The Museum, Our Vision and Our Mission

VISION

Ensuring the future of Gurkha Heritage

MISSION

We honour and promote the heritage and culture of the Gurkha Soldier and his continuing service to Britain.

Gurkhas have loyally served this country for over 200 years. The Gurkha Museum ensures the future of Gurkha Heritage by celebrating, honouring and promoting the history and culture of the Gurkha Soldier and their continuing service to Britain.

Located in Peninsula Barracks in Winchester the Museum takes you on a journey through Gurkha history, beginning with their origins in Nepal and the moment in 1815 when Gurkhas were first enlisted to fight for Britain. The extraordinary stories on display and housed in our archives cover not only the battles and campaigns but the culture and religion of the homeland of this unique fighting force. We see them locked in battle with mutinous sepoys in 1857, then standing guard in India’s North West and North East frontiers before being sent half a world away to the trenches of the Western Front in 1914 and The Falkland Islands in the early 1980s.

Through its collections and archives the Museum represents over 200 years of a unique and historic relationship, one that continues to this day, with the annual recruitment of Gurkhas from Nepal continuing to be vital for Britain’s Armed Forces.

The History of The Gurkha Museum

At its peak during the Second World War the Gurkha Brigade of the British Indian army contained upwards of 120,000 Gurkha soldiers, and the Brigade remained many tens of thousands strong throughout the 1950’s and 60’s. However, after the close of British involvement in conflicts such as the Malayan Emergency and the Borneo Confrontation, the Brigade of Gurkhas began a gradual reduction in size, and concerns were raised over the continuing preservation of the history of the Brigade, which had until this point been the preserve of individual regiments and units within the Brigade.

The decision was taken to create a Gurkha Museum to preserve and protect Gurkha history. The original Museum was based in converted barrack blocks at Church Crookham barracks, where Gurkha units had become permanently stationed in 1972, and was opened in 1974.

The Museum remained at Church Crookham for 16 years and eventually its collections and archives outgrew its original buildings. In 1990 the museum moved from Church Crookham to its present location within the Short Barrack Block at Peninsula Barracks in Winchester (once a working barracks and now home to a number of Winchester’s Military Museums).

The Museum continues to preserve the heritage of the Brigade of Gurkhas, from its origins in 1815 through to the present day.