sites of their looking for heroes as their empire actions. The Bengal Army and the British developed across the world. The text of the regiments revealed major shortcomings in lecture has been printed in the November several ways for mountain warfare in 2009 edition of Asian Affairs, the journal inaccessible places. Bur fortunately for of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. Britain, as is often the case, most of the This is not a book to read on a flight to officers and men endured hardship, Kathmandu. It deserves serious study and dangerous living and fighting with will serve as an outstanding source for admirable courage and fortitude. They reference for the origins of the British - were said to have suffered 3,000 battle Gurkha connection and the history of casualties besides 2,000 lost from sickness that time.

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BOOK REVIEWS

The Gurkhas – 200 Years of Service to contributed an introduction about the the Crown. By Major General JC Trust’s work. HRH The Prince of Wales Lawrence. Uniform Press Ltd. 2015. Pp has written a forward as patron of the Trust xii +241. Illus, colour & B&W photos. in which he takes a serious and active Bibliog. Appx. Notes. Index. Hb. £30. interest. I can best endorse this work by ISNB 978-1-910500-02-6. quoting him: ‘As the pictures in the book show, the standards, traditions and spirit of This work, a pictorial history of the the Gurkhas have given a great deal to our Brigade of Gurkhas, has been written as country, and they have stood by us in our part of the celebrations that marked the time of need. I commend both this book 200 year-old connection between the and the charity to you in this notable two Gurkhas of Nepal and their military hundredth year of loyal and dedicated service to Great Britain. Even before the Gurkha service.’ All royalties go to the end of the Anglo-Nepal War in 1816, the GWT and the book can be purchased British officers of the Honourable East through the Gurkha Museum. India Company (HEIC) had begun GDB recruiting their erstwhile enemies, the tough hill men from the Nepal highlands. A Yak in the Fridge. By Col John Despite the war an unusual respect had Dickinson and family. Xulon Press. 2016. grown up between the opposing sides. Pp 222. Illus, colour photos. Maps. The book is in a coffee table format and Bibliog. Appx. Index. Pb (& ebook). ISBN has been lavishly illustrated. It does not 978-1-498461-22-1.Available via Amazon, purport to be a detailed history as Xulon Press & Castle Hill Bookshop, Bullocks’s Britain’s Gurkhas (see review in Richmond, N Yorks. Journal Edn 33, 2009), but is a broad sweep of the Brigade’s history in visual This interesting work written by Dickinson format from first beginnings using an with contributions by his family describes excellent selection of illustrations. his medical career very largely based in The chapters are laid out chronologically Nepal. Having qualified as a doctor and from 1814 to 2015. These are followed by motivated by a strong Christian faith he a number of ‘Special Interest Sections’ was sent out by the United Mission to which include details on the place of Nepal (UNM). His timeframe is from 1969 bagpipes and tartans as worn in the when the family first arrived to visits made Brigade, ‘Khud, or hill racing, Bands, up to 2015 post earthquake. His first Paratroopers, details of VCs won and the appointment was as Consultant Physician ‘Gurkha Kukri’. The appendices list Battle (aged 29) at the Shanta Bhawan Hospital Honours, the current Brigade ‘ORBAT’ in Patan. and details of the Gurkha Museum and the The first priority, set by the hospital, was Gurkha Welfare Trust (GWT). Joanna to concentrate on learning Nepali rather Lumley, a vice patron of the GWT, has than practising immediately. He maintains

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that the first year at Shanta Bhawan was Woolwich, Catterick and Cyprus and the hardest of his life needing to come to finishing as Head of Postgraduate Medical terms with practising in such relatively Education at the Royal Defence Medical primitive conditions, coping with the College. Other chapters look at changes language and family domestic and development on Nepal over time. arrangements. Those who have lived and The annexes include articles written by worked in Nepal at that time will readily Dickinson for the British Medical Journal. recognise the problems the Dickinsons Amongst the others I particularly enjoyed faced. The book is full of amusing and the one describing his experience in 1981 telling anecdotes about the patients and running around the then relatively traffic people and their travels around Nepal told free ring road. This very much accorded with great warmth and insight. with the experience of my seven-year old He describes dealing with the stream of son when he was taken along the road by hippies who travelled to Nepal in the 70s. my orderly on his bicycle! I suspect there Poor sanitation and ‘hash’ were common may well be a few members who have problems, the latter causing consternation been treated by Dr Dickinson on their when it was necessary to restrain patients travels around Nepal. I recommend this suffering the effects of drugs. (I know this book as a good read, especially for those from personal experience as duty officer at of us who have known Nepal over the last the embassy in the 90s!). The book fifty years or so. consists of chapters dealing with various GDB aspects of Dickinson’s life and interests Burnett of Borneo – Major-General EJS which include high altitude medicine and ‘Bunny’ Burnett CB, DSO, MC. By the establishment of a medical teaching Rupert Litherland. Litherland & facility. He was the first Medical Director Sons.2016. Pp 212. Illus B&W.Maps. of the Patan Hospital 1982-86. Somewhat Drawings.Bibliog. Glossary. surprisingly, as he himself recognises, ISBN 978 0 9576204 1 4.£12.50 (incl p &.). he joins the army and is commissioned This work can be purchased directly into the RAMC. Since he was not a GP he through Rupert Litherland, could not be appointed as Regimental email: [email protected]. Medical Officer (RMO) to a Gurkha unit but good use was made of his knowledge of Litherland, a former officer of 10th Nepal and Nepali. He went out to Pokhara Gurkha Rifles, has undertaken some for the recruiting process and was also serious research into the life and times of involved in a field hospital the first Gulf one of the most decorated Brigade of War. There he came across the Gurkha Gurkhas officers of recent times. Burnett contingent for Gulf War I which consisted left little in terms of records and was not largely of elements of the Gurkha greatly interested in writing about his own Transport Regiment and the Brigade Band distinguished career. Litherland, rightly, (deployed as medical orderlies. These two thought that his service should be made units formed an ambulance squadron.) known to a wider audience and Although only expecting to serve for 3-4 particularly in respect of the history of the years, he ended up serving thirteen years. 10th Gurkha Rifles, to the extent that this Postings included military hospitals at work has been privately published.

