Distinguished Officers and Men of the 2nd Goorkhas

The Sirmoor Battalion, which through various interim designations eventually became the 2nd King Edward VII’s own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles), was privileged to have many capable and gallant officers and men serve in its ranks during its 179 year history. These remarkable men established the Regiment, led it through the numerous campaigns in which it took part, and through their bravery, commitment and skill ensured it had a reputation second to none in the armies in which it served.

It is not possible to list them all, and the term ‘distinguished’ is to some extent open to subjective opinion. The majority in the list below were leaders who earned their reputation at war, but it also includes some to whom circumstances did not provide an opportunity to prove themselves in hard-fought battles or lengthy campaigns but nonetheless rose to high rank on the basis of their abilities and made significant contributions to the Regiment in other ways.

Please click on the links below to jump to the story of the named individual.

1. General Frederick Young.
2. Major General Arthur Battye CB
3. Major General Charles Norie CB CMG DSO
4. Lieutenant Colonel Edward Sweet CMG DSO
5. General Sir Kenneth Wigram GCB CSI CBE DSO
6. Colonel Guy McCleverty DSO MC
7. Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Woollcombe
8. Brigadier William Gough MC

 

General Frederick Young

(This article originally appeared in the Spring 2021 edition of ‘The Sirmooree’, the Regimental journal.  The author, Rachel Magowan, is a descendant of Frederick Young).

The Lal Gate in Dehra Dun, 2016

The Sirmoor Rifles was formed as the Sirmoor Battalion in 1815 – as all Sirmooris know and as the plaques on the Lal Gate at Dehradun and the Memorial at the Pokhara Museum remind us.  Constructed to mark the Gurkha centenary in 1915 and updated for the bicentenary in 2015 the Lal Gate is in the Garhi cantonment at Dehradun.  Nearby ‘Young Road’ is named after Frederick Young, who raised the Regiment and for many years was responsible for the garrison there.

Frederick’s grandfather, Robert Young, was also my direct antecedent so I am Frederick’s first cousin, six generations removed.  I have always been interested in the life of my distinguished relative and have taken a keen interest in researching it.  Much of the known detail, and many of the quotations below, come from a biography of him written by his daughter Louisa published in 1923.  While not always entirely reliable, her book provides very good insights into his story and the kind of man he was.  I also learned a lot from attending the 2015 Sirmoor Durbar in Nepal and, inspired by the account of the 2016 Sirmoor Club Nepal trip to the area in The Sirmooree #79, I visited Dehradun, Kalunga, Jaitak and Mussoorie in January 2020.

Origins and Family Background

Frederick Young, the son of the Reverend Gardiner and Catherine Young (née Richardson) was born at Greencastle, County Donegal, on 30^th November 1786.  Frederick’s father, whose elder brother George had inherited the Young family’s estate at nearby Culdaff, became the Church of Ireland Rector of Moville parish.  Frederick, the fourth of seven children, was baptised at St Finian’s Church, Greencastle, on the shores of Lough Foyle, on 10^th December 1786.

Early Service

Aged 15, Frederick obtained a cadetship to the Honourable East India Company, at a time when recruits were required to be ‘not less than 4’ 9” [1.45m] in height’.   On arrival at Calcutta in July 1802, Ensign Young, ‘a regular Johnny Raw from the Bogs’, learned Urdu at Barasat Cadet College, and then fought with the 1^st Volunteer Battalion at Balasore, about 150 miles southwest of Calcutta, during the 2^nd Mahratta War.

After becoming a Lieutenant with the 12^th Native Infantry, in 1805 he participated in the unsuccessful siege of Bharatpur, a walled city with ‘massive double ramparts reinforced by eight bastions, surrounded by a wide, deep moat’.  In the general chaos he fell from a scaling ladder into a ditch of debris, and was ‘given up for lost’.  Fortunately uninjured, he managed to extricate himself and, ‘a miserable object covered with mud and blood’, rejoined his comrades.

Shortly afterwards he was transferred to the 13^th Native Infantry where he served as Adjutant and Quartermaster for eight years.  In his mid-twenties he was Aide-de-Camp to Colonel Rollo Gillespie for the Java Expedition in 1810.  After landing at Cilincing (‘Chilling Ching’) he took part in the advance to Batavia, and the battles of Weltevreeden and Cornelis.  In 1812 Frederick was ‘blown up and much burnt, but not dangerously’ during an attack on the palace at Yokyakarta (‘Jokjokarta’) in Java.  Once again, he was ‘given up for lost’ but, as he later reassured his children, ‘I came back alright’.

Kalunga

Dehra Dun, taken from Kalunga Hill in 2020

After returning to India Frederick was seconded as Guide and Intelligence Officer to Gillespie’s 2^nd Division, attempting to stabilise the 700-mile border of Bengal against repeated ‘nibbling encroachments’ emanating from the Gorkha region in Nepal.  In October 1814 he took part in the attempt to capture Kalunga Fort, one of a line of Gorkha-held hilltop beacon forts in the Doon valley.  Surrounded by dense undergrowth and a 12’ high palisade of rough-hewn logs and rocks, the fort was situated atop the 600’ Kalunga Hill, five miles outside Dehra.

Gillespie described the challenge it posed: ‘The fort stands on the summit of an almost inaccessible mountain, covered with an impenetrable jungle; the only approaches… stiffly stockaded.  It will be a tough job to take it’.  He also noted the bravery and tenacity of the 600 men in the garrison, commanded by Captain Balbhadra Kunwar.

Gillespie was killed during the attack on 31^st October, reportedly dying in Frederick Young’s arms. The assault was suspended and the fort razed to the ground three weeks later, after the besieged defenders, deprived of their water supply, had escaped under cover of darkness.

The bravery, skill and steadfastness of the Gorkhas was openly admired by their British counterparts: ‘They fought us in fair conflict like men’ (James Fraser); ‘I never saw more steadiness or bravery exhibited in my life.  Run they would not and of death they seemed to have no fear’ (John Shipp).  A two-pillar memorial, erected by the British on the Sahastradhara Road in the 19^th century, commemorates ‘our gallant adversary Bulbudder, Commander of the Fort and his brave Ghoorkhas’ as well as the British officers and men who died.  There is a 15m high memorial to ‘the brave Gorkhalis who fought here’, at the top of the tree-clad Kalunga Hill, erected in 2009 by ‘Gorkhas from all over India’.

Jaitak

By February 1815 Gillespie’s replacement, Major General Martindell, had, with great difficulty, begun blockading Jaitak, another Gorkha hilltop fort, situated about 70 miles west of Dehradun, 4,500 feet above sea level.

As Fortescue relates in ‘A History of the British Army’ Volume XI, several men laden with camp-equipment, and at least two elephants, met their deaths falling over precipices on the slippery mountain paths.  Mortars, howitzers and light field guns had a negligible effect on the stockades of the beleaguered garrison.  Meanwhile the Gorkhas, commanded by Ranjer Sing and successfully supplied by detachments of their own forces, watched with interest as roads enabling 18-pounder guns to be dragged into position were laboriously constructed down below.

On 21^st February 1815 Frederick and a group of about 1400 ‘irregulars’ attempted to intercept a relief force of Gurkhas marching from Jumna to Jaitak. Caught at Chinalgurh, a village on the Sine mountain.  In a surprise attack of 400 men led by Azumber Punt Qazee, several of the irregulars panicked and ran for their lives.

According to Frederick’s daughter Louisa, he and the small group of officers were rapidly outnumbered, surrounded and taken prisoner; he spent his time in captivity learning Gurkhali, studying Gurkha customs, and developing a relationship of mutual respect with the Gurkhas.

In the absence of any documentary evidence, Louisa’s account of her father’s hillside capture has been disputed by various modern historians, including John Pemble (1971), and Turtle Bunbury (2009), the latter dismissing the story as ‘an embellished tale’ recounted to an adoring daughter by ‘a whiskery old General living back in Ballybrack’.  If Frederick was actually taken prisoner on 21^st February 1815, it can only have been for a short time as within five days he had sent his superiors a report detailing the numbers of men from each of the eleven different regional groups who had been engaged in the operation, with a breakdown of the numbers from each group who had deserted, been wounded, or killed.

Ranjer Singh surrendered at Jaitak in May 1815, after his father General Amar Singh Thapa had capitulated to Major General Ochterlony at Malaun.  Both were allowed to march out of their respective forts with the honours of war, carrying their private property with them.

Currently owned by Rajah Ajay Bahadur Singh, Jaitak Fort is nowadays accessible by road, enabling visitors to appreciate the breathtaking views from this strategic site, memorably depicted in an 1820 aquatint by James Baillie Fraser.  For a full account of the Battle of Jaitak, covering the subsequent formation of both the Sirmoor Battalion and several Gorkhali units in the Nepalese Army, see the article by Brigadier General (retired) Dr Kesharbahadur Bhandari PhD, late Nepalese Army, which was published in Sirmooree #81.

Whether or not he actually spent time in captivity, Frederick had evidently become proficient in Gurkhali by 1815, when his listing in the East India Register and Directory changed from ‘Adjutant and Quartermaster’ to ‘Interpreter, 2^nd Battalion’.  He had also developed a high regard for the Gurkhas and their fighting skills.

