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Some information appearing alongside the photo of the five men:
"In 1910 these Indian Orderly Officers (two of whom were Gurkhas at the time) took their turn with the officers of the Household Cavalry and the Foot Guards to stand guard at the catafalque in the Great Hall of Westminster at the King’s Lying-in-State. Rudyard Kipling immortalised this event in a short story called “In the Presence”.
quoted from http://www.gurkhabde.com/the-queens-gurkha-orderly-officers/
More information, with names of the Gurkhas, from an article written by Colonel Richard Cawthorne:
One hundred years ago, on 7th May
1910, King Edward VII died and for the
first and only time Gurkha officers, who
were serving as King’s Indian Orderly
Officers (KIOO), took part in the funeral
of a Sovereign...
In 1910, the KIOO comprised Subadar
Majors Santbir Gurung 2nd King Edward
VII’s Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor
Rifles) and Singbir Ghale 3rd Queen
Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles and two
subadars of the 39th Garhwal Rifles. King
Edward VII had been for some years
Colonel-in-Chief of 2nd Gurkha Rifles
while Queen Alexandra had recently been
appointed as Colonel-in-Chief of 3rd
Gurkha Rifles. The Officer-in-Charge was
Major H St A Wake 8th Gurkha Rifles
who, like his predecessors and successors,
maintained a diary of the KIOO’s tour of
duty. It is upon his diary that this article is
mostly based...
The KIOO had arrived in London
towards the end of April 1910 and were
being fitted with new uniforms and
familiarising themselves to life in
England when the King died. On 13th
May, the Orderly Officers were received
in Audience by King George V, who
invited them to guard the body of his
Father during the Lying-in-State and
afterwards to be his Orderly Officers. A
few days later they were summoned to
Buckingham Palace to attend a private
Lying-in-State of the King. The diary
describes how they were conducted into
the Throne Room and after standing for
some time in front of the coffin, saluted
and retired backwards until they had
withdrawn from the Room.
On the 17th May, the KIOO were taken
by open landaus to Buckingham Palace
where they took their place in the
procession immediately in front of the
massed bands leading the gun carriage
cortege that was to convey the coffin of
King Edward VII to Westminster Hall for
the Lying-in-State. On arrival at
Westminster Hall, the KIOO joined the
Gentlemen-at-Arms, Yeoman of the Guard
and officers of the Household Cavalry and
Foot Guards in keeping vigil over the
coffin.
The four Orderly Officers mounted
guard at the foot of the coffin one at a time,
for one hour each. They performed this
duty day and night continuously for 72
hours receiving much praise, to include that
of the most senior and revered officer of the
Indian Army, Field Marshal Lord Roberts,
who commented on “the admirable and
steadfast manner in which they had
performed such a difficult and trying feat...
The part played by Subadar Major
Santbir Gurung in the funeral of King
Edward VII was later to form the basis of
Rudyard Kipling’s story “In The
Presence”.
(Col Cawthorne is presently chairman of
trustees of the Gurkha Museum.)”
quoted from THE VIGIL By Colonel Richard Cawthorne
The Britain-Nepal Society Journal
Number 34, 2010
http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/bnsj/pdf/bnsj_34.pdf
More information about the history behind Kipling's story:
http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_inpresence1.htm
First person account from one of the Gurkha officers in the photo:
MEMOIRS OF A SUBADAR MAJOR OF THE 2nd GOORKHAS...
Record of Service of Honorary Captain Santabir Gurung, O.B.I., I.O.M.
Sardar Bahadur.
" In 1910, I was selected as one of the Indian Orderlies of His Majesty the
King Emperor Edward VII. The other two were Subadar-Major Singbir Thapa,
2/3rd Gurkha Rifles and Subadar-Major Budhi-Sing, 39th Garhwal Rifles. I was
ordered to report at Bombay to proceed to England..."
The full account appears on page 20 of the Kipling Journal, March 1959:
http://www.kiplingjournal.com/textfiles/KJ129.txt
