January

GENERAL JEAN FRANCOIS ALLARD

1785-1839

General of the Sikh Army & Military Governor of Peshawar

Jean Francois Allard was born in St Tropez, in the South of France. Aged eighteen he enlisted himself in the ‘23rd Regiment’ of the French army, later transferring to the ‘Neapolitan Regiment of the Dragoons’ for active service in Spain. Elevated to the rank of Lieutenant in the ‘Imperial Dragoons of the Old Guard, when Napoleon Bonaparte landed near Antibes with 600 men in March 1815, he was fortunate to have escorted Napoleon to Paris.

In 1818, he served Prince Abbas Mirza of Persia for four years and with his comrade Jean Baptiste Ventura arrived in the dominions of Maharajah Runjeet Singh in 1822. The Maharajah offered him the task of reorganising the cavalry and the battalion under Colonel Sheikh Basawan was deputed under his direct control to raise a regiment of dragoons and lancers.

In 1829, he raised the ‘Fauj-I-Khas’ or the ‘Royal Brigade’ it comprised of infantry, cavalry and artillery and was 6000 strong. The standards of the regiment were the tricolours of the French flag inscribed with the motto ‘Waheguri Ji Ki Fateh’ (Victory of the Almighty) with each regiment depicting the Imperial eagle. The Sikh cavalry under General Allard achieved a high level of efficiency that his ‘Cuirassiers’ were now the finest noble looking troops of the Sikh army.

He married to the customs of the kingdom a young princess ‘Bannu Pan Dei’ the daughter of Raja Menga Ram of Chamba. In 1834, he was officially granted permission to return to France along with his family. The Maharajah endeavoured every means of dissuading him from leaving who even at the last moment quoted “At least leave your children with me then I will be assured that you will return for them”.

After a short stay in France he was back in Calcutta bringing with him a consignment of arms and was ecstatically received by the Maharajah. But on the 23rd January 1839, he suddenly died from chronic heart failure in Peshawar. His body was interred as he wished in the mausoleum of his infant daughter Marie Charlotte in the rear garden of his mansion in Lahore.

IMAGES and CAPTIONS:

1005/A: General Jean Francois Allard

1006: Tropez Theophile Allard – The younger son of General Allard

1008: Bannu Pan Dei – The wife of General Allard

1007: The royal seal of General Allard

1009: General Jean Francois Allard

1010: Order of Merit – Star of the Punjab Medal

1010A: Henri Prevost Allard – The current descendant of General Allard

1011B: This statue of General Allard was removed and later destroyed by the Nazi Army during World War 2 in 1945.

1012A: Medal presented to General Allard by Maharajah Runjeet Singh