Jean-François Allard
Veteran of Napoleon's cavalry who arrived in Lahore in 1822 and raised the Fauj-i-Khas, the elite French-drilled brigade of the Sikh army.
Jean-François Allard was born in 1785 at Saint-Tropez and served as a cavalry officer in Napoleon's army. After Waterloo he wandered east and arrived in Lahore in 1822 with Jean-Baptiste Ventura.
Ranjit Singh hired him to raise a regiment of dragoons and cuirassiers on French lines. He raised the Fauj-i-Khas, the elite brigade of the Sikh army, which carried the French tricolour with Persian inscriptions, and trained it to the highest European standards.
He married a Chamba princess, Bannu Pan Dei, and served the Maharaja until his death at Peshawar in 1839. He was buried in Lahore at Anarkali.
He had been a sergeant-major in the bodyguard of Joseph Bonaparte and held the Légion d'honneur. When he and Ventura arrived in March 1822 the Lahore newswriter reported two strangers, 'Ulur' and 'Wuntoor', who were at first suspected of being British spies. Ranjit Singh's foreign officers had to promise loyalty to the Sikh state even against their own countries, avoid beef and smoking in public, and marry locally; Allard's portrait with his wife Bannu Pan Dei and their five children was painted at Anarkali in 1838.
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Italian officer who trained the Sikh infantry in European drill and later governed districts for Lahore. He also dug into a Buddhist stupa at Manikyala.
Neapolitan soldier who governed Wazirabad and then Peshawar for the Sikh Empire with notorious severity.
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Saint-Cyr-trained French officer who cast and commanded Ranjit Singh's artillery and mapped and dug the antiquities of the Punjab.