Battle Honour. The Battalion was once again in the United Kingdom from 1991 for what would be its final years, until it was amalgamated in 1994 with both battalions of 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles (The Sirmoor Rifles), 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles, and 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles to form the Royal Gurkha Rifles. At a final parade at Church Crookham on 26 May 1994 attended by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and many old comrades from Britain and Nepal, the regiment marched into history. Lineage 1902: 8th Gurkha Rifles 1903–1907: 2nd Battalion 10th Gurkha Rifles 1907–1959: 7th Gurkha Rifles 1959–1994: 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles Battle honours The Great War: Suez Canal, Egypt 1915, Megiddo, Sharon, Palestine 1918, Shaiba, Kut al Amara 1915 '17, Ctesiphon, Defence of Kut al Amara, Baghdad, Sharqat, Mesopotamia 1915-18 Afghanistan 1919 The Second World War: Tobruk 1942, North Africa 1942, Cassino I, Campriano, Poggio del Grillo, Tavoleto, Montebello-Scorticata Ridge, Italy 1944, Sittang 1942 '45, Pegu 1942, Kyaukse 1942, Shwegyin, Imphal, Bishenpur, Meiktila, Capture of Meiktila, Defence of Meiktila, Rangoon Road, Pyawbwe, Burma 1942-45 Falkland Islands 1982 Victoria Cross Rifleman Ganju Lama VC MM of the 1st Battalion, Ningthoukhong, Burma, Second World War (1944). Colonels of the Regiment Field Marshal The Earl Kitchener of Khartoum KG KP GCB OM GCSI GCMG GCIE PC Major General Nigel Gresley Woodyatt CB CIE Major General J H F Lakin CB CSI 1944–1956: Field Marshal The Viscount Slim of Burma KG GCB GCMG GCVO GBE DSO MC KStJ 7th Gurkha Rifles, The Gurkha Regiment (1948) 1956–1964: Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer KG GCB GCMG KBE DSO 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles (1959) 1964–1975: General Sir Walter Walker KCB CBE DSO and two bars 1975–1982: Brigadier Eric David Smith CBE DSO 1982–1991: Brigadier John Whitehead MBE 1991–1994: Brigadier Sir Miles Hunt-Davis GCVO CBE 1994: Regiment amalgamated to form The Royal Gurkha Rifles. Unique Regimental Customs In the Tropics British Army officers invariably wore white mess kit jackets when appropriate. Officers of 7th Gurkha Rifles however, always wore black jackets. This was because the regiment went into mourning for the loss of Lord Kitchener, (see above) Secretary of State for War, on 5 June 1916, when HMS Hampshire struck a mine and sank. Lord Kitchener was travelling to Russia. It appears that the order for officers to wear dark jackets with tropical