RAMBAHADUR LIMBU

In his brief autobiography, My Life Story, Rambahadur Limbu remembers how, as a young man, perhaps 15, he and two friends ran away from their Himalayan village of Chyangthapu to join the army as boy soldiers. Rambahadur had heard stories from his father who had served in the Gurkha during the Second World War fighting the Japanese. These stories inspired Rambahadur to want to be a soldier. His father died when he was eight (along with nine other members of his family leaving only Rambahadur and two brothers).

Unfortunately this first experience of army life was not what Rambahadur expected and he soon deserted and returned home. He left Chyangthapu again at 17 to seek work, first in Darjeeling and then in the kingdom of Sikkim, but ended up almost accidentally joining the army again in November 1957 at 19 despite his fears that he might be recognised as the boy soldier who had deserted. He was not.

Rambahadur had grown from 4’4” (132cm) to his adult height by this time and later assumed this was why he was not recognised. He took the Gurkha oath of allegiance, his right hand on the Union Jack repeating the