Raising the Sirmoor Battalion

Later in 1815 Frederick was placed in charge of a number of Gurkha prisoners at Paonta Sahib, a town about 30 miles west of Dehradun.  Famous for its historic Sikh Gurudwara, it is now an industrial city with 25,000 inhabitants situated on the river Yamuna, the state boundary between Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

Frederick requested permission to free the prisoners and then give them the opportunity to volunteer in the company’s service. ‘If they do – and I feel sure that many will – I undertake to raise in a short time a body of soldiers that will not disgrace you, or the country, or myself’.

His request was approved.  He spoke to the prisoners, and his proposal proved very successful: ‘I went there one man. I came back three thousand!’.  A mixture of freed prisoners-of-war, men who had served in the irregular force which Frederick had previously commanded, and men who came from other sources as voluntary recruits, these 3,000 men formed the nucleus of the Sirmoor, Nurseera and Kumaon battalions in the Gurkha Brigade.

This procedure was later formalised by the Treaty of Sagauli, signed in 1816, by means of which Britain received the right to recruit men from the Pahar hill districts into the British army in return for officially recognising the Kingdom of Nepal.

Frederick was made a Captain on 8^th January 1816.  In addition to being ‘Interpreter and Quartermaster’, he was listed in the East India Company Directory as being ‘in command of the Sirmoor Battalion’, headquartered at cantonments west of Dehradun, a role which he retained until 1843.

Dehradun

Dehradun (also transcribed as ‘Dehra Doon’), the most northerly district in the Meerut Division, is an oblong-shaped area, about 45 miles by 15 miles, of well-wooded, undulating land, lying between the Himalayas to the North-East and the Sewalik hills to the South-West.  It is bounded by two river valleys: the Yamuna (‘Jumna’) river to the North-West, and the Ganges to the South-East.

Given the honorary title of Colonel and a free hand, Frederick, the first commander of the Sirmoor Battalion, chose his own officers and reported his soldiers operationally ready within six months.

Around this time Frederick built a house at Nalapani, about five miles northeast of the town of Dehradun.  Being a ‘well-defined object’ at Nalapani, ‘Cap. Young’s House’ was used to assist in the surveying process.  The location of ‘Cap. Young’s House’ south of the ‘crossed swords’ symbol indicating the battle site of Kalunga Hill, is shown on a map drawn by Morgan Dove Blandford, Assistant Surveyor, from a revenue survey conducted for the Board of Commissioners in 1818 by Lieutenant Alexander Gerard.

The 1818 Map of Nalapani showing ‘Cap. Young’s House’

3^rd Mahratta War

The Sirmoor Battalion, the first Gurkha regiment to fight, saw action in the 3rd Mahratta War of 1817-18, where they excelled themselves in the Reserve Division, assisting Ochterlony’s Grand Army in the campaign against the Mahrattas and Pindaris.  As a reward they were nominated to escort to Delhi the 300 guns which had been surrendered by the Mahratta Army.

Dacoit Raids

Over the next few years the Sirmoor Battalion was frequently called on by Frederick Shore, Superintendent of Dehra, to protect villages in the Eastern Doon from dacoit raids.  Colonel Shakespear describes two such incidents in the first volume of the History of the 2^nd King Edward VII’s Own Gurkha Rifles:

‘Information of an intended raid on the wealthy village of Thano, 18 miles South-East of Dehra and lying under the hills, was received by the Civil Authorities, on which Captain Young moved out with two companies, and was able to intercept them, driving them off and dispersing them in a brief fight just below the village’.

In May 1823 the presence of the Sirmoor Battalion was sufficient to deter a planned raid on Nawada:

‘On further information of a coming incursion into the district with Nawada Captain Young again moved out rapidly and blocked the north entrances of the two passes through the Sewaliks, debouching into the Doon in the vicinity of Kansrao.  The raiders, however, got wind of the preparations for their reception, and retired down the Betban Rao to the plains without coming into conflict with our men’.

Koonja Fort

In 1824 the Sirmoor Battalion received an urgent request for help from the magistrate of Saharanpore.  After marching 36 miles to Koonja, a fort in the Eastern Doon occupied by about 800 Goojars, they forced open the massive wooden door with an improvised battering ram.  In recognition of this achievement the ‘ram’s head’ symbol was added to their regimental accoutrements.

In the 1860s, long after Frederick had retired, his daughter Louisa met ‘an old man’ who lived with his wife at Muree, a beautiful hill station frequented by those posted to Rawalpindi.  In conversation she was delighted to find that the man, De Bude, had not only known her father; he had been the ‘young engineer’ who, helped by Dr Royle, had improvised the battering-ram at Koonja Fort.

Peacetime: Road-Building, Irrigation Projects and Surveying

From the mid-1820s the military activities of the Sirmoor Battalion’s early years were followed by a period of peace lasting around twenty years.  In Dehradun Frederick instigated civil works to open up the district, building roads from Dehra to Kalsi and Rajpore, and carrying out irrigation projects to regenerate disused dams, canals and water tanks.

One such project, the restoration of the Rajpore aqueduct, which was completed by Colonel Proby Cautley and Captain Henry Kirke in 1844, supplied the inhabitants of Dehra with drinking water from the head of the Raspunnah torrent at the foot of the Himalayas.

 Rajpore aqueduct

As one letter home to his family in Ireland attests, Frederick participated in surveying duties in the region, a task which he thoroughly enjoyed:

‘Sept. 1815.  I leave next month on a trip of observation from which I expect the greatest pleasure.  I am to make a sweep of 31 marches through a country little known to Europeans, and abounding in all kinds of natural curiosities.  I have got private instructions to take my surveying materials for a map of the country.  I intend to move to the bank of the Sutlej where it issues from the snows, then turn to the right and move along the bottom of the snowy range of hills to the sources of the Jumna. Can you imagine anything more delightful than such a life?’

At Dehradun Frederick continued to assist with survey work, coordinating operations for the ‘Great Trigonometrical Survey of India’ with George Everest, the ‘Kompass-wallah’ after whom Peak XV was eventually named.

Mussoorie

In 1823 Frederick and his friend Frederick Shore, the Joint Magistrate and Superintendent of the Revenues of the Dun, built a small wattle and daub ‘shooting box’ on the Camel’s Back Road, 20 miles from Dehradun, and 6,000’ above sea level – the first such structure in the ‘Mussoorie’ region.

The splendid climate and good sport obtainable attracted other Europeans to the area, as the ‘Doon’ and the hills to the north became better known.

Mulliagoes, Mussoorie (‘The Potato Garden’; ‘Mullingar’) by L Hadow Jenkins (Frederick’s daughter) 1923

Frederick built ‘Mulliagoes’ (later renamed ‘Mullingar’), a two-storey house, in a beautiful valley at Mussoorie, where he is said to have planted the first tea plant and the first potato ever grown in the Himalayas.  This house, nicknamed ‘The Potato Garden’, became a popular place for officers wishing to escape the hot season.

A third smaller building nearby, named ‘Mullingar Cottage’, is also attributed to Frederick on a map of the area published by J P Tassin at Calcutta in 1831.

No trace remains of the shooting box that Frederick Young and Frederick Shore built in 1823.  In 1912 Colonel Shakespear described it as being on the site of ‘the present church’.  The building named Mullingar became a hotel in the early part of the 20^th century.  During World War 2 it housed British evacuees from the Japanese-occupied areas and became an overflow sanatorium for wounded soldiers.  After 1947 it gradually fell into disrepair.  Located 70 miles from the border with Tibet, it became home to a number of migrant Tibetan families and now ‘prayer flags flutter in the wind every day, and Losar celebrations are held in the courtyard every year’.

Frederick loved the climate at Mussoorie, and was delighted when Charles Metcalfe, an early visitor, persuaded the Government to provide a sanatorium for convalescent soldiers at the eastern end of the Landour ridge, in 1827.  The sanatorium gradually became a full British Military Hospital with staff specialising in tropical diseases.  It was closed soon after 1947.  By 2013 the buildings, together with those of the Soldiers’ Furlough Home (a holiday location for British soldiers unable to return to Europe) were occupied by the Institute of Technology Management of the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India, while the former nurses’ home had become known as ‘Sisters’ Bazaar’.

In addition to his duties at Dehradun, Frederick became Commandant of the Hill Depot at Landour, a military cantonment to the east of Mussoorie.  He spent the hot summer months in the hills at his house at Mussoorie, while performing his duties at Landour, and the cooler winter months in the valley at Dehradun.

After Frederick Shore moved to the Central Provinces in 1829 Frederick, now aged 43, was appointed Superintendent of Dehradun whose population then was about 20,000 people.  The 23,000 inhabitants of Jounsar Bawur (Chakrata Hills, across the river Jumna) were subsequently added to his charge.  He combined his military role with the offices of Collector, Magistrate, and Postmaster of the Doon.  His responsibilities gradually became more political as his mixture of military and civilian duties increased.  He became responsible for managing relations with the Rajah of Garhwal in 1830, and was appointed Political Agent at Dehradun in 1833.

Family Life

At the age of 38 Frederick had married Jeanette Bird, the daughter of Colonel John and Mary Bird at Meerut in 1825.  Jeanette, who was born at Berhampore in 1808, was 17 years old at the time of their marriage.

Frederick and Jeanette had eight children: one son and seven daughters, six of whom survived to adulthood. Their four eldest children, Catherine (‘Kate’), Eliza, Susan and Mary, were baptised in the summer months at Mussoorie between 1827-31.  Eliza died shortly before her fourth birthday, becoming, in 1832, the 14^th person to be buried at Chandranagar Cemetery, Dehradun. Louisa, the fifth child, was born at Dehradun in 1834; her brother Charles and sisters Hatton and Marion followed between 1836-39.