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Burnett was born into a well-to-do commission into the Hampshire Regiment doctors’s family in Southampton. Both his was gazetted in December 1945. With the elder brothers were set to follow the end of the war and the forthcoming family medical line but early on John independence of India, units were being opted to follow a different path, possibly disbanded which included 4/4th GR. into the Royal Navy. He was educated at Burnett went to the 4th GR Centre at Kelly College, a public school on the edge Bakloh. He was on leave in England in of Dartmoor. Poor eyesight precluded any August 1947 and on return to the Indian thoughts of a naval career. subcontinent was for a time CO 2/8th GR In 1939 John was articled to a firm of in Lahore prior to its handover to an Indian accountants for which he was not really officer. Litherland describes the confusion suited. The possibility of war was and difficulties facing former Indian Army increasing. At the age of eighteen he officers transferring to British service at enlisted into the 5/7th battalion of the this time with the new post-war conditions Hampshire Regiment, Territorial Army. He and the somewhat half-hearted attitude had prior knowledge of the eye sight ‘test displayed by the government and the War card’ which he memorised in order to get Office of the time. (Plus ca change!). through the medical. Soon after attending Burnett found himself as a company the annual camp the battalion was commander in Hong Kong with 2/10th mobilised. After various adventures in the GR. Whilst in Hong Kong Burnett got ranks, Burnett was sent, in April 1941, married to Jane whom he had first met in for officer training and on commissioning Calcutta. His next move was to Malaya he elected for service with the Gurkha where 2/10th were engaged in the Malayan Brigade of the Indian Army. Like many of emergency. However elements of 2/10th his generation who joined the Indian GR were called to Singapore to help quell Army, this marked the start of a long what became known as the ‘Maria career in the Far East (notably the Burma Hertogh’ riots. The dispute was about campaign) followed by the horrors of the custody of a child originally brought up as partition of India, the Malayan emergency a catholic by Dutch Eurasian parents in and ‘Confrontasi’ with Indonesia. On Java from whom she became separated as joining his battalion 4/4th Gurkha Rifles, a result of the Japanese invasion. Latterly he found himself occupied with coastal she had been brought up by a Malay defence duties and it was not until 1944 (Islamic) family then living in NE Malaya. that the 4/4th were dispatched to Burma on A complicated custody battle ensued active service. By this time ‘Bunny, as he which stirred up the Christians in had become known was a company Singapore as she had been quickly married commander, the youngest in his unit. off to a Malay husband. All this was It was in May 1945 that Bunny’s company against UK and Dutch law. This small was involved in very sharp action that incident had echoes around the world as resulted in the award of the MC to Bunny Litherland explains. The army was and the IDSM to one of his junior NCOs, deployed ‘in aid of the civil power’ in a Lance Naik Narbahadur Limbu. It was classic urban internal security role. These around this time that Bunny decided to operations can be very tricky as they are become a regular officer. His regular difficult to understand and passions run

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high with the possibility of violence The next few years were rather sad as his getting out of hand. Burnett’s company marriage broke up. In 1957 he was again was sent from Johore Bahru just over the posted to HQ British Gurkhas India, this causeway from Singapore. The detail of time for duty at the British embassy in events and the aftermath are well Kathmandu. He was the first ‘military described. Burnett ordered his troops to attaché’ and his character featured in Han open fire on the rioters who were calling Su Yin’s novel The Mountain is Young. for “British blood”. This had the desired He lived in the Royal Hotel run by the effect but as in all these incidents a legendary Boris Lissanovitch and his wife detailed inquiry followed and was rather Inger. After this tour he found himself as inconclusive in respect of the military Brigade Major, Brigade of Gurkhas back response. At the end of his tour in Malaya in Malaya. With the end of the Malayan which included the Singapore incident, Emergency the War office were looking Burnett was awarded a Mention-in- for the inevitable defence cuts Despatches. He may have been lucky but (Plus ca change!). As staff officer to the no record has come to light concerning the Major General, then the formidable detail of this award. Maj-Gen Walter Walker he played his part in defending possible cuts to the overall His next posting was to Calcutta in what Gurkha strength (then some 16,000). was then known as HQ British Gurkhas Walker was clearly well satisfied with India. This HQ was responsible for Burnett’s work as he was posted to 1/10 running the line of communications GR as 2IC and CO designate. It was this needed to permit recruits and leave tour of operational duty that would be the parties to travel to & from Nepal from highlight of Burnett’s career. Although the Malaya/Singapore/Hong Kong, transit CTs of Malaya had been defeated and with facilities were needed in India. proposed changes in the newly forming Arrangements for this were part of the Malaysia, President Sukarno of Indonesia 1947 Tripartite Agreement. However India sought to take advantage of this, resulting was left-leaning and communists were in what became known as ‘Confrontation’ asking why India was supporting troops or ‘Confrontasi’. This, at least temporarily, engaged against the communist insurgency had the effect of delaying potential cuts to in Malaya. Negotiations to transfer Gurkha Brigade strength. He was to have facilities to Nepal were started and as the two very successful operational tours in only staff officer in the HQ, Burnett played Sabah and Sarawak. For the first he was a leading part in this. It was the first of awarded an MID and for the second a what would be three tours of duty in the L DSO. Litherland goes into some details of of C. This work led to the eventual the conduct of these operations and it is establishment of Dharan, Paklihawa and clear that Burnett was a wily operator who eventually Pokhara and Kathmandu. somehow was able to anticipate enemy For his work in preparing for the new intentions. However this was not the end arrangements he was awarded the MBE. of operations as the Indonesians opened a In addition he was awarded the Star of second front by parachuting troops onto Nepal (Class IV) by the King of Nepal. the Malaysian mainland. Burnett’s He returned to regimental duty in Malaya. battalion were first onto this and killed

