This distinguished senior officer was the highest-ranking Gurkha in the Battalion in the 1890s. This painting by Chater Paul Chater is published in An Assemblage of Indian Army Soldiers & Uniforms, edited by Michael Glover (Perpetua Press, 1973). Chater copied the portrait from a photograph taken by Frederick Bremner around 1897. The Subadar-Major is not named, but his row of medals reveals a long and meritorious service in the 5th Gurkha Rifles.
Around his neck he wears the gold and enamel Order of British India, suspended from a crimson ribbon. His silver medals are for the Indian Mutiny, the India Medal with two clasps, the Second Afghanistan War medal with four clasps, and finally the bronze Kabul to Kandahar Star. This officer is a Thakur, a high-caste Gurkha.
