IMPERIAL KHAKI

A copper box decorated with the crest of the 12th Frontier Force Regiment, pre-1947. In the desperate days of 1942 in Burma, the Indian Army was fighting with its back to the wall against the Japanese. During the battle for Pagoda Hill, near the Sittang bridgehead, a young Captain of the 4th battalion, 12th Frontier Force Regiment, was shot and badly wounded in the stomach. But not before capturing the hill and being recommended for the Military Cross. His name was Sam Hormus

A gouache rendering of the original crest of one of the Indian Navy's oldest and most famous destroyers The first INS Rajput, an R-class destroyer, sailed under the Indian tricolour in 1949. But before that she was the Royal Navy's HMS Rotherham, and in 1944 she sailed into the Indian Ocean to fight the Japanese. From Burma to Malaya she operated in support of the British Indian Army troops advancing against the Japanese. Finally, her commanding officer accepted the surrender

A brass replica of the bronze Gurkha statue that stands watch on Horse Guards Avenue, London. If you visit the Gurkha statue at Whitehall, you will read beneath it the words: 'BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE, MOST GENEROUS OF THE GENEROUS, NEVER HAD COUNTRY MORE FAITHFUL FRIENDS THAN YOU.' They are written by Professor Sir Ralph Lilley Turner. Sir Ralph was a young officer in the 3rd Gurkhas, who fought in Palestine in World War One and won the Military Cross. What's more interesting is

The crest of No.353 Squadron, Royal Air Force, carved in Eastern India, circa 1942. At its centre is a Bengal Tiger, and the story of the Indian Air Force's No.7 Squadron. In 1942 the RAF's 353 Squadron was operating in Burma. The squadron had within it 118 Indians: 23 officers and 95 other ranks. In the desperate calculus of war, there was a need to expand the Indian Air Force from four squadrons to seven. And these 118 Indians had proven themselves to be more than capable o