Frederick Young’s House, Dehra Dun

At Dehradun the family initially lived on Rajpur Road, on the site now occupied by the Astley Hall shopping complex and the office of the Central Bank of India.  Frederick eventually built a more substantial house in Dehradun, further along Rajpur Road.  The house, which faced North, had a large porch with a balcony over the front entrance from where he traced the outlines of the Great Bear and the Polar Star for his daughter Louisa.

Occupied by the Bank of Upper India in 1912, Frederick’s former residence was taken over by St Joseph’s Academy in 1934. It was demolished and replaced by a new building in 2008.

Robber’s Cave, Guchhupani

In 1837 Frederick hosted Lord Auckland, Governor-General of India, and his Viceregal party, at Dehradun, while they were travelling from Calcutta to Simla.

Already impressed by the beautiful hills and valleys of the area, Emily Eden (Auckland’s sister), described an afternoon picnic when ‘Colonel Y’ took them to the ‘Robber’s Cave’, and persuaded them to wade along the stream inside:

The Robber’s Cave in 2020.

The Robber’s Cave

‘When we got near the cave, we found Colonel Y, Dr G and Captain M at the entrance of a dark grotto, through which a stream was running. ‘Nothing to walk through’, Colonel Y said, ‘not more than two feet deep, or two feet and a half at most’ and so in they all went to a beautiful cavern, about 500 yards long’.

Listed online as a ‘must-see’ attraction in the Dehradun area, Robber’s Cave at Guchhupani is now a popular picnicking, hiking and wading spot, where the Nalota stream runs through a deep, narrow gorge.  Wading visitors are warned to ‘expect to be knee-height in water’ and advised to carry ‘spare lower wear and water-friendly footwear’.

1839 Portrait of Frederick Young

Frederick was about 53 years old, and a Lieutenant-Colonel, when in 1839 his portrait was painted by John Reynolds Gwatkin, an artist born at Kissengange, India.

 This portrait of Frederick was included in the 1912 edition of Colonel L W Shakespear’s History of the 2^nd King Edwards Own Goorkhas.  In 1923 Louisa Hadow Jenkins also used it as the frontispiece for her biography of her father.

Bundelkhand

Frederick had become a Colonel with his wife and children all living in Ireland when, in June 1842 he was appointed as a Brigadier, 2nd class, to command the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Army of Reserve, for the second phase of the First Afghan War.

A few months later he was transferred to the Bundelkhand Agency, to command ‘a series of petty operations to quell disturbances which had broken out there’.

One such ‘disturbance’, the Bundela Revolt in the cities of Sagar and Damoh (550 miles south of Dehra Dun), arose in 1842 out of resentment against British land revenue policy.  A summary of ‘Tribal and non-Tribal Rebellions against the British’ (available on the website of the 2021 Civil Service exam, India) mentions that the Bundelas, led by Madhukar Shah and Jawahir Singh, murdered police officers and disrupted British administration.  The revolt was subdued when Shah and Singh were eventually captured and executed.  As the Indian Mail noted a few months later: ‘The insurgents in Bundelkhund are quieter’.

Around this time Frederick sold his Mussoorie house to Mauger Fitzhugh Monk, a Guernsey-born teacher with Irish family connections in Co Westmeath.  Monk renamed the building ‘Mullingar’ and transformed it into a school.

Furlough in Ireland

Reunited with his wife and children, Frederick, aged 58, finally spent two years on furlough in the north of Ireland.  An enthusiastic host, he relished the opportunity to catch up with the friends and relations he had not seen since leaving for India at the age of 15.

‘Up the broad carriage-drive visitors came and went, and never was there a more courteous and popular entertainer.  At the big dinner-parties he could not fail to recount at times the wondrous things he had seen and known in exploring that beautiful land, then an unknown country; they were marvels indeed to his untravelled listeners’.

From their home at Ballysally, near Coleraine, Frederick and Jeanette did their best to keep up with the news from India.  They read, with great sorrow, the recently published version of Lady Florentina Sale’s ‘Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan 1842-43’, about the events leading up to the Retreat from Kabul in January 1842.  Louisa identified why they found the account so upsetting: ‘Nearly all the people there were well-known to my parents, and some were intimate acquaintances and friends’.

‘Colonel Young, of the Bengal Army’ met Sir Robert and Lady Sale at Corporation Hall, Derry on 6^th September 1844 when together with Captain George Lawrence (a former Foyle College pupil, and a former Afghan captive), he was a top table guest at ‘the most splendid and respectably attended banquet ever held in this city’.  About 180 local members of the ‘clergy, gentry and merchants’, including two of Frederick’s County Donegal relations (‘George Young, Esq., JP, Culdaff’, and ‘Brook Young’) attended the festive event.

During Frederick’s absence the Sirmoor Battalion was commanded by John Fisher, who wrote him a long letter describing their involvement in the First Sikh War, from their march to Ludhiana to their success at the Battle of Aliwal in January 1846.  Poignantly, a fortnight after putting pen to paper, Fisher himself was killed in action at the Battle of Sobraon.  ‘The death of John Fisher was a greater sorrow than any that had gone before’, wrote Louisa, whose father had received notification of his colleague’s death some time before the cheerfully descriptive letter reached him in Ireland.

Ferozepore

Accompanied by his wife and three elder daughters Kate, Susy and Mary, all approaching marriageable age, Frederick returned to India in 1846 and was given the command of the Ferozepore Brigade.

The significance of this posting is indicated in the following comment by ‘one who knew and loved him’, as quoted by Louisa:

‘This was a most important post, for there were murmurs of a second Sikh War [the ‘Punjab Campaign’], and as Ferozepore was our Northern Frontier in that country he had not only to keep all troops ready for instant action, but to guard carefully against surprises and conspiracies’

Frederick and Jeanette were living at Ferozepore when their daughter Susy, the first to leave home, married Lieutenant Anstruther Mactier, a young widower in the 11^th Cavalry, in 1848.

The Second Anglo-Sikh war erupted in April 1848, and concluded, almost a year later, after the Battle of Gujrat.  Louisa cites Henry Lawrence (brother of George, another former Foyle College pupil) advocating that the victors should ‘deal generously with a noble, though vanquished, foe’, and quotes an (unreferenced) tribute to the fallen enemy: ‘In the hour of battle they proved themselves a worthy foe – as, in the days to come, they were to prove themselves worthy comrades-in-arms’.

Frederick’s time at Ferozepore ended in 1849 when he was given command of the Dinapore division.  In November of that year he and Jeanette were at Mussoorie and were witnesses at the marriage of their eldest daughter Kate to Charles Hamilton Fasson, an Assistant Surgeon with the 14^th Light Dragoons.

Sikkim

While en route from Ferozapore to Dinapore, Frederick suddenly received an order to proceed directly to Darjeeling, to take up a new assignment as commander of a large force being assembled there in preparation for an invasion of Sikkim.  Ordered by Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General, this invasion was intended to punish the Rajah of Sikkim, who was demanding territorial concessions while holding Mr Archibald Campbell, the Political Resident, and Dr Joseph Hooker, a British botanist, whose father was Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, as hostages.  Campbell had negotiated Hooker’s entry to Sikkim, after which Hooker had spent 10 months travelling in the country, as part of a 3-year plant-collecting expedition in the Himalayas.

Frederick’s experience in hill warfare was the reason why he had suddenly been chosen for this task.  But his experience, which included the painful lessons learned at Kalunga and Jaitak, only served to convince him that it would be disastrous for troops with fully-equipped cavalry and heavy guns to make any attempt to invade the ‘mighty mountains’ of Sikkim, particularly in wintertime.

His delicately modified proposal – to enter Sikkim from Darjeeling as a show of strength, but then to stall the invasion and demand concessions from (rather than ‘make concessions to’) the Rajah – was approved by Sir Charles Napier, Commander-in-Chief, on 20^th February 1850.

By this time a force of 14,000 men was being assembled in Darjeeling, where the ‘Great Rungeet’ river formed the boundary between Bengal and the mountains of Sikkim.  Frederick, aged 63, met Hooker, who had returned to Darjeeling after being released from captivity.  Frederick evidently quizzed the young botanist about the terrain on the Sikkim side of the river.  In his Himalayan Journal Hooker, then aged about 33, described his encounter with ‘the old gentleman, General Young, all in the clouds as to carrying out his orders of occupying Sikkim with a military force… a very nice old gentleman, and greatly obliged to me for my counsel, maps and information’.

The decision was taken to march and take the Rungeet Bridge as soon as possible.  Hooker joined them: ‘I went down with the troops the other day and took possession of the bridge over the Great Rungeet and camped some 500 men in Sikkim’.  Popular today with rafting enthusiasts because of its ‘turbulent waters’, the Rangeet river originates in the Himalayan mountains of Western Sikkim and is ‘fed by the melting snow of the Himalayas in early summer, and the monsoon rains from June to September’.

They were unopposed; and, per Frederick’s plan, did not attempt to proceed with the invasion at this stage.  Hooker took the opportunity to resume his botanical studies but remained available to assist if his local knowledge should be required: ‘I returned to my plants at Darjiling, but expect to be summoned down very soon again’.  He understood how essential his familiarity with the Sikkim landscape would be to the military: ‘Except Campbell and myself, no one knows anything of the country, and hence the marching of the troops without good guidance would be most unadvisable’.

