page_title: 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles
section_title: Beginnings
hierarchical_section_title: 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles / History / Beginnings
caption_attribution_description: English: 42nd Gurkha Light Infantry, later known as the 6th Gurkha Rifles.
context_page_description: The 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles was a rifle regiment of the British Indian Army, before being transferred to the British Army following India's independence. Originally raised in 1817 as part of the army of the British East India Company, the regiment has been known by a number of names throughout its history. Initially the unit did not recruit from the Gurkhas, although after being transferred to the British Indian Army following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, it became a purely Gurkha regiment, in due course with its regimental headquarters at Abbottabad in the North West Frontier Province of British India. After 1947 the regiment was one of only four Gurkha regiments to be transferred to the British Army and this continued up until 1994, when it was amalgamated with other Gurkha regiments to form the Royal Gurkha Rifles. Over the course of its 177-year history, the regiment was awarded 25 battle honours, although prior to World War I it had only been awarded one and no battle honours were awarded to it after World War II.
context_section_description: The regiment was initially raised in 1817 as the Cuttack Legion as part of the army of the East India Company. This was a unit of Indian natives from the Cuttack City of Odisha area and initially it was used to maintain order in the region, before moving to Northern Bengal in 1823 when it became known as the Rungpoor Light Infantry.
  During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the regiment remained "loyal" to the British and two of its members were awarded with Indian Order of Merit, which was the highest award that a Gurkha could receive until 1911 when Gurkhas became eligible for the Victoria Cross.
  Following this, the regiment was transferred to the newly formed British Indian Army and as time passed, the regiment began recruiting Nepalese Gurkhas into its ranks—initially only two companies of Gurkhas were formed, but, over time, more and more were recruited until it eventually became a pure Gurkha regiment, being numbered as the 42nd Regiment of Goorkha Light Infantry in 1886.  During the period before the First World War, the regiment was primarily involved in patrolling the north-east border of India, indeed it remained in eastern India for 77 years, and as such the regiment gained only a single battle honour up to 1914.
  In 1899 the regiment moved from Assam to Abbottabad, in present-day Pakistan, and began operations on the North-West Frontier. In 1903, the regiment was also renumbered as the 6th Gurkha Rifles. A year later, a second battalion for the regiment was raised from a cadre taken from the 1st Battalion.
caption: 42nd Gurkha Light Infantry, c. 1890
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