“I think I woudn´t have been born without Gurkhas,” Lumley, whose father served in the British Gurkha Regiment, said upon arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport and then unleashed the famous war cry of “Aayo Gorkhali!”.
Tul Bahadur Pun—who was conferred the Victoria Cross by the British Government — had rescued her father James Rutherford Lumley, a British Major in the Sixth Gurkha Rifles, during the World War II.
Lumley was greeted by more than 500 including about 100 women from families of British Gurkhas when she came out of the terminal at around 4:30 pm in Kathmandu on an Indian Airlines flight.
“My friends of Nepal, I am your family,” she addressed the crowd gathered to receive her at the airport on her first visit to Nepal, dubbed as her ´homecoming´.
She was mobbed by a horde of media and commoners and needed 15 minutes to come out of the crowd.
The 63-year-old "Absolutely Fabulous" star spearheaded a campaign for the British Army veterans to be allowed to settle in Britain after the British government denied Tul Bahadur Pun a visa.
She had famously said that her father would have been "overwhelmed with shame and fury" at the British government´s treatment of Gurkha veterans during her campaign.
Britain announced in May that all Gurkha veterans with at least four years in the British Army could apply for residency after a government climbdown in the face of Lumley´s passionate campaign. Previously, only those who retired after 1997 were eligible to apply.
Lumley will meet President Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and visit Pokhara, Dharan and Birtamod to meet large Gurkha communities residing in these towns during her stay in Nepal.
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