Maharajas, Emperors, Viceroys, Borders: Nepal’s Relations North and South

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

GENERAL SIR SAM COWAN, KCB, CBE, first visited Nepal in 1966 when he trekked for two months in the east and west of the country. At the time he was on a three-year tour as a junior officer with Queen's Gurkha Signals, serving in Borneo, Malaya and Hong Kong. This experience changed him personally and professionally and gave him a deep and abiding love and respect for the ordinary people of Nepal. During a long and distinguished career, until his retirement in 2002, he held numerous senior staff and command jobs culminating in the successive appointments of Inspector General of Army Training, Quartermaster General and Chief of Defence Logistics. He resumed his annual treks in Nepal in 1989, when he was appointed Colonel Queen's Gurkha Signals. In 1994, he was appointed Colonel Commandant of the Brigade of Gurkhas, the titular head of Gurkhas in the British Army. His annual visits to Nepal as Colonel Commandant included eight official audiences with the reigning monarchs. Since 1989 he has done a further 30-plus treks. He started writing on Nepal when he retired from the army. From the outset he eschewed the use of titles and awards to indicate that the views he expressed were strictly personal. This is the second collection of his published articles. His first book, Essays on Nepal Past and Present, was published in 2018.

Explaining the purpose of this book requires an understanding of my motivation and that requires knowledge of some personal details. This book has its origin in my early service with Gorkha soldiers in the Queen's Gurkha Signals. During a three-year period, I served in Malaya, Singapore, on an operational tour in Borneo during "Confrontation", and in Hong Kong during a period of major riots within the Colony and Red Guards massing on the border.

There were many highlights but two connected ones stand out. I spent a year as second-in-command of the Gurkha Boys Company at the Training Depot Brigade of Gurkhas at Sungei Patani in northwest Malaya. I had previously done a six-week language course at the depot. At the time, the strength of the Brigade of Gurkhas was over 14,000. There were over 1,200 adult recruits in training who did a one-year course. In a separate part of the depot, there were 300 boys, aged between 12 and 15, divided into wings of 100, doing a three-year course which was mostly educational but with a lot of physical activity and some elementary military training in the syllabus. On completion of the three years, the boys joined the adult recruits for one year of military training. My job was the least onerous I ever had in the army but one of the most enjoyable. It involved organising sport and recreation for the boys, getting to know them and where they lived through a lot of chat, and training and playing football with the Depot Nepal Cup football team!

While at the Depot, I did six weeks of trekking in east and west Nepal. This gave me the opportunity to see life in the hills directly and to talk to people of all ages about their daily lives and concerns.