Gabar Singh Negi

He led a bombing party along trenches till the enemy yielded

Gabar Singh Negi came from the hill country of Garhwal in northern India. He enlisted in the 39th Garhwal Rifles before the First World War and served with its 2nd Battalion. The regiment’s recruitment linked small Himalayan communities to an army that would soon be fighting far from home.

Negi went to France with the Indian Army during the war. In March 1915 the Indian Corps took a leading part in the attack at Neuve Chapelle, where the Allies attempted to break the German trench system. The fighting required soldiers to clear defended trenches at close range rather than merely cross open ground.

On 10 March, Negi was among a bayonet and bombing party that entered the main German trench. He repeatedly moved first around its traverses, using bombs and close fighting to force the defenders back. The party continued until the surviving opponents surrendered. Negi was killed during the action. His courage and determination brought a posthumous Victoria Cross.

His death left his young wife, Satoori Devi, a widow. The decoration was sent through the India Office for presentation to his next of kin. He had no postwar career and no identified grave; his name is commemorated on the Neuve-Chapelle Memorial among Indian servicemen who died in France.

In Garhwal, remembrance of Negi became part of the relationship between his community and the regiment. Commemorative events at Chamba honour a rifleman whose brief service ended while leading others through one of the Western Front’s dangerous trench assaults.