One day in the early 1800s, a young soldier of the Eighth Dragon came on duty without his full ceremonial garb. The officer in charge reprimanded him severely, but the rude Irishman responded with insolent words: the enraged officer struck him with a baton. The soldier, William O’Brien, stepped forward and knocked the officer down with the butt of his carbine.
O’Brien then grabbed a horse and galloped off, never to return.
The Eighth Dragon was then in the service of the East India Company, which by the early 19th century had acquired control of most of India. The only places outside the company’s domain were the plains of Punjab and the western Himalayas, on the border with Tibet. The prominent ruler in the Himalayan region was Maharaja Sansar Chand, of the ancient Katoch Rajput clan of Kangra.
Willim O’Brien assumed service with the Rajput ruler sometime around 1814: the Kangra country of Sansar Chand in the modern era had become the subject of Ranjit Singh of Punjab, but the Raja still enjoyed local independence and his forces were employed in wars against the neighbors. rulers.
The new disciplined infantry introduced by European adventurers, particularly French military officers in 18th century India, had become the dominant force in wars. William O’Brien established a disciplined 1,400 infantry corps for Sansar Chand; for this service, King Katoch appointed him colonel. O’Brien was later joined by an Englishman, named Jackson, but who took the alias James. He was a gunner and took over the Raja’s armory, which he expanded with his own manufactured weapons.
Unfortunately, he had a fight with O’Brien in 1820, after which he left the service of the Rajput ruler and joined that of the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh.
TO third The soldier named MacDonald also served under Colonel O’Brien, but was involved in an undiplomatic incident in which a messenger from Ranjit Singh to Sansar Chand was insulted … consequently, Sansar Chand expelled him.
William O’Brien also designed uniforms for the Sansar Chand infantry, which can be viewed in this blog post: http://royalsplendour.blogspot.com/2008/01/kangra-modern-era.html. He remained in service to the picturesque mountainous state of Kangra even after Sansar Chand’s death in 1823. His own death came a few years later: it was his dying wish to be buried in a tomb overlooking the Beas River. Behind this tomb, the new Raja, Aniruddha Chand, placed sculptures of two horses, which were the Irishman’s favorites and had died in his death.
From one of the letters written by O’Brien on behalf of Sansar Chand, it turns out that his real name was Matthew Heaney. The Irish colonel’s grave is visible today in the picturesque state of Himachal Pradesh (India).
