BENET, a Frenchma n, was one of the European physicians at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He arrived at Lahore in 1838, and was given employment as a personal physician to the Maharaja and surgeon general to the Khalsa army on a monthly salary of Rs 1,000. After the Maharaja`s death, Benet left Lahore. He shifted to Ludhiana and started practice as a physician. He had some trouble with the British there and was forced to return to his native France.

EDWARDES, SIR HERBERT BENJAMIN (1819-1868), soldier, writer and statesman, son of the Rev. B. Edwardes, was born on 12 November 1819. He joined the Bengal infantry as a cadet in 1841, and served as Urdu, Hindi and Persian interpreter to his regiment. He was aide decamp to Lord Hugh Gough during the first Anglo Sikh war and was, in 1847, appointed assistant to Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, British Resident ai the Sikh capital, who sent him to effect the settlement of Bannu, the account of which is given in his work, A Year on the Punjab Frontier in 1848-49, London, 1851.