He was 20 years old, and a Rifleman in the 1st Battalion, 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force), in the Indian Army during World War II when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

The citation in the London Gazette reads: In Italy on 10 November 1944 a Company of the 1st battalion 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force) was ordered to send a fighting patrol on to Monte San Bartolo, an objective of a future attack.

Rifleman Thaman Gurung then started to work his way to the summit; the second scout attracted his attention to Germans in a slit trench just below the crest, who were preparing to fire with a machine gun at the leading section.

Rifleman Thaman Gurung then crept forward to the summit of the position, from which he saw a party of Germans, well dug in on reverse slopes, preparing to throw grenades over the crest at the leading section.

It was undoubtedly due to his superb gallantry that his platoon was able to withdraw from an extremely difficult position without many more casualties than were in fact incurred and that some very valuable information was obtained which resulted in the capture of the feature three days later.