Colonel Christopher Peter Lavender joined the British army in 1968 when was 18. However he was not with the Gurkhas initially, but he was with the 4th Royal Tank Regiment until 1978 instead. Only having known little about Gurkhas, at first he thought he couldn’t join them and thought it was an elite and rarified organization. But he heard a lot about Gurkhas when he was in the service, and even got to know and learn more about Gurkhas from the other Brigade of Gurkha Officers when he was doing a course in England. Living away from family and having already served in Germany and Northern Ireland, he was already thinking of leaving the force, but the Officers persuaded him to transfer, so he applied for the secondment to Brigade of Gurkhas in 1978. After the secondment, when he was asked whether he is interested to be a permanent cadre of Brigade of Gurkhas, he willingly accepted and was transferred to 1/2 Gurkha Rifles and was recapped badge in 1980. He was very excited and delighted to work and serve with the Gurkhas, and that has been since the days of his secondment. From that day, he still has memories of enormous joy and satisfaction working professionally and socially with the Gurkhas. During his secondment, he also visited Hong Kong and Nepal for the first time in 1978 and 1979 respectively. He remembers his first time trekking to Barpak, Lamjung in Nepal in 1979 as well as remembers 8 weeks of language course is Sek Kong, where he learned to speak Nepali. Later while he returned Hong Kong with 1/2 Gurkha Rifles in the early ‘80s, he had to command a rifle company where he was responsible to train his Gurkha men to fight as infantry, catch illegal immigrants to Hong Kong and also had to take the men to Fiji for exercise. He recalls their main task as Gurkhas in Hong Kong as not only in catching the illegal immigrants but also how the Gurkha battalions were deployed to control civil disturbance, esp. the 1966 Star Ferry riots. They also had a training for normal warfare, internal security operations and collaborative duties with the Hong Kong police. From 1985 to 1987, he served as Officer Commanding (OC), where he was responsible to run all the courses to in-service Gurkhas in Hong Kong, which included courses for officers, sergeants, corporals, tactics courses, resettlement courses, clerk courses, to name few. Then in the year 1987 he was appointed as Equerry to The Prince of Wales, and after two years with the Royal Family, he was a commandment of 2/2 Gurkha Rifles. Later following the merge of 2/2 Gurkha Rifles with 1/2 Gurkha Rifles to become 2 Gurkha Rifles, he worked at the NATO HQ ARRC (Allied Rapid Reaction Corps) until 1994. However prior to his retirement in 1996, he was the Commander of British Gurkhas Nepal, Defence Attache at the embassy as well as the Director of Gurkha Welfare Scheme in Nepal. Working together with Gurkhas, apart from being in the border, military exercises and doing sports together, he loves how Gurkhas have a great sense of family bonding. ‘One of the reasons must be Gurkha soldiers had to stay away from their home and family most of the time’, he mentioned stating how his 4 children’s life have significantly enhanced with connection with Gurkhas. When asked, if not a Gurkha, what would he have done, ‘I don’t think I would have done anything nearly as exciting, stimulating and rewarding as I been in Gurkhas’ , he answered. Now as a civilian he returned to Hong Kong in 1997 as the Director of Kadoorie Charitable Foundation, he feels that Hong Kong people should acknowledge the Gurkhas in Hong Kong, as the stability of Hong Kong before the handover during the British presence was also because of Gurkhas. So there should be more than Gurkha Cemetery, and Gurkhas should be celebrated as Hong Kong benefitted from them and something that recognise Gurkhas and why Nepalese community is here in Hong Kong should be mentioned. Likewise for the descendants of the Gurkhas, having served with our fathers and grandfathers in the Brigade of Gurkhas, he wants us to be proud of what they achieved in terms of stability of Hong Kong and now for us, being here, he wants us to be the members of society by accepting the culture, learning the language in a way that we can flourish and be contributors to the society as our parents did before. HIS MESSAGE TO THE DESCENDANTS OF GURKHAS IN HONG KONG
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Gurung Dhiraj- Grandson of a Gurkha trying to learn and share the history of Gurkhas in Hong Kong. Archives
June 2018
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