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 in Syria, North Africa, Italy, Greece and against the Japanese in the jungles of Burma, northeast India and also Singapore. They did so with considerable distinction, earning 2,734 bravery awards in the process and suffering around 32,000 casualties in all theaters. Gurkha ranks in the British Indian Army followed the same pattern as those used throughout the rest of the Indian Army at that time. As in the British Army itself, there were three distinct levels: private soldiers, non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers. Commissioned officers within the Gurkha regiments held a "Viceroy's Commission", which was distinct from the King's or