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The Address to The Gurkha Brigade Annual Reunion At RMA
Sandhurst 8 June 2013 by The Bishop Of London The Rt Revd and Rt
Hon Dr Richard Chartres KCVO DD FSA
The Emperor Ashoka said that there are many spiritual traditions and
whosoever “exalts his own way by condemning the ways of others in
reality inflicts the severest injury on his own tradition.” As I speak in
the name of the most holy Trinity, it is in this spirit that I salute a mili-
tary partnership which has brought together different races and creeds
from the ends of the earth in a 200 year alliance.
I feel especially privileged to have been invited to join you today to do
honour to the Gurkha tradition and in particular to remember those
who have been killed and wounded in the World Wars and especially
in what for Gurkhas is the 4th Afghan War. This war has seen the most
protracted, savage and high intensity fighting for the British Army
since World War II. We remember especially this year Lt Ed Drum-
mond-Baxter and Lance Corporal Siddhanta Kunwar of 1st battalion
The Royal Gurkha Rifles who were killed on active service in October
2012. In all the Brigade has lost 15 killed in action [four officers and 11
Gurkha other ranks]. Rest eternal grant unto them O Lord and let light
perpetual shine upon them.
In addition 49 Brigade members have been wounded and seven of
them have undergone amputations. We salute in particular Lance Cor-
poral Netra Rana who lost his left leg in 2008. With Gurkha courage
and determination, he represented Great Britain in the men’s sitting
volleyball during the London Olympics last year.
I am named after another entry in the book of remembrance here
which recalls those who fell in earlier wars. Lieutenant John Chartres
was intelligence officer in the 1st Battalion the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles.
He was killed in December 1943 alongside Gurkha comrades in the
Italian campaign. He was just 22.
The relationships formed by such shared memories have an intensity
which is hard to convey to others which is one of the reasons why as-
sociations like this one are very valuable. But one of the good things
about contemporary Britain is the respect the armed forces deservedly
enjoy. When I first began to participate, last century in the cenotaph
