Gabar Singh Negi, was born on 21 April 1895 at Manjaur village near Chamba, in the Indian district of Tehri. The area is in the Himalayas and was part of the original Kingdom of Garhwal, Uttarakhand. He joined the 2nd Battalion of The Garhwal Rifles, a regiment of the British Indian Army, in October 1913; the personnel of the regiment were mainly from the Himalayan hill tribes of garhwal region of Uttarakhand.