Gurkhas' sweetheart brings them home
The Gurkhas' iconic curved knife, so legend has it, always sheds blood before returning to its scabbard. And so it proved as Joanna Lumley brandished the kukri outside the Houses of Parliament and cut the British government down to size on the issue of right of abode for the brigade's veterans.
In her impassioned role as the Gurkhas' sweetheart, the actress-turned-activist secured victory in a battle that can be traced back to the handover of Hong Kong. As the Union Jack was lowered at Tamar for the last time, the door was slammed on Gurkha veterans wishing to settle in Britain. It took 12 years, but last week it was announced that any Gurkha who had served more than four years would be able to settle in Britain with his spouse and any minor children.
Perhaps best known as the outrageous champagne-swigging Patsy in the 1990s British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, the 63-year-old Lumley is no stranger to high-profile causes. She supported the Free Tibet movement as a vocal opponent of last year's Olympic torch relay and has campaigned for animal rights groups. Her successful Gurkha campaign won praise from a chastened Prime Minister Gordon Brown and calls (which she rejected) from the public for her to stand as an independent candidate in the next election.
'I'm not a celebrity in this, I'm a daughter of the regiment. My father was a Gurkha all his life, so I belong with them. I followed the Gurkha flag all around the world,' she said.
Until the dramatic change of policy, Gurkhas who retired prior to 1997 were deemed not to have strong enough ties to Britain to warrant residency because they were based in Hong Kong rather than England. The government's capitulation on the issue came after the Home Office, despite its concerns about the cost of taking in an indeterminate number of veterans, relaxed the rules last month in line with a High Court judgment that the closed-door policy was unlawful.
The Home Office concession granted pre-handover Gurkhas settlement rights based on length of service, bravery awards and service-related medical conditions. But the strict criteria - not faced by servicemen from other foreign nations serving in the British armed forces - merely served to spur on campaigners.
In an unprecedented parliamentary revolt, the new rules were decried as discriminatory and rejected by Mr Brown's own Labour MPs in a House of Commons vote on April 29, seriously undermining his authority. The Gurkha Justice Campaign stepped up its efforts and sensed victory when, on May 21, the prime minister agreed to private talks with Lumley. Within hours of that meeting, the battle was won.
Flanked by veterans of her late father's regiment, Lumley led the celebrations by holding the kukri aloft and letting forth with the Nepali battle cry of Ayo Gorkhali! (Here come the Gurkhas!).
'I would like to pay tribute to Gordon Brown - a brave man who has made a brave decision on behalf of the bravest of the brave,' she said. 'A great injustice has been righted. The Gurkhas are coming home.'
Lumley was born in Kashmir and educated in India, Malaya and Hong Kong. She left school at 16 and, after being rejected by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, pursued a modelling career in swinging sixties London. Her father, Major James Rutherford Lumley, served in the 6th Gurkha Rifles. He was wounded in action by a Japanese bullet during the second world war in Burma and owed his life to Tul Bahadur Pun, a Nepali soldier awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery. The actress was determined to repay her father's debt.
Himalaya Chand, the treasurer of the Hong Kong-based British Gurkha Ex-Servicemen's Association, said she had won a place in the hearts of all Gurkhas with her dedication.
'We would like to give thanks to Joanna Lumley and the British public, who really care for us,' Mr Chand said. 'We feel very warm towards Britain and we know the British people love us very much.'
David Enright, a lawyer acting for the Gurkhas, insisted that while Lumley's star quality helped the campaign, the government seriously underestimated the public's fondness for a fighting force that has served Britain bravely for 200 years and collected 13 Victoria Cross medals along the way.
'They did not recognise the depth of feeling in this country towards Gurkhas and the demand that they be treated equally, not specially, but equally to all other foreign and Commonwealth soldiers. That's all they were asking for - equality of treatment,' Mr Enright told the South China Morning Post.
'Joanna Lumley was a great help. The campaign was very close to her heart and that came across. She was able to communicate our message very effectively because people could see that it was an issue that was very personal to her and her own family history.'
Mr Enright dismissed concerns that more ex-Gurkhas drawing and spending their pensions in Britain would deny Nepal's economy a vital source of revenue and worsen the lot of impoverished Nepalis.
'This is a laughable argument by the Ministry of Defence to resist settlement,' he said. They would earn far more money in Britain and send some of it home.
There are about 3,500 men now in the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas. Those who have retired since 1997 and completed at least four years' service already have automatic right of abode, and at least 6,000 now call Britain home.
With the Home Office estimating that as many as 15,000 more veterans could settle in Britain with their dependants due to the policy reversal, their battle cry has never been more apt: here come the Gurkhas.