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some 24 enemy parachutists and capturing SHORT NOTICE another 27 but with the loss of one British officer and one NCO. The award of the A Face Like a Chicken’s Backside. OBE followed. In 1966 he was promoted By JP Cross. The History Press. Stroud, to Colonel and was for a short time a UK. 2015. Pp 244. Illus B&W photos. Map. College Commander at Sandhurst. It was Index.Pb. £13.99. ISBN 978 0 7509 6437 1. during this time that he met and married his second wife. This was quickly The History Press has re-published one of followed by his appointment to command Colonel JP Cross’s autobiographical 48 Gurkha Brigade in Hong Kong. works. This was originally published in On completion he was posted for his third 1996 by Greenhill Books/Leventhal Ltd. tour of duty in Nepal on the L of C as It describes his career of 38 years as a Commander British Gurkhas Nepal. His British officer with Gurkhas. In this final appointment was as Major General addition he has added a contemplative Brigade of Gurkhas which was in effect tail-piece that looks back over fifty years deputy commander of troops in Hong and wonders whether it was all worth it. Kong for which he was awarded the CB. Reviews of the first publication include: His was an unusual military career. To rise The Economist: ‘One of those gifted, to two star rank without attending any staff dedicated eccentrics that the British Army college was astonishing. But as Litherland has the habit of spawning.’ points out his career was well away from Asian Affairs. Journal of the Royal Society what was then the mainstream army, so for Asian Affairs: ‘This is the best book much geared to the cold war in Europe. about jungle fighting that I have read. As is usually the case in military life, there There are people like him in every army - is always an element of luck and of being a brilliant Roman “Centurion” leading his in the right place at the right time, as well 100 men, fiercely defending their interests as ability. In Burnett’s case all three played but unable to adapt to the hierarchical a part. Litherland has written, researched structure which an army must have if it is and produced an interesting and sensitive going to win wars. Men like Cross win account of a distinguished career of which battles but they cannot conceal their will be of great interest to military readers. contempt for their more conventional GDB superior officers.’ Major General RL Clutterbuck CB CBE.

This edition can be purchased through The History Press, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, GL5 2QG.

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OBITUARIES

Barbara Adams 1931 – 2016 sold for a considerable sum to Swedish businessman. She was finally granted Members may not have seen the Nepali citizenship in 2009 following the fall announcement of Barbara Adams’s death of the monarchy and the ending of the and obituary in the Daily Telegraph earlier Maoist rebellion. In February she had a in the year. Although not a Society member, serious heart attack and died two months she was a rather exotic figure of the later on 24th April after the earthquake. Kathmandu expat community in the early Those of us who lived or visited 1960s and 1970s. Adams was born in New Kathmandu in her heyday will remember York and after university in the USA she her driving around in a white open-topped took up journalism and wrote for Mondo Sunbeam sports car, her long hair blowing Nuovo, an Italian magazine. She was asked in the breeze! to go to Kathmandu to cover the visit of the GDB Queen in 1961. Not able to get a flight she arrived after the visit had been completed. Lord Chorley 1930 – 2016 In those days the centre of expat activity, not to say gossip, centred on the famous Roger Chorley, 2nd Chorley was the Yak & Yeti bar in the Royal Hotel, run by son of an academic lawyer, Robert Chorley. Boris and Inger Lissanovitch. It was there He has been described as a mountaineer, she met Prince Basundhara. Younger environmentalist and accountant. His father brother of King Mahendra, the Prince was was sent to the House of Lords by Clement estranged from his Nepali wife and was Attlee following an unsuccessful attempt at much taken by the attractive young becoming an MP in 1945. Roger Chorley American. She became what was known as was a longstanding member of the Society ‘a royal consort’, recognised by Nepali law, but due to his very busy life was not often and moved into the Palace. For the next 15 able to attend. His interest in Nepal came years she accompanied Prince Basundhara about as a result of mountaineering to all official functions apart from those activities started at Cambridge where he held in the Palace. She helped to open up Nepal to the developing tourist trade by founding ‘Third Eye Tourism and Travel’. Her subsequent life was inevitably affected by both Palace and national politics especially after the death of Prince Basundhara in 1977 and when King Birendra became king. She was twice deported and had to sell jewellery given to her by the Prince to continue to live. She had built up a collection of Nepalese and Indian art and Bhutanese textiles which she

