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

DALHOUSIE, JAMES ANDREW BROUN RAMSAY, First Marquis of (1812-1860), Governor General of India (1848-56), son of George (1770-1838), the ninth Earl in the peerage of Scotland, was born at Dalhouse Castle on 22 April 1812. He was educated at Harrow and at Christ Church, Oxford. He succeeded his father to

GARDNER, ALEXANDER HAUGHTON CAMPBELL (1785-1877). son of a Scottish immigrant, was, according to an autobiographical account, born in North America in 1785. As a boy, he learnt Italian, Spanish, Latin and Greek, and proceeded in 1807 to Ireland to train for a maritime career. Returning to America, he set out

HURBON, a Spaniard, who joined the Sikh army as an engineer in 1842. He was given command of a regiment and, later, that of a brigade. He was an astute tactician and is said to have planned and built, in concert with Mouton, entrenchments at Ferozeshah and Sabhraori during

METCALFE, SIR CHARLES THEOPHILUS (1785-1846), diplomat and provisional Governor General of India, son of Thomas Theophilus Matcalfc, a director of the East India Company, was born in Calcutta, on 30 January 1785. He started his career as a writer in the service of the East India Company. He was appointed

ROSSAIX(d. 1844), a Frenchman, who was a skilled road engineer and who had served in Napoleon`s army. He came to the Punjab in 1843 to take up service under the Sikh Maharaja. His salary was fixed at Rs 500 per month. His main charge was the construction of bridges

BENTINCK, LORD WILLIAM CAVENDISH (1774-1839), Governor General of India, son of William Henry, third duke of Portland, was born on 14 September 1774. In 1803, he was appointed governor of Madras, but recalled in 1807 in consequence of the sepoy mutiny at Vellore. In 1827, Bentinck succeeded Lord Amherst as

DE LA FONT, CAPTAIN AUGUSTE, a Frenchman, who entered Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s service in 1838. He was appointed an aide decamp to General Ventura. Later, he acted as a staff officer to Colonel C.M. Wade during his journey to Kabul. He took active part in the action at Fort

GILBERT, SIR WALTER RALEIGH (1785-1853), divisional commander of the British army under Lord Hugh Gough in the first and second Anglo Sikh wars, son of the Rev Edmund Gilbert, was born in Bodmin, England, in 1785. In 1801, he joined the Bengal infantry as a cadet. He rose to

HURELEEK, a Greek, who according to Alexander Gardner, Ranjit Singh and His While Officers, joined the Sikh infantry in 1841 during the reign of Maharaja Sher Singh.

METUI, a Russian soldier of fortune, described to be a captain in one of the regiments of the Sikh army in 1841 on a monthly salary of Rs 300. According to one account, he had married a Kashmiri woman and had a daughter by her and was a resident

SHERIFF, a Spaniard, who joined the Sikh army as an engineer in 1841 on a salary of Rs 300 per month. He had not been in service more than an year when he fell off his horse and died in Lahore.