Near 100% pass rate celebrated as Gurkha recruits complete training at Catterick

The 2024 intake of recruits to Brigade of Gurkhas has marked the completion of training with a passing out parade at ITC Catterick.

This year, there was a remarkably high first-time pass rate of 99.7% recruits – who now progress to either specific trade training or into one of the two infantry battalions that make up the Royal Gurkha Rifles.

Gurkha training lasts nine months and follows what is widely considered to be the most arduous recruit selection process in Britain's Armed Forces.

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High pass rates are a consistent outcome of Gurkha training year in, year out, standing Gurkha Company and its recruits aside from those joining the Army from non-Gurkha backgrounds.

Each year, thousands of young Nepalese men apply to become Gurkhas, with just a few hundred selected to travel to the UK and into training at Catterick garrison.

"Emotions are really all over the place, in the parade also, when I heard the music I think of all the things I've been through, I just had goosebumps all over my body," Signaller Sohon Rai, Queen's Gurkha Signals, told BFBS Forces News.

"I feel really good, I feel really happy. I'm looking forward to the future."

BFBS Forces News first met the 2024 intake of recruits in February as they stepped off the plane at Manchester Airport.

There, Devahang Limbu explained how he was feeling "great, honoured and privileged" ahead of starting basic training.

Nine months on, and now a fully fledged Gurkha, Rifleman Devahang praised the journey.

"In this journey, we came from different regions, we came from different cultures, though we are Nepali, we all practise our own cultures... during this period I've met a lot of different persons, different characters, they are all amazing."

The Gurkhas' long military history dates back to the early 19th century when the British East India Company first recruited them after recognising their skills and valour during the Anglo-Nepalese War.

Since then, the Gurkhas have fought in all major conflicts, winning 26 Victoria Crosses and cementing a reputation as being one of the fiercest fighting forces in the world.

It was a reputation reflected on the proud faces of the men as the passed off the square and into the field army – as fully trained Gurkhas.

While all the new Gurkhas will enjoy some hard-earned time off now, some must report to their new units sooner than others. 

Many of the men will embark on journeys back home to Nepal, the first time the soldiers will see their families since leaving to join the Army, at the beginning of 2024.