Lachhiman Gurung

Rifleman of the 4th Battalion, 8th Gurkha Rifles, holder of the Victoria Cross. Born on 30 December 1917 in the village of Dakhani in Nepal, into a farming family. He was below the formal minimum height for the Gurkha regiments but was accepted. On the night of 12-13 May 1945 at Taungdaw in Burma, his forward trench was attacked by a large Japanese force. He threw back the first two grenades; the third exploded in his right hand, taking his fingers and badly wounding his face, right eye and body. Left alone of three men, he held the position for four hours, loading and firing his rifle with his left hand and shouting defiance at the enemy. At first light thirty-one enemy dead were counted in front of his trench. His Victoria Cross was gazetted on 27 July 1945. He lost the right hand, and the sight of one eye never returned. After the war he lived in Nepal and later moved to Britain. In the 2000s he took part in the campaign for the right of Gurkha veterans to settle in the country they had fought for, which succeeded in a change of the rules in 2009. He died in England on 12 December 2010.