Celebrating 75 Years of the Queen’s Gurkha Signals

On 23 September 2024, Queen’s Gurkha Signals (QG SIGNALS) marked its 75^th anniversary. As the communication experts of the Brigade of Gurkhas, the QG SIGNALS is a regiment within the Royal Corps of Signals. They are tasked to provide telecommunications, IT, and cyber support to the British Army, both at home and on operations.

The British Army began using electrical communications during the Crimean War (1853 to 1856), with telegraph lines being used to link field headquarters in Crimea with the government back in London. Later, field telephones would come into use during the Boer War (1899 to 1902).

Prior to the establishment of the Royal Signals, responsibility for battlefield communication was shared between specialist infantrymen and the Royal Engineers. The value of reliable field communications became apparent on the disordered battlefields of the First World War. Subsequently, the Royal Signals was formed in 1920 to be the Army’s dedicated communications support arm.

The story of the Gurkha signaller began soon afterwards.

 

Founding Years

During and immediately after the First World War, a small number of Gurkhas were trained as signallers in the Indian Army Signals Corps. By 1921, three Gurkha signal companies existed, which were attached to various units across the British Indian Army. Although organised as Gurkha companies, they were not considered a distinct unit and never received a cap badge.

Throughout the early-1920s the Gurkha signal companies were mainly used to support military operations on India’s North-West Frontier. The Museum’s archives also detail some more unusual communication tasks. For example, in 1921 the Gurkha signallers laid miles of telephone wire in Nepal to support the future King Edward VIII on a hunting expedition.

In 1924 it was decided that no further Gurkha signallers would be trained and that the companies would be allowed to waste out as their personnel retired.

 

 

A new need for Gurkha signallers

The idea of the dedicated Gurkha signaller was not revived until the late-1940s. In 1947, India had become independent, with the Gurkha regiments split between the British and Indian armies. It was decided that the four Gurkha regiments remaining in the British Army should be organised into a dedicated Gurkha division. As divisions are structured to be self-supporting, the new Gurkha division required its own signalling component. Thus, in 1948, the Gurkha Signals Training Wing (GSTW) was formed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The first intake of recruits finished training in August 1950 and joined the Gurkha Independent Brigade Signal Squadron. Over the next several years, various Gurkha signal units were created. It was not until 23 September 1954 that a dedicated cap badged unit, Gurkha Royal Signals, was formally established. A year later, the name was shortened to Gurkha Signals.

 

 

Gurkha signallers served throughout the Malayan Emergency, providing close communication support to the infantry. This would entail carrying out difficult technical tasks in trying jungle terrain, often under extremes of heat and invariably burdened with bulky equipment. As they were frequently embedded within frontline units, the signallers would share in the same dangers as the infantry. Six Gurkha Signals soldiers died whilst serving in Malaya between 1950 to 1960.

 

 

 

The 1960s brought no respite from jungle fighting, with Gurkha troops being deployed to Borneo in the wake of the Brunei Revolt. The ensuing conflict, now referred to as the Borneo Confrontation (1962 to 1966) saw the deaths of a further three Gurkha signallers.

 

 

 

Gurkha Signals units maintained a presence in Hong Kong, Brunei and Church Crookham, Hampshire. In 1974, a small detachment of Gurkha signallers was deployed to Cyprus, where British forces were defending the UKs sovereign base areas after the island was invaded by Turkey.

 

Royal recognition

In 1977, the Gurkha Signals were honoured for their service by Queen Elizabeth II. She officially authorised the change of name to the Queen’s Gurkha Signals. In 1982, a small number of QG SIGNALS soldiers accompanied 1^st Battalion, 7^th Gurkha Rifles on Operation CORPORATE, the British recapture of the Falkland Islands from Argentine forces.

QG SIGNALS units were involved in Operation GRANBY (the British contribution to the Gulf War), operations in Bosnia as part of NATO peacekeeping forces, and Operation AGRICOLA, where 526 Rear Link Detachment, attached to the 1^st Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles, were among the first troops sent into war torn Kosovo. In 2003, QG SIGNALS was involved in the Invasion of Iraq, and from 2007 were deployed to Afghanistan on Operations HERRICK and TORAL.

 

 

Modern regiment

Today, at their 75^th anniversary, QG SIGNALS squadrons are stationed throughout the UK, with two signal troops currently serving in Brunei and Nepal.

• 242 Gurkha Signal Squadron formed in 2024 and currently based in Stafford, UK.  

• 246 Gurkha Signal Squadron established on 1 September 1959 and currently based in Perham Down, UK 

• 247 Gurkha Signal Squadron established on 1 September 1959 and currently based in Stafford, UK 

• 248 Gurkha Signal Squadron established on 1 September 1959 and currently based in Stafford, UK 

• 249 Gurkha Signal Squadron reformed in 2019 and currently based in Bulford, UK 

• 250 Gurkha Signal Squadron established on 1 September 1959 and currently based in Bramcote, UK

• Brunei Signal Troop formed in 1969 in Brunei 

• Nepal Signal Troop
• Plus a number of small teams supporting the Army around the world.

 

Today the QG SIGNALS’ soldier can be recognised by their cap badge (the Royal Signals cap badge with a crossed kukri embellishment), their red Grant tartan and their purple and red colours.

 

 

 

They continue to live up to this description by Major General LECM Perowne CBE on 23 September 1954:

“By your badge men shall know you. By your loyalty, by your behaviour and by your technical skill, they will judge you as men and measure your efficiency as soldiers.” 

 

Jai Queen’s Gurkha Signals!