Former Gurkha soldier marks Armistice centenary by laying poppy atop Himalayan mountain

Poppy tribute: former Gurkha soldier Nirmal ÔNimsÕ Purja on the top of Ama Dablam in the Himalayas
PA
Tom Powell11 November 2018

A former Gurkha soldier joined Armistice commemorations by planting a poppy tribute at the peak of a Himalayan mountain.

Nims Purja, 35, reached the peak of Ama Dablam in the eastern region of Nepal shortly before 11am on Sunday.

Mr Purja said he wanted to do something "very special" to mark the centenary of the Armistice.

"I feel very humble to be paying tribute to all those who gave their lives for our freedom today but I wanted to do something very special for this very special day marking the centenary of the end of the First World War," he said.

Mr Purja was born in the Dhaulagiri region of Nepal and joined the Brigade of Gurkhas in 2003 before joining the Royal Marines.

Next year he is planning his biggest challenge yet when he tries to raise over £1 million for mindfulness charities.

He is aiming to climb all 14 of the 8,000 metre-plus Himalayan peaks in a single seven month season.

Remembrance service at the Cenotaph memorial

1/98

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in