Gurkha camel patrol, 1917

Photograph, World War One, Egypt and Palestine (1914-1918), 1917.

These men are probably from the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles, which was raised in Egypt in January 1917 from a cadre of the 2/3rd Gurkha Rifles alongside a draft of new recruits. It joined 233rd Brigade, and in June 1917 took over a section of the defences near Rafa in Palestine before joining the advance on Gaza in late October, where it first went into action.

Photograph from the diary of Captain Walter Greville Bagot-Chester (1887-1918), 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles, covering the period, 19 Oct 1916 to 1 Dec 1917 in Palestine and Egypt.