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read natural sciences and economics at although only just over 23,000 feet it is a Gonville & Caius College. He joined the striking feature. It was a very technical accountancy firm Coopers & Lybrand, later climb that was hard to achieve. Price Waterhouse Coopers and his talent for The condition was honoured and no other committee work became apparent. As he attempts have been made on this mountain gained experience he was in demand to as far as is known. (The text of this talk was serve on a number of high level committees written by the late Charles Wylie and and organisations. He was chairman of the published in Edition No 24 of the journal. National Trust 1991-1996. He contributed Ed.). Nonetheless Chorley recovered but to many public bodies including the British was not able climb to such heights again. Council, the Top Salaries Review Body, the Chorley made a significant contribution to National Environment Research Council British public life for which he will long be and the Royal Commission on the Press remembered. (A full obituary can be found amongst others. He made significant in The Times of 8th April 2016.) contribution also in the House of Lords as a GDB hereditary peer, retiring in 2014. He was a keen and enthusiastic geographer serving Dr Penny Cunningham on the Council of the RGS for ten years and as President 1987-1990. He was heavily Dr Penny Cunningham, a founder member involved in the early stages of the of the Britain-Nepal Medical Trust died in development of the Geographical July 2015 after a long illness. In April 1968 Information Science & Systems (GIS). she was one of eleven young men and Undoubtedly his interest in geography women who set out from England in three stemmed from his love of mountaineering. landrovers to drive to Nepal, 7,000 miles Sadly it was in Nepal that he contracted away in the Himalayas. They were the first polio in 1957 whilst on an expedition to medical team of the newly formed trust, climb Machapuchare. With him on this epic the brainchild of John and Penny climb were Col Jimmy Roberts, Col Cunningham. The success of their Charles Wylie, Wilfred Noyce and Noyce’s tuberculosis control work encouraged the climbing partner, Don Cox. Chorley was establishment of the National Tuberculosis carried in a basket back to hospital by Control Programme in Nepal. BNMT was porters. As was so often the case at that also the first charity to train community time, his limbs were badly damaged and health volunteers and establish reliable medication not much developed which supplies of essential medicines across the precluded further serious mountaineering. whole of eastern Nepal, into the most In 2000 he spoke to the Society, with remote health posts and clinics. What a Charles Wylie about this climb in a very tremendous legacy that that first medical emotional talk. Permission for the climb team left and what an inspiration they have had been given by the Nepalese been to those who followed after. government on condition that the top most (Dr Cunningham was a member of the part of the summit was to remain unclimbed Society. This tribute appeared in the on cultural and religious grounds. 2014/15 BNMT annual report. Ed) Machapuchare will be well known by members who have visited Pokhara as

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Alan Durston 1929 – 2016 Professor David Snellgrove 1920 – 2016

The Society was sad to learn of the death Professor Snellgrove was one of the early early in the year of Alan Durston. Alan and scholars of the languages and history of his wife Patricia became members of the India and Tibet. He was not a member of Society following a visit they made together the Society though older members may well to Nepal in 1981. Alan discovered have read some of his early works, hill-walking in his early professional life as published in the 1950s and 1960s, in an an escape from a busy office life. Like effort to discover more of the region which many others before him he graduated to the had been closed for so long. He and Alps, particularly in Austria, joining the Professor Von Fuhrer Haimondorf were the Austrian Alpine Club. His first venture pioneers in this field having early access to outside Europe was to Nepal with his wife, the more remote parts of Nepal. There were Patricia. They went on an early walking few books written about the area at this tour organised by Bales Tours in 1981, a time unlike the present day when there small party of twelve which included, seems to be an increasing number of Patricia remembers, a member of the Bales scholars and authors studying this part of family. The walk (now the activity known the world. He was born in Portsmouth, the as ‘trekking’) was in the Pokhara area son of a Royal Naval officer and educated below Annapurna. The people and the at Christ’s Hospital and Southampton Himalayan scenery made a lasting University where he read French and impression upon Alan to the extent that they German. In 1941 he was conscripted into joined the Society. Many Society members the Royal Engineers and then found himself are imbued to join as a result of their work, in intelligence work in the War Office. may be diplomats, military, aid, teaching or He applied to go to India but found voluntary work; in Alan’s case it was one problems with the climate in Barrackpore visit which made such a lasting impression. so was medically evacuated to Lebong , Throughout his remaining life they Darjeeling. It was whilst there that he continued to travel and made some seven developed an interest in Tibetan, visiting visits to various regions across the Buddhist monasteries in the area. Himalaya including the Hindu Kush, The climate continued to affect him (shades Uzbekistan and Tibet. Patricia particularly of Hodgson?), contracting malaria he remembers their drive along the Karakoram returned to Kalimpong. Later he took the Highway and walking across the frontier opportunity to visit Buddhist sites in into China. Both Alan and Patricia were Ceylon. He took leave and visited Sikkim strong supporters of the Society. where he met the ICS political officer, Alan served on the committee and was Sir Basil Gould, who had represented the Treasurer 1990-1996. British Government at the enthronement of As a result of his travels Alan became a the Dalai Lama in 1940. He planned to join Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society the ICS but impending Indian independence and wrote a number of published articles frustrated him in this endeavour. for travel journals. The Society will miss He decided to study Tibetan but no such his support. course existed. Instead he studied GDB under Professor Harold Bailey at Queen’s

