Indian 8th Gurkha Rifle 1914 (JMD)

[Angaliel]

Thx a lot Jean,

before deciding to choose the Gurkha Rifle, I did some recheches with googles, and I found others pics of soldiers with white cover like these ones. Different pictures but same result.
Thx again.

JP

 

[Christos]

Very good painting JP!!!
chris

 

[davidmitchell]

Fantastic painting Jean.

Cheers David

 

[jjgurk]

Excellent Jean Paul.
John

 

[Chrisr]

Angaliel,

I'm sorry you have taken offence at Steve's and my comments which were meant to be helpful.

The bust looks very much like a Sikh or a Punjabi but it is not a Gurkha.

Firstly the facial features are of an Indian, and very much like that of a Sikh. Sikhs wore turbans and beards and were recruited from NW India. Gurkhas wore the slouch hat in 1914, did not wear beards and were recruited from Nepal. They are quite a different race of people altogether as can be seen from the photos below.

Bengal Native infantry are not Gurkhas, they are Indians. Bengal is part of Eastern India, and are a different race of people to the Gurkhas.

Attached is a photo of Gurkhas in 1896 wearing the pillbox hat and another of Gurkhas supposedly in France 1914/15 wearing the slouch hat.

Jehan17's photo shows what appears to be one Gurkha (wearing the slouch hat), the others are Indians (wearing turbans).

This is not meant to criticise the very fine work you have done but to correct a misconception that the bust is of a Gurkha in 1914. If JMD has described this a Gurkha then they have got it wrong, you can see the Nepalese (Gurkhas) have quite different facial features.

Regards
Chris

PS. This site shows a number of photos of Gurkhas. http://www.himalayan-imports.com/gurkha.html

PPS. The JMD model is actually marketed as a "Sikh 1914" http://www.coloradominiatures.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4829

 

[Angaliel]

I did not take any offence.
I'm reading any comments to hopefully learn some things.

I was persuaded that Gurkha were indians, as described in the book I have of the first battle of Ypres in October-November 1914.
Of course if they 're from Nepal, they are not indian.

I will check in others pics I have found.

I have a pic of a british officer of 2nd Gurkha Rifles and he's wearing a white turban.
So I'm a bit lost ))

I'm going to try google others indians régiments that were with the BEF.

A question : is it possible that some sikhs were wearing white turban?

JP

 

[Chrisr]

Jean Paul,

British officers wore what they liked at times so I wouldn't use that as a guide for the ORs. Either that or the illustrator is mistaken.

I have added a PPS to my previous post. The bust is marketed as a "Sikh 1914" http://www.coloradominiatures.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4829

I think the problem may have come from not realising that Gurkhas are not Indians but Nepalese, they were with the Indian Corps in France during 1914 -15 and that the 8th Gurkha Rifles are part of the Indian Army. With Indian Independence in 1947, four Gurkha regiments (2nd, 6th, 7th and 10th Gurkha Rifles) were transferred to the British Army and the other six (1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th Gurkha Rifles) remained as Indian Army units.

Notwithstanding, it is a very fine painting job you have done. Congratulations.

Cheers
Chris

 

[mario]

Awesome work Jean
Congratulations

Mario

 

[Chrisr]

Jean Paul,

If you are looking for Sikh units that were in France in 1914, the 15th Ludhiana Sikhs and the 47th Sikhs, both in the Jullundur Brigade of the 3rd (Lahore) Division, The 34th Sikh Pioneers were the divisional pioneer battalion. There were no Sikh units in the 7th (Meerut) Division.

A photo of a Sikh unit in Paris in 1914 is attached

 

[Angaliel]

Thx a lot Chrisr,

I know that Sikhs are wearing brown turban. But is there a chance that someones were wearing white ones?

If so, I would change the title and write "Sikh 1914"

JP

 

[Chrisr]

Jean Paul,

I don't know of a unit that wore the turban in the JMD bust. It does not look like any military turban I have seen in the books I have on the Indian Army.

Cheers
Chris