Born on 15 December 1888 in Palpa, Nepal, to Haria Gulte,[1] Thapa was a 26-year-old Rifleman in the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles, British Indian Army, during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

On 25 September 1915 in Fauquissart, France Rifleman Kulbir Thapa, having been wounded himself, found a wounded soldier of The Leicestershire Regiment behind the first-line German trench (believed initially to be a 20-year-old soldier from Melton Mowbray by the name of Bill Keightley but since confirmed to be 19152 Private Evan Jones who received a letter from the Adjutant Captain B Dalton, of the 2nd Battalion Queen Alexandra's Own 3rd Gurkha Rifles, dated the 25th February 1916, requesting details of the action, that was made known in 2014 having been kept by the family together with a photograph of Kulbir Thapa for 99 years).

[3] Such an incredible act of faith and courage had by now attracted a good deal of attention, and when he emerged from his trench for the third time with one more wounded comrade over his shoulder, the German soldiers actually clapped their hands to encourage the Gurkha on.

[7] On 25 September 2021 a life-size bronze statue of Thapa carrying a wounded British soldier from the Leicestershire Regiment off the battlefield during World War One was unveiled in Princes Gardens in Aldershot in Hampshire.

The memorial was commissioned by the Greater Rushmoor Nepali Community to highlight the bond between Nepal and Great Britain dating back more than two centuries.