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College Cambridge. (Sir Harold Bailey’s History of Tibet. They formed a trust at legacy lives on in Cambridge. His extensive Tring in Hertfordshire which is now the library has been preserved in his former Institute of Buddhist Studies. He drove out Victorian residence, Brooklands House, to India via Afghanistan, visiting Bamiyan. through The Ancient India & Iran Trust. His studies took him to Bhutan and Sikkim. Ed.). On completion of his degree he was His academic career developed and he was appointed to the post of lecturer in Tibetan elected to the British Academy. He served at SOAS. In 1953 he was granted a year’s on the Papal Secretariat for non-Christian study leave but the Chinese invasion of religions. He became involved in UNESCO Tibet meant that travel was no longer projects and lectured in Germany and the possible so he travelled to the Tibetan USA. When Ladakh was opened to foreign speaking area of India to Spiti and Lahul for visitors in 1974 he spent much time six weeks of field work before moving to studying religious festivals. He was Kalimpong taking a young Sherpa as guide appointed Professor in 1978, retiring in and companion. They worked together for 1982. In retirement he developed an interest the next ten years. They researched the in Cambodia, in particular Angkor Wat and cities of the Kathmandu valley resulting the Khmer civilisation. In 2014 a senior Buddhist Himalaya published in 1957. lecturer ship was named after him. (A full They were granted access to the remote obituary can be found in The Daily north-western area of Dolpo, adjacent to the Telegraph of 19th April 2016.) Tibetan (Chinese) frontier, which had not GDB been researched. This took seven months. The record of his travels and research was Brigadier AB (Tony) Taggart MC published in Himalayan Pilgrimage in 1918 – 2016 1961. [Sam and Anne Cowan followed largely in Snellgrove’s footsteps and quoted Tony and his twin sister, Pam, were born in from this work in their description of their Shanghai where their father worked in the treks in Dolpo in 2002 and 2009. Little had Chartered Bank. After his father’s various changed. See journal editions no 27 & postings in the Far East Tony was sent back 28].Further explorations in Dolpo resulted to UK to boarding school as was the norm in another seminal work Four Lamas of in those days. At Marlborough College he Dolpo. He brought back to UK a group of joined the Cadets and from there attended Tibetan monks, one of whom had lost a leg Sandhurst. He opted for the Indian Army whilst escaping from Tibet. Their and initially went to Ambala. He joined 2nd appearance on the streets of UK in Tibetan Battalion 3rd Gurkha Rifles (2/3 GR) at dress caused them to be the centre of much Wana on the North West Frontier. His attention which they did not relish. They division moved to the Middle East and had to be provided with suits by an English Taggart saw action in Iraq before his unit tailor! Snellgrove was appointed Reader in was moved to Egypt. They were heavily Tibetan at SOAS in 1961. He became involved in the battle of El Alamein and he involved with the Tibetan refugees who had was fortunate not to have been wounded or settled in India and worked with Hugh taken prisoner at that stage as 2/3 GR were Richardson, the last UK diplomatic Head of overrun by the German advance. Later in Mission in Lhasa , and wrote A Cultural 1943 he was mentioned in dispatches.

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After the Allied success in North Africa Queen. On retirement he worked in the Taggart’s unit took part in the advance FCO in London. He was a keen through Italy. On 13th July his company photographer and trekked in Nepal. On one was ordered to capture a strategic strong- occasion he was briefly faced by a tiger in point at Citta di Castello north of Perugia the jungle, looking to his bearer for his gun before a major battalion attack on the main he discovered that he had climbed a nearby objective of Monte delle Gorgacce. tree! Older members will remember him as Taggart’s company came under heavy our Society Chairman from 1978 to 1984, machine gun fire which resulted in the loss later being appointed a vice-president. of his three platoon commanders. In latter years he lived in a flat in London Notwithstanding they captured two and finally as he aged he moved into prisoners and five machine guns and the Knellwood War Memorial home inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. in Farnborough. The company then endured some three GDB hours of shelling and mortar fire. Taggart was severely wounded in the leg as a result (I am grateful to Heather Taggart, Tony’s but refused to be evacuated until he was niece, and the Daily Telegraph for able to handover his company. He was information for this piece. Ed.) awarded an immediate MC for his courage and inspiring leadership. He was evacuated Dr Peter Trott (1934 - 2015) to UK to the Royal Infirmary, Liverpool as his wound was so serious that for a time The Society was shocked and saddened to amputation was feared. He suffered pain for learn of the unexpected death of Peter Trott the remainder of his life as some shrapnel who had recently handed over after ten could not be removed. In 1947, on Indian years as the Society’s treasurer. Peter was a Independence when the Brigade of Gurkhas longstanding member of the Society and was split between the British and Indian had kindly volunteered to take on this task Armies, Taggart was transferred to 1st /2nd which he did with his own inimitable style. Goorkha Rifles with whom he served in Peter’s interest in Nepal stemmed from his Singapore and Malaya until 1950 before national service as the Regimental Medical again transferring to 2nd 6th Gurkha Rifles. Officer (RMO) of 2nd /7th Gurkha Rifles During this period of service he was again (2/7 GR) in Singapore in 1961/62. Whilst in recognised and awarded a mention in 2/7 GR he was given the opportunity to trek dispatches. After a tiour of duty as Brigade in east Nepal and visit the British Military Major Brigade of Gurkhas he took Hospital (BMH) that had recently been command of 2nd/10th Gurkha Rifles. After established to support the staff of HQ command he was appointed to be British British Gurkha Lines of Communication in Gurkha Liaison Officer at the War Office. Dharan. Although he enjoyed his time with On promotion to brigadier he was the Gurkhas, his time in Singapore was to successively Commander 48 Gurkha result in a life-changing and life-threatening Brigade in Hong Kong, Commander British event. As a result of swimming in the sea Gurkha Lines of Communication in Dharan off Singapore he contracted a serious form and finally Defence Attache in Seoul. From of polio which at that time was not curable. 1970 to 1973 he was appointed ADC to the The salk vaccine had not then been