Eventually, the Rajah conceded some territory (a ‘submontane strip of inconsiderable extent’), and, on Frederick’s recommendation, the invasion plan was called off: ‘The expedition was abandoned because the General from his experience in the Nepaul campaign reported the country as impracticable for British troops’.

The Rajah gave Frederick a large and very useful parting gift, which Jeanette described in a letter to the younger children: ‘The Rajah has given in.  He gave your father a great big elephant, that carried some of his camp equipage through the Terai.  It was in the compound afterwards at Dinapore, and was amusing to watch’.

Dinapore

The Sikkim diversion over, Frederick, Jeanette and the elephant moved on to Dinapore, where Frederick took up his posting as ‘Brigadier-General, commanding the Dinapore Division’.  Louisa considered that this effectively marked his transition from active soldiering to peaceful duties:

‘When my father left Darjeeling with his staff – his camp-equipage following, the tents carried on the Rajah’s big elephant – his active soldiering was ended… but the command of the large brigade in Dinapore and the district, though it was to him more in the nature of a show-parade, was also a very responsible post’.

‘Taking the salute’ became one of his regular duties.  Jeanette, an expert horsewoman, was present at these events and described the picturesque scene in a letter to Louisa and the younger children:

‘Your papa looks very fine on parade. His charger is a handsome white Arab, and with the rich saddle cloth, and gold lace and all the corners embroidered in gold it is a very gay affair!  I attend all the reviews and inspections of troops with him and his staff.  It is most amusing to see his five Officers, all in cocked hats – dashing about after him!  My horse always fidgets as if he thought he should be leading too!’

At Dinapore Frederick acted as a witness at the marriage of his daughter Mary to Stewart Lambert Lyons-Montgomery, a Captain in the 80^th Regiment, in November 1851.  He was widowed a few months later when Jeanette died, aged 44, on 10^th April 1852.  His daughter Louisa, now 17, returned to India from the UK and married John Hadow Jenkins, an Ensign in the 44^th Native Infantry, and Frederick’s Aide-de-Camp.  Louisa and her husband lived with Frederick at Deegah, the General’s house at Dinapore, until he retired on promotion to Major-General, aged 68, in 1854.  (For many years during the 19^th Century senior officers continued to be promoted after they had ceased serving.  The promotions filled dead men’s boots on the Unemployed Supernumerary List, so it was a matter of luck whether a vacancy existed or further promotions ensued.  Frederick Young was promoted Major General on retirement on 12^th June 1854, Lieutenant General on 18^th February 1856, and full General on 28^th March 1865.)

Retirement in Ireland

By the time Frederick retired, his son Charles was embarking on a military career with the 50^th Queen’s Own Regiment of Foot.  Four of his daughters were married to army officers, and ready to live where ever their husbands’ postings took them.  A fifth daughter, Eliza, had died, aged four, in 1832.  His sixth daughter, Hatton Caroline Young, had died of cholera aged 19, at Fortwilliam, Calcutta, in 1857.

Frederick’s youngest child, Marion, his seventh daughter, was about 15 years old.  She and her father settled at Fairy Hill, near Bray Head, County Wicklow, Ireland, where they were joined by Frederick’s daughter Susy, who was widowed when, in July 1857, her husband died of epilepsy.

A painting of General Frederick Young, late in life, was completed by the well-known artist James Prinsep Beadle in 1928.  As this was 54 years after his death, the assumption is that it was copied from an earlier portrait or photographs.

James, the son of Major General James Beadle and Margaret Jenkins (the sister of Louisa Young’s husband, John Hadow Jenkins), was born at Calcutta in 1863, and died in London, aged 83, in 1947.  His uncle, John Hadow Jenkins, had served as Aide-de-Camp to Frederick Young in 1853-4.

The portrait of Frederick originally hung in the 2^nd Goorkhas British Officers Mess and is currently on display at the Gurkha Museum in Winchester.  It replaced Gwatkin’s 1839 portrait in the 1950 edition of Colonel L W Shakespear’s History of the 2^nd King Edward VII’s Own Gurkha Rifles.

Following the collapse of the Agra Bank, which left him in straightened circumstances, Frederick moved to Albany, a smaller home at Ballybrack, County Dublin where he died, aged 87, on 22^nd May 1874.  He was buried at Deansgrange Cemetery, Dun Laoghaire, a few days later.

In 2015 representatives of the 2^nd Goorkhas, including the President and Honorary Secretary of the Sirmoor Club, added a plaque to Frederick’s grave at a Service of Remembrance organised by John McCann, Supervisor at Deansgrange Cemetery, to commemorate the bicentenary of the founding of the Sirmoor Battalion.

As reported in The Sirmooree #76, members of the Royal British Legion, Ireland, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association and Dun Laoghaire County Council also attended, as did The O’Morchoe (Major General David O’Morchoe), Dominick Chilcott the UK Ambassador, Max Walker the Defence Attaché, John Webster the Political Secretary, a historian Shabnam Vasisht, and several friends and members of the Young family circle.

Gurkha Descendants

Three of Frederick’s great-grandsons later served with the Gurkhas:

• Barry Hartwell (1880-1914), a grandson of Frederick’s daughter Louisa, served as a Captain in the 2^nd Battalion 8^th Gurkha Rifles. He was killed in action at Festubert, France, in 1914, and is commemorated on the CWGC Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle.
• John Redmond (‘Rory’) Hartwell (1887-1970), another of Louisa’s grandsons, joined the 4^th Gurkha Rifles in 1907, served in the 2nd Goorkhas 1928-30, and retired from army service in 1943 as an acting Major General. He donated the ‘Office Seal’ from Frederick’s time as a Major in Dehradun to the Gurkha Museum at Winchester, where it forms part of a cabinet display in the private dining room.
• Hugh Gascoyne Lyons-Montgomery (1913-1944), a grandson of Frederick’s daughter Mary, served as a Major with the 2^nd Goorkhas.  He was killed in action at Nagaland in 1944, and buried in the Kohima War Cemetery.  A photograph of Hugh’s grave accompanied an article by Major Sudan Dewan is in Sirmooree #78.

 

Major General Arthur Battye CB

(This article, written by Colonel Denis Wood, first appeared in the Bulletin of the Military Historical Society in August 2022 and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author and the Bulletin’s editor).

Arthur Battye was one of ten brothers who served the Raj with distinction over many years.  He ended his soldiering days as a hardened warrior who had survived 31 years in the Army, mostly on active service, which had included his escape from death at the hands of mutineers in 1857 and four wounds received in several campaigns in which he was six times mentioned in despatches.  For most of that time he was in the 2nd Goorkhas where he stood out as a brave man among many such.

Arthur Battye, who was born on the 3oth October 1839 at Berhampore, was the seventh son of George Wynyard Battye, a Collector, Magistrate and later a Judge on the Bengal Establishment of the East India Company, and his wife Marian Martha née Money.  He was educated at Mr Bedingfield’s School at Maidenhead in Berkshire and by a tutor at Wimbledon.  He may also have been briefly at Addiscombe Military Seminary, the East India Company’s Military School near Croydon.

Gazetted as an Ensign on the Bengal Establishment on the 6th June 1857, Arthur joined the 19th Native Infantry just before it mutinied on 25th February and was disbanded shortly afterwards.  On the 29th March he was involved in the affair at Barrackpore where Sepoy Mangal Pandy sparked the Indian Mutiny when he attacked British Officers.  After that Arthur joined the 1st Bengal European Fusiliers in which his elder brother George was serving.

During the Indian Mutiny Arthur was promoted Lieutenant on the 22nd January 1858 and in March took part in the siege and capture of Lucknow, including the actions of Uttereah on the 13th April, Bhumore Ghat on 18th September and Kintoor on the 6th October.  He was mentioned in despatches for his good work in these actions.

With the Mutiny close to its end, on the 9th May 1859 Arthur Battye joined the Sirmoor Rifle Regiment at its Regimental base and home in Dehra Dun.  The photograph below, showing him wearing the uniform of the Regiment and his Mutiny medal, would have been taken at about that time:

On the 2nd January 1861 he was appointed its Adjutant and it was perhaps by then that he had qualified in Army signalling.  This photo shows him in a group of officers of other regiments, likely to have been attending a course:

On the 2nd January 1864 in the action at Shabkadah his horse was killed beneath him.  On the 22nd March 1865 he was appointed Wing Officer.   Following the post-Mutiny transfer of the East India Company’s forces to the British Raj, on the 2nd September 1866 he was appointed to the Bengal Staff Corps as a Lieutenant.

In 1868 Arthur took part in the Hazara campaign on the Black Mountain, where he distinguished himself in a rearguard action at Manna-ka-Duma on the 12th October, earning his second medal, the India General Service Medal 1854 with clasp NORTH WEST FRONTIER and a mention in Major General A Wilde’s despatch of the 25th October 1868.  He was promoted Captain on the 6th January 1869.

Arthur was still Adjutant when the Regiment set off for the Looshai Expedition of 1871-2.  They left Dehra on the 18th October 1871, embarked in the River Hooghly, near Calcutta, on the 27th, and landed at Demargree on the 18th November.  During the following days he led the advance towards Lal Gnoora’s stockaded village and commanded a company during the storming of the village where Major Donal Macintyre of the Regiment won a Victoria Cross.  Arthur was wounded and disabled by a bamboo spike set by the villagers.  He received the clasp LOOSHAI for his India General Service Medal and another mention in despatches.  On the 8th April 1876 he was confirmed in his appointments as 2IC and Wing Commander.  At that time he officiated as Commanding Officer for a while and was promoted Major on the 6th January 1877.

