ABBOTT, SIR JAMES (1807-1896), British Resident\'s assistant at Lahore, capital of the sikh kingdom, after the first Anglo - Sikh war (1845-46), was born on 12 March 1807, the son of Henry Alexius Abbott. Passing out of the military college of the East India Company at Addiscombe, England, Abbott received

AGNEW, PATRICK ALEXANDER VANS (1822-1848), a civil servant under the East India Company. He was the son of Lt Col Patrick Vans Agnew, an East India Company director. Agnew joined the Bengal civil service in March 1841. In 1842, he became assistant to the commissioner of Delhi division. In December

ALEXANDER ALIAS MUHAMMAD SADIQ, a European of unknown nationality, who drifted to Lahore in 1841 from Kabul, where he had served in Shah Shuja\'s army, and had adopted the Muslim faith. He joined the Khalsa army as a battalion commander serving under John Holmes.

ALLARD, BENJAMIN (1796-1877), step-brother of General Allard, born at Saint Tropez in 1796, was sent to Lahore in 1829 in order to replace his brother as the military adviser of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, but the two brothers failed to win the confidence of the Maharaja, who would not release General

ALLARD, JEAN FRANCOIS (1785-1839), Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, an order instituted in 1802 by Napoleon I, was born at Saint Tropez, France, on 8 March 1785. In 1803, he joined the French army and served in it fighting in the Imperial Cavalry in far flung fields in Italy,

ALVARINE, an Italian (Irishman, according to C. Grey`s European Adventurers of Northern India), who joined service under the Sikh Darbar in 1841. He died at Lahore soon afterwards.

ANDREWS, CHARLES FREER (1871-1940). Anglican missionary, scholar and educationist, was born to John Edwin Andrews on 12 February 1871 in NewcastleonTyne in Great Britain. His father was a minister of the Evangelical Anglican Church. Andrews grew up in an intense and emotional religious environment. A nearly fatal attack of rheumatic

ARGOUD, BENOIT, a Frenchman, who joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s infantry in November 1836 as an instructor. He was of a quarrelsome nature and readily picked rows with his colleagues and subordinates. Dismissed from service in April 1837, he proceeded to Afghanistan, but failed to get any employment there. Returning

AUCKLAND, GEORGE EDEN, EARL OF (1784-1849), Governor General of India, son of William Eden, First Baron of Auckland, was born at Eden Farm, near Beckenham, in Kent, in August 1784. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the bar at Lincoln`s Inn in 1809. From 1810-13,

AVITABILE, PAOLO CRESCENZO MARTINO (1791-1850), a Neapolitan soldier of fortune who, starting life as a private gunner, succeeded in obtaining high ranks in two widely separated Asiatic armies of Persia and Punjab, was born at Agerola, Naples, Italy, on 25 October 1791. From 1807 onwards he successively served in the