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discovered. He was extremely ill and his stories. He clearly had a great way with mother flew out to be with him which was a people both as a friend, a colleague held in huge boost to his morale at that time. He high respect and a family man. To have was flown back to UK in an iron lung to been so badly affected by polio so early in Stoke Mandeville Hospital. It was here that his life but to have achieved so much with he met his first wife. He spent time at such good humour shows his outstanding Headley Court to help with his recovery but character and ability and who will be much he never got back his mobility and spent missed by so many whose lives he touched. much of the remainder of his life severely GDB disabled and largely wheelchair-bound. (I am grateful to Dr John Rickett Peter was born in Tehran in 1934, as at that and Mr Toby Turl for information for this time his father, who was in the diplomatic piece. Ed.) service, was serving on the embassy staff. He later rose to become British Ambassador Dr. Charles McDougal to Saudi Arabia. As was the custom, Peter 1930 to 2016 was sent to boarding school at Repton. He Dr. Charles McDougal PhD passed away made quite an impression there and later at peacefully on 11 May 2016 in Kathmandu. Cambridge, as those of us who attended Always known as Chuck, he was a leading Peter’s memorial service learnt. He was tiger ecologist, conservationist, researcher keen footballer, playing in goal for school and writer, who pioneered responsible teams. After reading medicine at St John’s wildlife tourism standards in South Asia. College he went on to train at Guy’s He is survived by his devoted wife Margie, Hospital. Following his national service and and children Robert, Juan Carlos, Malcolm only partial recovery from polio a change of and Linda. career direction was necessary. The only Originally from Colorado USA, Chuck first possible medical option was to become a came to the subcontinent as an pathologist. This entailed a good deal of anthropologist studying the Juang tribal additional study. He became an expert in his peoples in Orissa in eastern India and field, pioneering and establishing a undertook the definitive study on the technique known as ‘fine needle aspiration’ Kulunge Rai in Nepal. Inspired by the used in the diagnosis of various types of jungle life of Jim Corbett’s books, cancer. He became known both nationally and internationally in his field, acknowledged by his appointment as ! President of the Society of Cyto-pathology. As his career developed he worked at $$$ $prestigious$ hospitals such as St Stevens Fulham, the Royal Marsden and probably $ $$ the most famous private hospital, the London Clinic. After his first marriage he !!!!!!! !met his second ! wife,! Sue, !!with whom he !!!!!!!lived! for !! some eleven! years. From! all those !!!!!!!!! who attended!!!! his!! memorial service!! it was !!) clear that he ;was a great!! character, full of !!!!!!! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!! ! ! 74 !!!!!!!!!! !!!! ! ! !!!!!!!! !!!! !! !!!! !!!!!!!!!!! ! !! !!!!! !!!!!!! - !!!!!! G!! !! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !! ! ! ! !! ! ! !! !!!!K6*1;#)2!C4!=&)!!!! M!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! !! !! !!!! !!!!!!!!!! !!! ! !! !!!!! ! !! !!!!!!!!!! ! !! !!! !! !!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! ! ! !! ! ! !!!!!! ! !!!!! ! ! ! ! !!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!" !! S !!!!! !!!! !!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! !!!! !!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! !!!!! ! ! ! !!!!!! !!!!!! ! !!!!!!!!!!! !!! !!! !!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!! ! ! !! !!!!!! !! !!!!!!!! !!!! !! ! !!!!!!!! E! 1! !!!-!! ! !!!!!!!- ! !;! !!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! !! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! !!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!! !!!! ! !! !!! !!!!!!!!!!! ! !! !! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! ! !! ! !!!!! !! ! !!! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!! !!! ! !

, !!!!!!!!!! ! ! !!3 !! 2 !!! P!! !!!!!!!!! !! !!! !!! !!!! !! !!!!!! ! !!!!!!! !! !! !! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!6!! *!!! & !!!! !!'!!!!

