The First World War in 100 Objects by Peter Doyle

Author:Peter Doyle [Doyle, Peter & Strachan, Sir Hew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: World War I
Goodreads: 23388331
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-03-15T08:00:00+00:00

49

Kukri

Country of origin: India

Date of manufacture: 1915

Location: Private collection

The kukri (or khukuri) is the traditional knife weapon of the Gurkha soldier. Intended primarily as a chopping tool, its long broad knife blade and sharp edge was feared by most adversaries. Dated 1915, this knife is typical of that carried in the Great War on all fronts. With a 13in curved blade and leather scabbard, it was manufactured in Cossipore, close to Calcutta (now Kolkata). The site of a munitions factory for over two centuries, it was the oldest factory on the Indian subcontinent. The weapon is razor sharp and is marked with the ‘broad arrow’ ordnance mark so characteristic of all weapons and equipment used by the British Empire. The kukri was designed primarily as a utilitarian weapon for chopping; it was well suited to close combat due to the bend in the blade – though it was just as easily used as a slashing weapon, or one used on a lunge. Either way, facing it must have been a terrifying prospect.

Gurkha soldiers are admired for their valour and bravery, as tough soldiers from the foothills of the Himalayas in the isolated mountain state of Nepal that is separate from India and direct British governance – the Gurkha state having fiercely defended its status in border wars with the British in the early nineteenth century. Yet Gurkhas were also enlisted into the East India Company in the middle of one of these wars, in 1816, and the steadfastness of these men and their successors was valued during the mutiny that threatened British sovereignty in the region. They would fight with the British Army in other of Queen Victoria’s ‘small wars’.

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