On the 4th January 1878 Arthur Battye again became Officiating Commandant and a few months later he led the Regiment to Malta for the first time that Indian Army troops were to serve in Europe.  Colonel Donald Macintyre VC having rejoined the Regiment there from leave on 1st June, it was as 2IC that Arthur went with it to Cyprus.  He returned with it to Dehra Dun in October 1878.

After a couple of weeks in Dehra the Regiment, with Arthur still as 2IC, arrived on the North West Frontier on the 20th November to take part in the first phase of the 2nd Afghan War.  He became Officiating Commandant again on the 22nd May 1879 and took the Regiment back to Dehra on completion of the first phase of the war.  On the 3rd October that year they marched again from Dehra en route for Afghanisatan where he was appointed Brevet Lieutenant Colonel on 11th December prior to being given command of the Regiment on the 24th.  He took part in both expeditions to the Bazaar Valley, the Relief of Sherpur, the march from Kabul to Kandahar and the Battle of Kandahar where he was wounded in the shoulder.  He was three times mentioned in despatches and made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.  While he was on furlough from December 1883 to April 1885 he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel on the 6th January 1884.  From Dehra Dun he went on a  further year’s furlough on the 1st November 1886 and retired in absentia on the 24th December 1887 on completion of his tour of command.  It was probably about this time that the photograph below was taken showing Arthur as a handsome man about town:

As was the custom in the Indian Army of those days, during his retirement Arthur was promoted to Major General in May 1894 and admitted to Colonel’s Allowance on the 6th January 1895.  Being a bachelor he lived at the ‘In and Out’ (The Naval and Military Club) in Piccadilly but in his later years he moved to Torquay where he died peacefully on the 13th June 1909 and was buried there on the 16th.

So ended the life of a very gallant old warrior who had added a good deal of luster to his beloved Regiment, the 2nd Goorkhas.  He had always been the epitome of the Regimental motto – Ich Dien – I serve.

His medals are in the National Army Museum, London, with the exception of the medal for Afghanistan which was sold at auction on 2nd March 2005 for £2,200.

Major General Charles Norie CB CMG DSO

Major General Charles Edward de Manley Norie was born in 1866, the second son of Major General Evelyn Norie late Indian Staff Corps and elder brother of Major F H Norie 6th Gurkha Rifles.  He was educated at Fettes College and the Royal Military College Sandhurst and married Miss Grace Reynolds OBE.

He was gazetted in 1885 to The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and in 1887 transferred to the Indian Staff Corps and was attached to 2nd Regiment (Queen’s Own) Light Infantry.  In 1888 he was attached to the 2nd Goorkhas on probation.  From 1891 to 1896 he was Quartermaster of the 1st Battalion and took part in the Manipur Campaign in 1891.  He was Adjutant from 1896 to 1897.  He was a fine shot and a member of the 1st Battalion’s Shooting Team which won the Officers’ Match at the Bengal Presidency Rifle Association meeting in 1897.

Norie served with distinction with the 1st Bn during the Tirah Campaign of 1897-8.  He participated in operations against the Khani Khel and Chamkannis tribesmen on the Samana Ridge, the Relief of Gulistan, the actions at Chagru Kotal and Dargai, the capture of the Sampagha and Arhanga Passes, operations in the Waran Valley, around Dwatoi and in the Bara Valley.  He distinguished himself on more than one occasion especially during the Battle of Dargai 1897 for being ‘conspicuously forward at the commencement of the action’ , and later in the Waran Valley when he commanded the Rear Guard of
the 3rd Brigade of the Tirah Field Force in the move over the Tseri-Kandao Pass.  For these two actions he was mentioned in despatches and promoted Brevet Major.  During the subsequent march down the Bara Valley when he was again commanding the Rear Guard, he was helping a dhoolie when he was
severely wounded.  His left arm was shattered just below the shoulder and had to be amputated the following afternoon.  This did not prevent him from continuing many of his preferred sports.  According to Lt Col Edward Sweet, in April 1898 Norie, using Sweet’s shotgun, successfully shot four partridges from an elephant howdah – ‘a remarkable feat considering he had lost his left arm in the Tirah less than six months before‘.

On completion of leave he attended the Staff College and in 1900 he took part in the South African War 1899 – 1902 where he was a Special Services Officer on the Lines of Communication including Staff Duties under an Assistant Inspector General.  Afterwards he was on the Staff and titled as a ‘ ‘Commandant ‘ and graded as a Deputy Assistant Adjutant General (DAAG)  Norie was awarded the Distinguished Service Order as well as being mentioned in despatches in September 1901 and
again in June 1902 for his work in South Africa.

On his return to India he was appointed Assistant Instructor at the Garrison School, Dalhousie, Lahore until April 1903 when he became officiating DAAG Narbudda District until November 1903.  In early 1904 he became DAAG Eastern Command, an appointment which he held for the next three years.  In July 1907, Norie was transferred to the 2nd Bn as Second in Command and joined it at Dehra Dun from HQ Staff at Naini Tal.  From April 1911 until December 1914 he was Commandant of the 2nd Battalion.  During his command and prior to the outbreak of hostilities of the First World War, Norie started the 2nd dairy and farm at Dehra Dun and did much good work in the Lines in countering soil erosion and the filling-in of nullahs.  In April 1914 Norie was a temporary GSO1 in 8th Division , but he returned to the 2nd Battalion in August 1914 in time to take it to France.  There he commanded it during the two early major actions: the night attack in the orchard near Neuve Chapelle on 2 November (147 casualties including the loss of 7 British and 4 Gurkha officers) for which Norie was mentioned in despatches, and the second at La Quinque Rue on 20 December 1914 (132 casualties including the loss of 1 British and 2
Gurkha officers).  Norie’s younger brother who had retired in 1912, volunteered for active service was attached to the 2nd Battalion as a French interpreter, was severely wounded in the 2 November night attack and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Norie left the 2nd Battalion in January 1915 to become GSO1 Meerut Division and as such took part in the Battles of Neuve Chapelle on 9 March 1915 and Aubers Ridge on 9 -10 May 1915 .He was then appointed Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General (DAQMG) Indian Corps as a Temporary Brigadier General until September 1915 when he was given command of the Bareilly Brigade which took part in the Battle of Loos.  He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Serbian Order of The White Eagle (3rd Class ) with Swords.  When the India Corps left France, Norie was sent to Mesopotamia where he commanded from January 1916 the 21st (Bareilly) Indian Infantry Brigade as part of the 7th Meerut Division which had been sent from France to reinforce the India Expeditionary Force D which was already in theatre).  His brigade took part in the Battles of Sheik Sa’ad, Wadi , Um elHanna and Sannayat . On two occasions he officiated in command of the 7th Meerut Division and was awarded the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George and was mentioned in despatches.  He then led his brigade in the advance on Baghdad and its occupation in March 1917 for which he was again mentioned in despatches.

In May 1917 Norie was invalided to India and appointed to command the Poona Brigade from where he retired from the Indian Army in September 1920 and moved to Bovill’s Hall, Ardleigh, Essex.  However, presumably as a result of both his wound and much hard campaigning it was known that Norie spent much time convalescing in Montreux, Switzerland.  He was Colonel of the 2nd Goorkhas from July 1925 until he died in London in July 1929.

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Sweet CMG DSO

Sweet in France in 1915

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Sweet was born in 1871, the son of the Rev George Sweet.  He was educated at Blundells School and Haileybury College.  He later married Miss Hilda Royall.

He was first gazetted in 1888 to a Commission in the 3rd Battalion (Militia) The Gloucester Regiment . In 1892 he received a Regular Commission in The 18th Royal Irish Regiment at the Curragh and in 1896 transferred to the Indian Staff Corps when he was attached to the 27th Punjab Infantry at Rawalpindi (on probation).  In 1897 he transferred to the 2nd Battalion Goorkhas.  He acquired the nickname ‘Jujube’, the archaic word for ‘sweet’.

Sweet served in the Tirah Campaign, at first with the 2nd Battalion on the Lines of Communication being present on the operations during August and September 1897 on the Samana Ridge.  In January 1898 he was transferred to the 1st Battalion, staying with them until January 1898 on the North West Frontier before being sent to Dehra Dun to command the 1st Battalion Depot.  He was later a Wing Officer in the 1st Battalion.

After a year’s sick leave in the UK, Sweet returned to India.  He was a fine shot and in 1899 was a member of the 1st Bn’s shooting team which won the C-in-C’s and Cawnpore cups at the Bengal Punjab Rifle Association Meeting.  In August 1900 he went back to the 2nd Battalion and captained the battalion’s football team when it won the Garhwal Brigade Cup – the first time the Regiment had won it. Sweet was also an explorer and game shot.  In 1905 he explored the Pamirs and shot three Ovis Poli (Marco Polo sheep).  Their large spiralling horns were hung in the British Officers’ Mess in Dehra Dun.

Sweet served with the 2nd Battalion in Chitral where he was appointed Station Staff Officer to the Officer Commanding Chitral for a year before returning to the 1st Battalion as a Double Company Commander.  Later that year he was appointed Military Assistant to the Political Agent in Gilgit where he was also Assistant Inspecting Officer Kashmir Imperial Service Infantry.  From November 1906 to November 1908 Sweet was Tutor and Guardian to the Mian Sahib Raj Kumar Hari Sing, heir apparent of Kashmir .