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Chuck switched his attention to tigers, Chuck’s Nikon F2 camera had an accessory initially to hunting then soon to research electronic shutter release, which he wired to and conservation, based in Nepal a switch in a homemade pressure plate, since the early 1960s. Chuck was a strategically placed on a path known to be dedicated and self-effacing man with a used by tigers patrolling their territory. Built gentle and modest manner, widely from two wooden planks, compression respected for his uncompromising springs held the electrical contact apart. approach to tiger conservation, and exacting The pressure pad was buried in a shallow standards for wildlife tourism. depression so that when a heavy animal As Director of Wildlife of Tiger Tops stepped on the wooden pad the battery- Jungle Lodge, Chitwan National Park powered circuit was closed, triggering the was Chuck’s base for tiger research since camera and its flash. Over the years he 1972, giving him unrivalled access photographed hundreds of different tigers to the study and long-term monitoring of and also an impressive inventory of other the world’s most powerful predator. creatures including sloth bears, leopards, Working with the government of Nepal’s jungle cats and the rare honey badger. Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, the Smithsonian Chuck’s authoritative book, Face of the Institution of Washington DC, and Tiger, was published in 1977, the result of teams of locally recruited trackers and thousands of hours of observation and naturalists, Chuck pioneered tiger tracking that examines the life of the tiger. census methods and introduced Senior scientist Dr. George Schaller much camera-trapping techniques to photograph admired Chuck’s work, and wrote: “His and record tigers. well-documented book … presents the best His painstaking research followed available account of the tiger’s social life.” generations of individual animals in Always generous by encouraging fellow Chitwan National Park, resulting in one of researchers as co-authors, Chuck published the largest and longest-running many scientific papers himself and with data sets of any tiger population in the colleagues, notably Professor J.L. David world. Chuck’s decades of work Smith of the University of Minnesota with uncovered the secret world of tigers and whom a major work on the tiger is being what they need to survive in their published by Harvard University Press. forest habitat, providing today’s wildlife Chuck recently completed a collection of managers with the vital information jungle tales that will be published required to protect these iconic animals. posthumously, which perfectly capture his Chuck’s work has raised considerable abiding passion for nature and love for life donations and helped authorities develop in the wild. anti-poaching policies that put many tiger poachers in gaol. Chuck’s interest in Asia dated back to Crucial to the data collection was Chuck’s childhood when, aged 11, he and a school innovative development of cameratrapping friend set off walking to Tibet to meet the in the 1970s. I vividly recall his Dalai Lama, as part of a school project. uncharacteristic excitement when the first They planned to head up through Canada to tiger successfully photographed himself. Alaska, across the Bering Straits through

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Russia and China to Lhasa, only to be Chitwan jungles, he established Tiger Tops’ picked up by the Chicago police on the awesome reputation for high quality shores of Lake Michigan! In the early wildlife experiences, skilled naturalist 1950s he was commissioned into the US guiding, and fierce wildlife integrity - “no Marine Corps, before leaving military life bullshit” was Chuck’s creed. The evening in favour of academic studies at the slide show educating guests about the flora, University of New Mexico and at SOAS fauna and environmental issues was written (School of Oriental and African Studies) by him, narrated in his soft drawl. With a University of London, studying with the strong emphasis on nature interpretation, renowned Himalayan anthropologist, at its height, Tiger Tops wildlife lodges and Dr. Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf. tented camps extended throughout India as well as Nepal, with activities in , Having made his way to Nepal he soon Bhutan, Tibet and beyond. Tiger Tops teamed up with English-born A.V. Jim formula of responsible wildlife tourism and Edwards, an enthusiast then working for conservation synergy was an acknowledged Pan American World Airways (Pan model long before ecotourism became an Am) in New York, to found Nepal Wildlife established concept and buzzword. Adventures, an early hunting company in the Nepal Terai. A winning Chuck not only mentored scientists, partnership of entrepreneurial researchers, naturalists and ornithologists, energy and wildlife acumen, the pair but worked with many wildlife filmmakers, realised it was time to abandon hunting including cameramen from BBC and and embrace conservation ideals. In Survival Anglia television who relied on his February 1972, Jim and Chuck took over unrivalled field expertise to get their shots. the management of Tiger Tops Jungle Wildlife operations throughout South Asia Lodge from the two Texan millionaires today are still managed and staffed by and big game hunters, Toddy Lee Wynne Jr Chuck McDougal-trained specialists, who and Herbert W. Klein, who had regard the quiet American as their guru and started the venture in 1964 in what was then inspiration. He had an uncanny gift for a Terai rhinoceros sanctuary. imparting information without being Wildlife attractions in Chitwan include didactic or overbearing, always supportive tiger, rhino, gaur (South Asia’s to acolytes, and with a twinkle in his eye for imposing wild cattle), leopard, deer, wild those ready to appreciate it. boar, monkeys, crocodiles and over 540 bird species, against the backdrop of Chuck retired from Tiger Tops in 2001, and the snow-capped Himalayan peaks. devoted himself to travel, research and Together their brand of purist wildlife writing, continuing his tiger monitoring expertise combined with commercial programmes in the Nepal Terai through the realities to set global standards for the International Trust for Nature Conservation adventure tourism industry. Whilst of which he remained an active Trustee. Jim Edwards took care of business and Co-author of the first tiger conservation marketing from the Kathmandu office, strategy for the Royal Government of Chuck avoided the limelight. Preferring to Bhutan, Chuck also observed the unique be based in his natural habitat of the tiger population of the Bangladesh

