Sam Cowan

General sir SAM COWAN, KCB, CBE, first visited Nepal in 1966 when he trekked for two months in the east and west of the country. At the time he was on a three-year tour as a junior officer with Queen’s Gurkha Signals, serving in Borneo, Malaya and Hong Kong. This experience changed him personally and professionally and gave him a deep and abiding love and respect for the ordinary people of Nepal. During a long and distinguished career, until his retirement in 2002, he held numerous senior staff and command jobs culminating in the successive appointments of Inspector General of Army Training, Quartermaster General and Chief of Defence Logistics. He resumed his annual treks in Nepal in 1989, when he was appointed Colonel Queen’s Gurkha Signals. In 1994, he was appointed Colonel Commandant of the Brigade of Gurkhas, the titular head of Gurkhas in the British Army. His annual visits to Nepal as Colonel Commandant included eight official audiences with the reigning monarchs. Since 1989 he has done a further 30-plus treks. He started writing on Nepal when he retired from the army. From the outset he eschewed the use of titles and awards to indicate that the views he expressed were strictly personal. This is the second collection of his published articles. His first book, Essays on Nepal Past and Present, was published in 2018.