Sweet returned to Regimental duties in 1909 when he was appointed as No 4 Double Company Commander in the 1st Battalion and in 1911 -12 took part in the Abor Expedition.  He played an important part in the campaign and was mentioned in despatches.  He returned to Dehra Dun in May 1912 when he seconded as Tutor and Guardian to His Highness the Maharajah of Bharatpur, a minor who he took to Wellington College in Berkshire.  He remained in the UK until the outbreak of the First World War when in January 1915 , he joined the 2nd Battalion at Floringhem in France.  He commanded No 1 Double Company until July 1915 when he acted both as temporary Second in Command and as Commandant (when Lieutenant Colonel Boileau was sick).  He took part in the Battles of Neuve Chapelle (10 -12 March 1915), Aubers Ridge (9-10 May 1915 ), Festubert (15 -17 May 1915) and Loos (23 – 27 September 1915).  Considering the high number of casualties suffered by British Officers in France during the First World War and the length of time Sweet spent on active service with the 2nd Battalion, his survival unscathed is quite remarkable.

Sweet left the 2nd Battalion in September 1915 to command 2nd Battalion 8th Gurkha Rifles in France and Egypt.  He accompanied it back to India in March 1916 where he reorganized it at Lansdowne (the home station of 8GR).   He had barely arrived back in India when in April 1916 he was appointed
Commandant 1st Battalion of the 2nd Goorkhas, which he joined in Mesopotamia as part of 35th Brigade.  He commanded them at the action at Beit Aiessa in November 1916, the battles along the Shat al Hai River on 1 and 5 February 1917, the River Tigris Crossing on 23 February 1917 and the actions at Diala River and beyond Deltawa, for which he was award the Distinguished Service Order and mentioned in despatches.  Sweet was evacuated sick, but in March rejoined the battalion at Baquba to command it in the attack on the village of Band i Adhaim on 30 April 1917.  He then went on leave in India before rejoining the 1st Battalion again to lead it the resumption of campaigning after the heat of the Summer, and in particular the actions near Kizil Robat in December 1917.  An extract from General Sir Stanley Maude’s despatch of April 1917 highlights Sweet’s (and others’) very strong leadership when in command: ’…. as regards regimental commanders and those under them , it is not easy to do full justice to their sterling performances .Leadership has never faltered …in the bitterest of struggles.’

Sweet continued in command of the 1st Battalion and was present at the actions at Mirjana , Kardarrah , Jasun and Tel Suliman.  From July 1918 he was officiating commander of 36th Brigade at Tak-i-Ghari before rejoining the 1st Battalion at Kermanshah.  He then remained with them in North Persia at Yanggi-Khan, Sram Sagli and Zinjan until February 1919, for which he was again mentioned in despatches.

Sweet then went on UK leave during which time he was attached to the Indian Peace Contingent based at Hampton Court under command of Major General E Money CB MC and given charge of a mixed  company of Sikhs and Gurkhas.  Having returned to the 1st Battalion in December 1919, he was with it at Kazvin and at Enzeli until March 1920 during which time he again officiated in command of 36th Brigade as well as the 1st Battalion and was again mentioned in despatches.  By June 1920 he was at  Menzil commanding ‘Sweetcol‘,  a mobile column comprising:

– 1st Battalion of the 2nd Goorkhas
– 1 Company 42nd Deolis
– 1 Section machine guns Royal Irish Fusiliers
– 1 Troop Guides Cavalry plus 2 x Hotchkiss guns
– 1 Section 31st Mountain Battery Royal Artillery
– 1 Section 19th Sappers & Miners
– 1 Section 15th Light Armoured Motor Battery
– 1 Section 48th Signal Company

Sweetcol was disbanded after a few months and Sweet returned to commanding the 1st Battalion at
Kazvin as part of the North Persia Force until November 1920, when he eventually handed over command of the battalion after four and half years on active service to Major A Dallas-Smith.  Sweet became a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for his services in Mesopotamia and
Persia.

Sweet’s field service throughout the First World War had been continuous, starting in France with the 2nd Battalion, then with 2nd Battalion 8th Gurkha Rifles in France and Egypt and later in command of the 1st Battalion during almost all its service in Mesopotamia and Persia.  Although officially unemployed during the first part of 1921, Sweet commanded the Indian Contingent Camp at Delhi for the visit of the Duke of Connaught.  For the remainder of the year he was on special duty at Delhi and Simla as Organizing Secretary for Earl Haig’s Ex Services Association.  In January 1922 he retired to Berkshire and served as a Councillor on Wokingham Rural District Council.  He was a member of the Regimental Association and The Sirmoor Club from its creation until his death on 17 September 1966. His decorations and medals belong to the 2nd Goorkhas’ Regimental Medal Collection.  They are currently on loan to the Trustees of The Royal Gurkha Rifles and are on display in the Royal Gurkha Rifles’ Officers’s Mess in Seria, Brunei.

‘Jujube‘ Sweet’s obituary was written by Major General Geoffrey Hind CSI MC and published in The Sirmoor Club Newsletter 1966.  He commented:

’Those who were lucky to serve under him, British and Gurkha alike, held him in the greatest affection and respect.  Always cheerful and unruffled, even under the worst conditions, his humanity, his kindly sense of humour and his example kept all ranks happy and on their toes’.

General Sir Kenneth Wigram GCB CSI CBE DSO

General Sir Kenneth or ‘Kitty‘ Wigram was born in 1875, was the son of Mr Herbert Wigram of the Madras Civil Service and nephew of Colonel the Lord Wigram, Private Secretary to HM King George V.  He was educated at Winchester College and Sandhurst before being gazetted in 1896 to The Duke of Cambridge’s Own Middlesex Regiment in India.  In 1897 he was appointed to the Bombay Staff Corps joining the 28th Bombay Infantry (Pioneers) and taking part in the Mohmand Expedition and Tirah campaign of 1897 -1898.

Wigram on leave in UK in 1898 (photo extracted from a family group kindly identified by Mrs Cassie Kaye, whose late husband Major Johnny Kaye served in the 2nd Goorkhas and was distantly related to the Wigrams)

In 1898 Wigram transferred to 2nd Bn 2nd Goorkhas on the Samana Ridge and in 1900 was on temporary Plague Duty in the North -Western Provinces and Oudh, before joining the 1st Bn as Quartermaster in Dehra Dun in 1901.  He later took part as officiating Adjutant in the Mahsud-Wazir Blockade of 1901-2  but by late 1903 he had left the Regiment to assume command of a yak transport corps and served as Quartermaster in The Younghusband Expedition to Tibet in 1904.  He returned to the 1st Battalion in 1905 and was appointed Adjutant and served with it in Chitral from 1907 to 1909.

A skilled horseman, Wigram played in the 2nd Battalion team which won the Infantry Polo Cup – the first occasion when the trophy was secured by an Indian unit.  Wigram received a special nomination to attend the Staff College, Camberley from 1911-1212 after which he was appointed GSO3 Military Operations Army HQ Simla where he remained until 1915 before becoming a GSO2 at
General HQ , France – and he was to remain a Staff Officer for the rest of the First World War.

In February 1916 he became GSO1 and in June 1916 he was promoted Brevet Lieutenant Colonel.  From February 1917 to October 1918 he was Brigadier General Staff as Head of Operations (B Section) being made Brevet Colonel in January 1918.  From October 1918 to April 1919 he was employed by the
Air Ministry as a Temporary Brigadier General (Air Staff) and given a temporary commission in the RAF as a Colonel while the employment lasted.

Wigram’s work as a wartime Staff Officer received remarkable recognition as evidenced by the awards and decorations he was given:

● 1916 – Mention in Despatches (2) – January and June 1916; Légion d’ Honneur, France Croix de Chevalier (5th Class) – February 1916; Distinguished Service Order – December 1916.

● 1917 – Mention in Despatches (3) – January , May and December 1917; Ordre de la Couronne , Belgium ,Commander (3rd Class) – February 1917.

● 1918 – Croix de Guerre , Belgium – March 1918; Mention in Despatches (1) – May 1918; Commander of the Order of the Bath – June 1918.

● 1919 – Mention in Despatches (1) – April 1919; Commander of the Order of the British Empire – May 1919.

On completion of his duties at the Air Ministry, Wigram returned to India and was appointed Director of Staff Duties Army HQ India from May 1919 to February 1921.  He was again mentioned in despatches and awarded Companion of the Order of the Star of India.  During February – March 1921 Wigram served as a member of the Imperial Service Troops Committee and represented Lord Rawlinson, C-in-C India, at the Imperial Conference, London.  He was awarded Order of the Crown of Siam (2nd Class).  He was appointed Commandant of the 2nd Battalion in April 1920 but remained in Staff appointments and did not assume command until April 1921.  In October 1921 he attended the Washington Conference as military advisor to the Indian Delegation and returned to India in January 1922 to resume command of the 2nd Bn until September 1922.   From then until April 1924 he commanded Delhi Independent Brigade Area and in October 1923 was promoted Major General.  In April 1924 Wigram was appointed DA & QMG Northern Command, India, and in November 1926 GOC Waziristan District during which time he was promoted Lieutenant General and was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

In May 1931 Wigram became Chief of the General Staff in India and was promoted General.  In July 1933 he was appointed ADC General to the King Emperor and in May 1934 he became General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command, India until his retirement in June 1936.  According to Lieutenant General Sir Francis Tuker, a later Colonel of the Regiment, he retired from the most responsible job in India besides Commander in Chief on a matter of principle.