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Sundarbans. Among other accolades, rampant impacts of tourism, advocating that his work received awards from Nepal’s benefits only accrue when tourism is more Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation carefully controlled and channelled as a in 1997 for his “lifelong dedication to tiger positive force for conservation. However, conservation in Nepal”, from WWF the he leaves behind him legions of tourists Abraham Conservation Award in 2006, forever grateful to him for revealing and and from Himalayan Nature the Brian interpreting the wonders of the Hodgson Award in 2012. The Nepal Tiger subcontinent’s wildlife and jungles, and a Trust recognised him in 2014 “ generation of trained South Asian scientists … for passionately mentoring ad coaching and naturalists with unparalleled guiding a younger generation of conservationists”. integrity, skilled at showing visitors a glimpse of the wild tiger world that he so In later years, Chuck developed a loved and valued. pessimistic ambivalence towards the more LC

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USEFUL ADDRESSES

The UK Trust for Nature Conservation The Britain-Nepal Medical Trust in Nepal 130 Vale Road c/o Conservation Programmes Tonbridge Zoological Society of London Kent TN9 1SP Regent’s Park Tel: (01732) 360284 London NW1 4RY www.thebritainnepalmedicaltrust.org.uk Tel: (020) 7449 6304 Fax: (020) 7483 4436 The Britain-Nepal Chamber of Commerce 35 St Philip's Avenue The Gurkha Welfare Trust Worcester Park PO Box 2170 Surrey KT4 8JS 22 Queen Street Tel: 020 8241 0313 Salisbury SP2 2EX www.nepal-trade.org.uk Tel: 01722 323955 Fax: 01722 343119 The Gurkha Museum www.gwt.org.uk Peninsula Barracks Romsey Road School of Oriental and African Studies Winchester University of London Hampshire SO23 8TS Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square Tel: (01962) 842832 London WC1H 0XG www.thegurkhamuseum.co.uk Tel: (020) 7898 4034 www.soas.ac.uk The Royal Society for Asian Affairs 1a St Martin’s House The Britain Nepal Otology Service Polygon Road (BRINOS) London NW1 1QB Greensand Cottage Tel: (020) 7235 5122 Puttenham Road www.rsaa.org.uk Seale Farnham GU10 1HP Bird Conservation Nepal Tel: (01252) 783265 PO Box 12465 www.brinos.org.uk Lazimpat Kathmandu Yeti Association Nepal (Nepali Association in UK) Tel: + 977 1 4417805 66 Abbey Avenue Email: [email protected] Wembley www.birdlifenepal.org Middlesex HA0 1LL Email: [email protected]

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NOTES ON THE BRITAIN-NEPAL SOCIETY President: HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO

The Britain-Nepal Society was founded in We keep in close touch with the Nepal- 1960 to promote good relations between the Britain Society in Kathmandu and their peoples of the UK and Nepal. We especially members are welcome to attend all the wish to foster friendship between UK Britain-Nepal Society’s functions. citizens with a particular interest in Nepal However we do not have reciprocal and Nepalese citizens resident - whether membership. permanently or temporarily - in this country. A much valued feature of the Members of the Yeti Association which Society is the ease and conviviality with provides equally for Nepalese residents or which members of every background and those staying in this country are also all ages mingle together. welcome to attend the Britain-Nepal Society’s functions, and can become full Members are drawn from all walks of life members of the Britain-Nepal Society in the including mountaineers, travellers, students, usual way. The Yeti is a flourishing teachers, returned volunteers, aid workers, organization and they publish their own doctors, business people, members of the attractive journal. Throughout the year, the Diplomatic Service and Armed Forces. Society holds a programme of evening The bond they all share is an abiding lectures, which are currently held at the interest in and affection for Nepal and the Medical Society of London, Chandos Nepalese people. Membership is open to Street, off Cavendish Square where those of all ages over 18 and a particular members are encouraged to meet each other welcome goes to applications from those over a drink beforehand. under 35. Ordinary members pay a subscription of £20, joint (same address) The Society holds an Annual Nepali Supper members £30 per annum. in the early part of the year and in the Life membership is a single payment of autumn we hold our AGM. The Society £350, joint life membership a payment of also holds receptions and hospitality for £550; corporate business members £75 per visiting senior Nepalese. annum. Concessionary membership of £15 Those interested in joining the Society per annum is available to those under 25 or should contact the treasurer, over 75on production of proof of age. Col Rupert Litherland at: The annual journal includes a wide range of [email protected] articles about Nepal and is sent free to all members. Website: www.britainnepalsociety.org

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THE BRITAIN-NEPAL SOCIETY

President: His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester KG, GCVO

Vice-Presidents: Mrs Celia Brown Colonel JM Evans MC Sir Neil Thorne OBE, TD, DL Mrs Pat Mellor Sylvia Countess of Limerick CBE Lieutenant Colonel Gerry D Birch*

Committee (2015/16): Chairman: Mr Roger M Potter MBE Vice-Chairman: Colonel John SK Swanston Honourary Secretary: Mary Jane (MJ) Streather Honourary Treasurer: Colonel Rupert Litherland Mr Ashley Adams Lieutenant Colonel GC Bicket Mr Gavin Edgerley-Harris Mrs Jenifer Evans Mr Balmukund Joshi Mrs Sneha Rana Mrs Maggie Solon Mrs Francis Spackman Mrs Arati Shrestha Dr Mark Watson

Mr Tej B Chhetri Chargé d’Affaires The Nepalese Embassy (ex officio) Mrs Cathy Bassa (ex officio) Major Nigel D Wylie Carrick MBE, HQ Brigade of Gurkhas (ex officio) Miss Alison Marston, Chairman Younger Committee (ex officio)

Editor of the Journal: Lieutenant Colonel GD Birch* (ex officio)

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