Speaking of provenance, that's a crude inscription for such an important guy. The "late 44th GR" reference means, I presume, that he was a member of the 44th Gurkha Rifles at the time of his retirement. However, when I looked up the naming of that regiment, it was not until 1901 that it became the 44th Gurkha Rifles. Since he retired in 1897, four years before the change in name, we have an anachronism with the inscription. It's a nice kukhri, and worthy of a distinguished soldier, but is the inscription genuine or added by someone else to inflate its value?
The chronology of the regiment's name is shown in the attached picture from the Wikipedia site devoted to this unit.
.
|