‘Remarkable Times, Remarkable Men’
A new history of the 2nd King Edward VII’s Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles)
Click here to jump to details of how to purchase the book.
We, the authors, are pleased to announce the publication of ‘Remarkable Times, Remarkable Men’, a new one-volume history of the 2nd Goorkhas.
The book has its origins in projects we undertook in 2020-2023, including the ‘On This Day’ snippets of regimental history on the website homepage, a deep dive analysis of historical casualty figures for the Regiment, a review of the Regiment’s campaign medals and associated stories and compilation of short biographies for distinguished officers and men of the Regiment.
Working on this material we came to realise that the 4-volume Regimental History – particularly the first two volumes – omits a lot of factual information and in some places was quite simply wrong. A supplementary book (‘A Pride of Gurkhas’ by Harold James and Denis Sheil-Small), covering 1948-1971, also had limitations. In all these volumes the background and context to the Regiment’s activities was not always well-explained and – we felt – there was far too little about the remarkable officers and men who had served in the Regiment and too much focus on cataloguing a chronological sequence of events. In addition the style of the histories, which of course was of their time, made them difficult to read and together with the lack of indexes in Volumes 1-3 made much of the extant material difficult to access.
We therefore decided to write a new-style, one-volume history covering the story of the Regiment from 1815-1994, when it merged with the other Gurkha infantry regiments to become The Royal Gurkha Rifles, and, briefly, what the Regimental Association has been doing since then. We have tried to introduce much more about the historical context and personalities involved, as well as drawing on many of the anecdotes and insights we uncovered during our previous project work. We also decided to use a modern format incorporating coloured photos and boxes in the text.
The book has been written, designed compiled, edited, indexed, and typeset by us with nobody else involved in its production (apart from the printers) although two knowledgeable people were invited to comment on an early draft and a few individuals at the Gurkha Museum, the National Army Museum, the Imperial War Museum and elsewhere have been very helpful finding material for inclusion. There was also a surprisingly large amount of new information on the web, including some previously-unseen pictures. Lt Gen Sir Peter Duffell, the senior surviving member of the Regiment, kindly wrote the Foreword.
The contents are broadly chronological, but some chapters are thematic, such as the many changes in the Indian Army that affected the Regiment during the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and the complexities of Indian Independence and Partition in which it became embroiled in 1945-48. The 28 years of peacetime soldiering from 1966-1994 are covered by topic rather than chronologically, for example the long-term commitment to help police the Sino-Hong Kong border, ceremonial activities and shooting successes. The last chapter also covers the activities of the Regimental Association from 1994, when the Regiment was merged into The Royal Gurkha Rifles, to the present day.
The hardcopy book is available at the following prices:
- Sirmooris (former members of the Regiment): £20 including postage and packing in the UK. If you would like to pick up a copy in person from a location in Harpenden, Herts, or Crockerton, Wiltshire, a further discount to only £15 a copy applies – please contact editor@2ndgoorkhas.com if you would like to take advantage of this. You may get a cup of coffee or a G&T thrown in as well, depending on the time of day.
- Non-Sirmooris/General Public: £25 including postage and packing in the UK.
An e-book may be made available on Amazon in due course at a lower price but this will not have the high-quality colour pictures and graphics in the hardcopy version.
If you wish to purchase a book from overseas, please contact editor@2ndgoorkhas.com to confirm the cost of P&P.
Books can be purchased by any of the following methods:
1. From Amazon (at the non-Sirmoori price of £25 only): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Remarkable-Times-Men-Nick-Hinton/dp/183709036X
2. Non-Amazon despatch:
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- Email editor@2ndgoorkhas.com to confirm payment method and provide your delivery address.
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- Pay by any one of these methods:
> Credit/debit card payment through this secure portal.
> BACS payment to:
– Account name: The Sirmoor Club of 2nd Gurkha Rifles
– Sort Code: 30-11-75
– Account number: 00599397
– SWIFT code: LOYDGB2L
– IBAN number: GB36 LOYD 30117500 5993 97
> Payment by cheque. Please contact editor@2ndgoorkhas.com for the address to which the cheque should be sent.
