Alexander Gardner
American-Scottish adventurer and colonel of artillery at Lahore, remembered for his tartan turban.
Alexander Gardner claimed to have been born in 1785 on the shores of Lake Superior to a Scottish father, and to have wandered across Central Asia as a soldier of fortune before reaching the Punjab in 1831. His own memoirs are colourful and not always reliable.
He served as a colonel of artillery in the Sikh army, fought against the Afghan emir Dost Mohammad, and was close to the Dogra minister Dhian Singh. He witnessed, and sometimes took part in, the bloody succession struggles that followed Ranjit Singh's death.
After 1846 he served Gulab Singh in Kashmir, where he lived until his death at Jammu in 1877. A famous photograph and a portrait by George Landseer show him in a turban and suit of the 79th Cameron Highlanders' tartan.
Connected
Sher-e-Punjab, the Lion of Punjab. United the misls into the Sikh Empire, ruled from Lahore for forty years and covered the Harmandir Sahib in gold.
Dogra raja of Jammu under Lahore, whose general Zorawar Singh conquered Ladakh and Baltistan. In 1846 he stayed out of the war and bought Kashmir from the British for 7.5 million rupees.
Chief minister of the Sikh Empire for 25 years and the most powerful man at court after Ranjit Singh. Assassinated in 1843.