CHANDA SINGH (d. 1930), better known as Chanda Singh Vakil or lawyer, was born at Kaliarivali, district Sirsa, in the present Haryana state, in a Sikh farming family of moderate means. He was the eldest of the three sons of Dial Singh. An attack of smallpox in his childhood had deprived him of his eyesight, but this did not deter him from carving his way in life. He passed his primary classes from the village school and went to Amritsar for his middle school course. He took his Matriculation at Government High School, Delhi. He was gifted with a phenomenal memory and excelled at studies.
DASAUNDHA SINGH (d. 1767), founder of the Nishanavali misl, was the son of Chaudhari Sahib Rai belonging to the village of Mansur, in Firozpur district of the Punjab. He received pahul, the Khalsa initiatory rites at the hands of Diwan Darbara Singh, a prominent Sikh leader of the post Banda Singh period. By 1734, Dasaundha Singh was a leading figure in the Taruna Dal. At the time of the formation of the Dal Khalsa in 1748, he was proclaimed the leader of the Nishanavali misl.
NICHOLSON, JOHN (1821-1857), political assistant at Firozpur (1844-45), was born in Dublin on 11 December 1821, the son of Dr Alexander Nicholson. He obtained cadetship in Bengal Infantry in 1839 and in December the same year was posted to the 27th Native Infantry at Firozpur. In 1844, he became political assistant at Firozpur in which capacity he was found indulging in intrigues against the Sikh State and Lord Hardinge felt inclined to remove him from the frontier.
