J. P. Cross


Lt. Col. John P. Cross OBE is a former British Army officer and author who currently lives in Nepal. He was educated at Shrewsbury and served in the Brigade of Gurkhas in the British Indian Army and the British Army from 1943 to 1982, most of that time in Asia. His first active service was in the Burma Campaign of World War II, against the Japanese. After the Second World War he became heavily involved in counter-insurgency during the Malayan Emergency and the Borneo Confrontation, and later training and recruiting. He is fluent in Nepali.

Works

Cross first published English For Gurkha Soldiers in Singapore in 1955. This and the 1957 second printing were privately published, but in 1962 it was finally made an official HMSO publication and printed again. In 1966 he published Gurkha - The Legendary Soldier, again in Singapore.
Since retiring from the army, Cross has published a number of historical and biographical works.
A new edition of his book "First In, Last Out', with a new foreword by Hew Strachan, is due out in April 2017 from Greenhill Books.