Friends for Lifetime.....and in Death -7 Maidstone-based Gurkha Veterans Bring Much Comfort to the Bereaved Family of late Capt. Douglas Allen Gohl (ex 7GR) at his Funeral

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At the behest of the bereaved family of Capt. Douglas Allen Gohl, ex 7GR (during WW2), 7 Gurkha Veterans from Maidstone Nepalese Community attended his funeral on Friday 12 August 2011 at 2pm at Vinters Park Crematorium as pallbearers. The request to attend the funeral had came from Jill Johnson (late Capt. Gohl's daughter) through Gurkhas.com and the Maidstone Nepalese Community PR Mr. Hari Gurung. 

Late Captain Doughlas and wife Erid Gohl have been supporting the Gurkha Welfare Trust for a long time. Jill has handed in a cheque for £500 to MNC on behalf of her parents and made another cheque for £500 to GWT. Instead of flowers, the family requested all contributions to be made to the Gurkha Welfare Trust in late Capt. Gohl's name.

 

Gurkhas.com team would like to applaud the veterans team led by Maidstone Nepalese Community Chairperson and ex-Gurkha Lt. (Retd.) Dam Bahadur Gurung for kindly considering the family's request at a short notice and volunteering to attend the funeral, and Jill and her mother for their continuing support and high regard for Gurkhas.



Here's a brief description of her late father, penned by Jill


My dad was a volunteer aged 19 as an infantry soldier with the East Yorkshire regiment from January 1942 and was selected for officer training then sent to India. He achieved his elementary Urdu certificate in 1945.

He worked at Brigade HQ as transport officer then was promoted captain and became staff officer under Brigadier RHH Scott Cmd of the 11th Infantry brigade. I have attached a photo of my dad during wartime with his Ghurkha uniform on ! He was at Palampur in the Punjab,India in 1944-46 with the 7th Gurkha Rifles.



He was demobilised in February 1947, returning to his home town of Hull in Yorkshire.



After the war he went to Cambridge University to study Economics and Politics at Gonville & Caius College and then he made his career in education, teaching first, then managing education services at a senior level for a number of local authorities. He joined the Worker's Educational Association in his later years acting at District Secretary in Bristol as adult education had given him his chance to better himself. He retired initially to Yorkshire but came to Maidstone to live next door to me in his 80s as his health failed.



He was aware of the community of Gurkhasin and around Maidstone and he was invited to the unveiling of the Gurkha statue at Maidstone Museum but was unable to attend as he would have needed a wheelchair and felt uncomfortable about it.

When he was visiting me when i was younger we always went for a curry together and he would try his dreadful Urdu ( see 1942 English/Urdu/Nepali phrasebook above ) out on unsuspecting waiters.The opening of the two Nepali restaurants in Maidstone was just too late as he had ceased to go out and about. I have tried them though, and they are excellent.



Mum was very touched the veterans attended and we had Dad's Gurkha hat on the coffin with his flowers. It was a part of his life he enjoyed a great deal and he always had huge repect for the gurkha soldiers he worked with in India. We avidly supported the campaign to get veterans the right to remain in the UK on retirement and were very pleased when this was a successs.

If the money my Dad wished left is of use to the Maidstone Nepalese Community we will be very pleased as a family.


PS the photo above with the leopard is a spoof as "Sam" was a rug my Dad bought and he posed this photo with his colleague..................typical of his sense of humour.


Jill