Wigram was Colonel of the 2nd Goorkhas from March 1930 to December 1945.  On retirement he joined the staff of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House. He developed a keen interest in hospitals and in particular the Royal Cancer Hospital.  He was a member of the Reorganization Council of the Nuffield Provincial Hospital Trust, Chairman of the Central
Provident Association and Vice President and Governor of the British United Provident Association (BUPA).  He was a man of strong Christian faith, high principles and independent judgement who never married.  He died in January 1949.

Tributes accompanying his obituary published in The Times included the following:

Lt Gen Sir Francis Tuker – ‘…the Gurkha soldier never had a greater admirer or one who would fight his battles with keener zest or greater ability whenever the need rose …..His distinguished career speaks of his ability.  Whatever he did was inspired by these qualities; to him, it matters little if the outcome of his
endeavours was to be to his personal disadvantage .’

Chairman of the Royal Cancer Hospital – ‘ …He possessed a far seeing wisdom free from the least taint of personal motive and backed by indefatigable enthusiasm which often disregarded completely his own comfort and health.  [This] enabled him to play an outstanding part in guiding the institution he loved.’

AHR [identity not known but presumably a senior official of BUPA] – ‘…in spite of failing health , he devoted his later years to social service …it was due in large measure to his foresight that it became possible to form the British United Provident Association which has ensured that provident benefits will continue to be available on a country wide basis for this who prefer private treatment …’

AJH – [identity not known] ‘ ….as churchwarden of St Matthew’s Westminster his daily presence at the altar, the humility and quiet dignity of his bearing, and his ever-increasing belief in the power of prayer have been a great and abiding inspiration to many of his fellow worshippers and will not soon be forgotten.’

General Wigram’s medals and decorations, which were in the Regimental Collection, were donated
by the Regimental Trustees to the Gurkha Museum Winchester in 1998.

 

Colonel GM McCleverty DSO MC

‘One of the finest Regimental Officers I have ever met ‘
Field Marshal Lord Ironside GCB CMG DSO

McCleverty when in command of the 2nd Battalion

Colonel Guy McCleverty was born in 1885, the son of Colonel James McCleverty late The Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment).  Educated at Malvern College and the Royal Military College Sandhurst, he enjoyed a long and distinguished military career, taking a gallant part in nearly every Battle Honour gained by the Regiment in the First World War: La Bassee 1914, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers, Loos, Egypt 1915, Tigris 1916, Kut El Amara 1917, Baghdad and Persia 1918.

He was gazetted in 1905 to The Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire) Regiment, but later joined the Bedfordshire Regiment in India.  In 1907 he was transferred to the Indian Army and joined 1st Battalion of the 2nd Goorkhas in Dehra Dun.  He served with it in Chitral 1907 -1909 and took part on the Abor Expedition 1911 -1912 when he his good service was formally noted.  McCleverty represented the Regiment at football and was a member of the 1st Battalion team which reached the final of the Gurkha Brigade Cup in 1910.

In 1914 McCleverty was posted to the 2nd Battalion and accompanied it to France.  He was wounded in the attack on 2 November 1914 and mentioned in despatches.  He rejoined in February 1915 , but was again wounded, shot through the arm in the attack on the Bois du Biez on 10 March 1915 when he was commanding No 1 Double Company.  He later went back to the 2nd Battalion in Egypt before finally returning to Dehra Dun in March 1916.  In May that year he transferred back to the 1st Battalion in Mesopotamia where he was mentioned in despatches and was awarded the Military Cross for an action on 3 July 1917.  The citation, written by Lieutenant Colonel Sweet CMG DOS (qv) read as follows:

‘ This officer was my Adjutant in the 10.40hrs successful attack on 3rd July 1917.  He had only taken over his duties as such at 04.00hrs when Capt H F F Marsh had been fatally wounded.  Capt McCleverty did most sterling work in reorganising the three lines of trenches which had been carried in the assault, showing absolute disregard of danger.  I consider that it was largely due to his efforts in stimulating the men to extra exertion and that when the Turkish counter attack came we were able to repel it without too much trouble.’

On return from leave in July 1917 he became Staff Captain Baghdad Garrison before rejoining the 1st Battalion in December.  In June 1918 he led a force of  440 Gurkhas from Tel Suliman in Mesopotamia to Hamadan in north-west Persia.  From there he carried out operations in Resht as part of Dunsterforce where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order .  The citation read as follows:

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty at Resht, Persia on 20 July 1918.  Capt McCleverty was in command of a relief party sent to extricate a force besieged in a building.  He displayed great courage and initiative and it was mainly due to his resource and daring leadership that the relief was successfully accomplished.  His work throughput the operations was of a very
high order.’

He returned to the 1st Battalion in Mesopotamia for the remainder of 1918 before assuming command of the Detachment at Resht until June 1919 when he was again mentioned in despatches.  After six months UK leave McCleverty again returned to the 1st Battalion.  In June 1920 he served as Staff Officer to
the Menjil Column before being appointed in October 1920 as GSO2 HQ 36 Indian Mixed Brigade/HQ British Forces North Persia.  On 16 March 1921 McCleverty was appointed Commandant of the 1st Battalion and he brought them back to their home station of Dehra Dun, arriving on 19 June 1921.

McCleverty, also taken when he was in command of the 2nd Battalion

McCleverty was a student at the Staff College, Camberley, in 1922 -23 after which he was appointed, in October 1924, as Brigade Major 13 (Jhelum) Indian Infantry Brigade (subsequently converted to HQ Rawalpindi District) until November 1927.  In January 1928 became Second-in-Command of the 2nd Battalion and subsequently became Commandant (Commanding Officer) from 5 May until December 1934.

During his period of command he also temporarily commanded Malakand Area and the Nowshera Brigade).  After command he was appointed Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General (AA & QMG) Rawalpindi District, a post he held until left the Army on 16 August 1937.

McCleverty was married to Evelyn Ewart, the daughter of Major General Sir Richard Ewart KCMG CB CIE DSO ADC, late Indian Army.  In retirement he took an active part in his local Civil Defence organisation, before holding various staff appointments at the War Office during World War Two, when at his own request he reverted to the rank of Major before being restored to the rank of Colonel in November 1945 .

He died in October 1972 and under the terms of his Will offered his house in Fleet, Hampshire to the Regiment, which was regretfully declined.  He was Chairman of the Sirmoor Club from its earliest days until September 1965.

His medals, which were in the Regimental Collection, were donated to the Gurkha Museum by the Trustees of the Sirmoor Rifles Trust in 1999.

Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Woollcombe

‘As a fighting commander he was beyond praise
– courageous, courteous, loyal and an inspiration to all ‘

Extract from a letter written to Mrs Violet Woollcombe, Geoffrey Woollcombe’s mother,
by  Lieutenant Colonel D B Robertson 2GR

Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Harley Douglas Woollcombe was born on 27 November 1898, son of G D Woollcombe, a solicitor of Cranmere, Newton Abbot, Devon.  He was the cousin of Captain MHA Woollcombe who served in the 3rd Battalion, commanding A Company at the Battle of Tamandu and also of Captain DB Harley of the 1^st Battalion who was Signals Officer at the Battle of Monte Cassino.  He was educated at Marlborough College.  He never married.

Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Woollcombe

Geoffrey Woollcombe was gazetted to the Unattached List for the Indian Army from the Cadet College, Wellington, Tamil Nadu, South India and posted to the 2nd Goorkhas.  In November 1916 he joined the 2nd Battalion in Dehra Dun. He was cross-posted to the 3^rd Battalion when it was raised in June 1917 as Quartermaster, but owing to ill health he shortly afterwards rejoined the 2nd Battalion when it went to Burhan near Rawalpindi in the North West Frontier Province.

In March 1918 Woollcombe was with the 2^nd Battalion when it joined the Marri Field Force in Baluchistan.  He also served in the Third Afghan War (May-August 1919) for which he was mentioned in despatches.  He was appointed officiating Adjutant and confirmed in that appointment in October 1921 and remained at battalion duties until April 1933 when he officiated as GSO3 (a Captain’s staff appointment) at HQ Peshawar District until November 1933, taking part in operations against the Mohmand and Bajaur tribesmen.  From April to August 1936 he temporarily commanded the 2nd Battalion 9th Gurkha Rifles.  He was subsequently Assistant Military Secretary to the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command, General Sir Kenneth Wigram of the 2^nd Goorkhas (q.v.) from October 1936 to October 1940.  He then rejoined the 2nd Battalion at Razmak, Waziristan.

Woollcombe was appointed Commandant of the 2nd Battalion in January 1941 and moved with it in April 1941 to Bolarum Camp near Secunderabad where it was warned to prepare for operations in North Africa.  But in July 1941 it was mobilized for Malaya.  It sailed on the SS Egra from Bombay and in September 1941 arrived at Port Swettenham prior to moving to Ipoh in Perak State.

The Japanese landed on 8 December 1941.  The 2nd Battalion, part of 28th Indian Brigade, came to 24hrs notice to move but the planned pre-emptive strike by the British never materialised.  Instead the Battalion was ordered to defend Alor Star and the airfield at Sungei Patani.  The frontages were too great to defend against the speed, effective use of tanks and outflanking tactics of the Japanese, which surprised and overwhelmed the British forces.  Most battalions (the 2nd Battalion being an exception) were soon down to only 300 men from their normal complement of about 600.

