Royal Gurkha Rifles
Overview
 
The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) is a regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...

 of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

, forming part of the Brigade of Gurkhas
Brigade of Gurkhas
The Brigade of Gurkhas is the collective term for units of the current British Army that are composed of Nepalese soldiers. The brigade, which is 3,640 strong, draws its heritage from Gurkha units that originally served in the British Indian Army prior to Indian independence, and prior to that of...

. The Royal Gurkha Rifles are now the sole infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 regiment of the British Army Gurkhas. Like the other Gurkha
Gurkha
Gurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...

 regiments of the British and Indian armies, the regiment is recruited from Gurkhas, a term for people from Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, which is a nation independent of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and not a member of the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

. The regiment was formed in 1994 from the amalgamation of the four separate Gurkha regiments in the British Army:
  • 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles)
    2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles)
    The 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army before being transferred to the British Army on India's independence in 1947. The 4th Battalion joined the Indian Army as the 5th Battalion, 8th Gurkha Rifles , where it exists to this day...

  • 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles
    6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles
    The 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles was a regiment of the British Indian Army, before being transferred to the British Army following India's independence. Originally raised in 1817 as part of the army of the British East India Company, the regiment has been known by a number of names...

  • 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles
    7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles
    The 7th Gurkha Rifles started as a regiment of the British Indian Army, before being transferred to the British Army following India's independence.-Formation:...

  • 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles
    10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles
    The 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles, , was originally an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. The regiment was first formed in 1890, taking its lineage from a police unit and over the course of its existence it had a number of changes in designation and composition...



The Gurkhas in general and the direct predecessors of the Royal Gurkha Rifles in particular are considered by some to be among the finest infantrymen in the world, as is evidenced by the high regard they are held in for both their fighting skill, and their smartness of turnout on parade.
 
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