The Gurkha Welfare Trust the Prince of Wales. The Trust has three Vice Patrons; Field Marshal the Lord Bramall of Bushfield KG GCB OBE MC JP DL, Field Marshal Sir John Chapple GCB CBE DL and Joanna Lumley OBE. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Lieutenant General Nick Pope CBE. Each year, by tradition, all serving officers and other ranks in the Brigade of Gurkhas contribute a day's pay to the Trust. In 1969, it was realised that a great number of Gurkha soldiers and their dependants or widows in Nepal faced destitution in old age. Many of these soldiers had served
Gurkha satisfied with their exertions". About 5,000 men entered British service in 1815, most of whom were not just Gorkhalis but Kumaonis, Garhwalis and other Himalayan hill men. These groups, eventually lumped together under the term "Gurkha", became the backbone of British Indian forces. As well as Ochterlony’s Gurkha battalions, Fraser and Lt. Frederick Young raised the Sirmoor battalion, later to become the 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles; an additional battalion--the Kumaon--was also raised, eventually becoming the 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles. None of these men fought in the second campaign. Gurkhas served as troops under contract to