There then followed a series of contacts with the enemy as the British withdrew down the western coast of the Malay peninsula.  The 2nd Battalion fought without rest or relief, acquitting itself well during this otherwise disastrous campaign, in large measure because of Woollcombe’s inspiring leadership.  During seven weeks of harrowing and exhausting withdrawal he commanded his battalion ‘with skill and temerity of purpose which elicited the trust and regard of all ranks’.  The British eventually withdrew to Singapore but on 6^th  February 1942 the Japanese crossed the Causeway and began to probe the perimeter established by the British in the northern part of the island.  The 2nd Battalion denied the enemy any opportunity to breach that part of the perimeter for which it was responsible.  Woollcombe, who had become very sick, reluctantly handed over command to his Second-in-Command, Major DB Robertson.  The 2^nd Battalion fought on bravely, but on 17^th February was obliged to surrender alongside the other British Forces, and entered Japanese captivity.

Woollcombe had received a secret order to form part of an ‘escape‘ party of 400 selected specialists and senior officers who were to be withdrawn to India on a Royal Navy destroyer, to ensure that their expertise was not lost in the anticipated fall of British Malaya.  However, the docks came under heavy enemy air and artillery bombardment which meant all naval ships had to sail in order to avoid being caught at the quayside.  The escape party commandeered local pilot cutters and sailed for Sumatra, then believed to be still in Dutch hands.  On arrival Woollcombe was transferred to a Dutch gunboat but when its fuel ran out they were obliged to make their way overland using jungle paths to the port town of Padang located on the south coast.  By this time he was very sick indeed and had to be carried for much of the time.  The available evidence indicates that Woollcombe managed to leave Padang aboard the Dutch freighter SS Rooseboom which was later sunk by a Japanese submarine as it was en route to Ceylon.  His death on 28 February 1942 is recorded as ‘presumed drowned‘.

After the war, in November 1945, Robertson, who had been Acting Commandant 2nd Battalion during the time spent in captivity, wrote to Woollcombe’s mother about the fate of her son.  In July 1944 he had interviewed a new arrival at the Changi prisoner of war camp who claimed to be one of only four survivors of the sinking of the Rooseboom.  He remembered a ‘Gurkha Colonel‘ and accurately described Woollcombe.  This witness, a Lieutenant WG Gibson of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, was later found to be something of a Walter Mitty character who on arrival at Changi had promote himself from Corporal to Lieutenant and whose 1952 book about the sinking of the Rooseboom was riddled with inconsistencies and untruths.  Major Robertson did not take to Gibson although he saw no reason to disbelieve what he said about Geoffrey Woollcombe.

In this letter Robertson described his former Commanding Officer:

‘He will be a terrible loss to the Regiment to which he gave such devoted and invaluable service.  He was the finest type of Regimental Officer and throughout his service set a magnificent example to everyone.  As a fighting commander he was beyond praise – courageous, courteous, loyal and an inspiration to all.  Geoffrey came through to the end of a campaign full of disaster from start to finish which inevitably put an intolerable strain on commanders and was prolific in recriminations, retaining the respect, admiration and affection of every one of his officers and men without exception. Other commanders could claim one or even two of these, but few could have retained all three under such circumstances’

In 2019 Brigadier Christopher Bullock, late 2^nd Goorkhas, arranged for a plaque commemorating Geoffrey Woollcombe to be unveiled in the church of St Mary the Virgin in Ashbury, near the now-demolished family house of the Woollcombe family, who had owned land in the area.  Members of the Regiment and the Woollcombe family were present and the last post and reveille were sounded on the silver bugle Geoffrey Woollcombe had presented to the Regiment many years previously.  A full account of the event was published in the 2020 edition of the Regimental Journal, ‘The Sirmooree’.

The memorial plaque

 

Brigadier William Gough MC

‘One of the most aggressive and dynamic officers of the Regiment’ (Regimental History Volume III)

Brigadier William ‘Bill’ George Hugh Gough was born on 16 February 1897, the son of Lt Col Charles Gough, late 12th Bengal Lancers and Remount Department.  He was the nephew of Gen Sir Hubert de la P Gough (‘Goughie’) GCB GCMG KCVO and Brig Gen Sir ‘Johnnie‘ Gough VC KCB CMG, and grandson of Gen Sir Hugh Gough VC.  He was educated at Haileybury College and the Royal Military College Sandhurst and later married Miss Yolande Mackinnon.

Brigadier Gough as a Lieutenant Colonel

In November 1914 ‘Bill’ Gough was gazetted to the Unattached List for the Indian Army.  He arrived in India in January 1915 and was posted to the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Goorkhas.  In January 1916 he went with them to Mesopotamia as company officer No 1 Double Company (commanded by Captain H F Marsh MC) disembarking from the SS Thongwa on the River Tigris.  In March 1916 he was with No 1 Double Company in the assault on the Dujaila Redoubt for which he was awarded the Military Cross and mentioned in despatches.  He was only 19 years and one month old and is the youngest member of the Regiment ever to have been awarded the Military Cross.

In April 1916 he was Commanding No 1 Double Company when the 1st Battalion returned to occupy the Twin Canal Redoubt.  While the Battalion was consolidating its position Gough was wounded during a bombing practice.  He sustained 27 shrapnel wounds, a broken arm and leg and the subsequent loss of an eye.  He returned to Dehra Dun to recover and in August 1917 was appointed as an instructor at the Central Bombing School, Mhow.

In September that year until March 1918 Gough was Adjutant of the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Gurkha Rifles (from 1921 the 5^th Royal Gurkha Rifles).  He then rejoined the 2nd Goorkhas and was posted to the 2nd Battalion at Burhan Camp on the North West Frontier.  In March he took part in the Marri Expedition and from May until August 1919 was a Company Commander during the 2nd Battalion’s involvement in the Third Afghan War and Waziristan operations.  It was reported that Gough was fined Rs100 for burning a village in British territory, but according to the 2nd Battalion’s Digest of Service ‘needless to say, the fine was not paid‘.  From November 1919 Gough commanded a Detachment consisting of B and C Companies at Karachi.

Gough was officiating DAA & QMG (Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General) of 19th Indian Infantry Brigade, Lucknow from January 1920 until June 1924.  He was then officiating Staff Captain of the Dehra Dehra Dun Brigade for two years, in April 1927 becoming Station Staff Officer and Officer Commanding Rest Camp at Bunnu.  He was Executive Officer and Military Estates Officer, Dehra Dun and Landour Cantonments until July 1928 when he was appointed Training Officer to the Resident’s Escort , Kathmandu until November 1932.  He was then an instructor at the Machine Gun Wing of the Small Arms school at Ahmednagar until October 1936 .

After seventeen years away from the Regiment, in November 1936 Gough rejoined the 1st Battalion in Dehra Dun as Second in Command.  In May 1937 he commanded the Regimental Contingent in the UK at the Coronation of King George VI and subsequently accompanied it to Nepal where it is believed the contingent carried out the ceremony of pani patiya or purification from having travelled overseas.  Later that year he was with the 1st Battalion during operations in Waziristan and being mentioned in despatches for his part in the action of 27 August 1937.  In January 1938 he was appointed Commandant of the 2nd Battalion in May 1938 and he took the battalion to Waziristan in October 1939 until December 1940 .

Volume III of the Regimental History Vol III described Gough as ‘one of the most aggressive and dynamic officers of the Regiment.  He was a forward thinker who foresaw the possibilities of specialist training.  He welcomed with avidity the experiments of his colleague (Colonel Tuker).’

Gough was detached from the 2nd Battalion for 3 months starting in December 1939 when he was appointed to the Personal Staff of His Highness The Maharajah of Nepal during his visit to Calcutta.  For his services Gough was awarded the Order of Gorkha Dakshin Bahu 3rd Class (Pravala).

In November 1940 Gough finished his tour in command and volunteered for  special duties in the UK.  He qualified as a parachutist but broke his leg on his final jump.  Undaunted, he returned to India in October 1941 and was given the task of raising the 50^th Indian Parachute Brigade, the first of its kind.  The Brigade included 153 Gurkha Parachute Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Colonel F J Loftus – Tottenham of the 2^nd Goorkhas.  The 2^nd Battalion had volunteered en masse for parachute duty, attracted by the additional pay but possibly also in order to serve again under their previous Commandant – in any event, the request was rejected by the military authorities.

Following the loss of three Gurkha battalions in February 1942 in Singapore, it was Gough who suggested to GHQ India that three extra battalions namely the fifth battalions of 1^st, 2^nd and 5^th Royal Gurkha Rifles, should be raised to replace those held in captivity.

In September 1942 Gough was appointed to command Columbo Brigade Area in Ceylon from where he was moved to command Jhelum Sub Area in which post he remained until he retired in 1947.  He was tragically killed in an air crash in South Africa on 15 May 1948 and buried at Ladysmith.

Gough was a useful football player who represented the 2nd Bn in 1928 when it won the Gurkha Brigade Cup.  He was also a keen polo player despite being handicapped through having only one eye.  He was also a keen entomologist and published a list of butterflies caught in Nepal in the Bombay Natural History Journal 1935.

His busby and various uniforms and accoutrements are held in the National Army Museum Collection.  His decorations and medals are in the Regimental Medal Collection.