One day in the early 19th century, a young soldier from the 8th Dragoons came on duty without his full ceremonial garb. The officer in charge reprimanded him severely, but the gruff Irishman answered with insolent words; the enraged officer then beat him with a baton. The soldier, William O’Brien, stepped forward and felled the officer with the butt of his carbine.
O’Brien then grabbed a horse and galloped off, never to return.
The 8th Dragoons were 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 control 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, from the ancient Katoch Rajput clan of Kangra.
Willim O’Brien entered the service of the Rajput ruler sometime around 1814: the Kangra country of Sansar Chand in the modern era had become the subject of Ranjit Singh of the Punjab, but the Raja still enjoyed local independence and their forces were used in wars against neighbors. rulers
The new disciplined infantry introduced by European adventurers, particularly French military officers in 18th-century India, had become the dominant force in warfare. William O’Brien established a corps of 1,400 disciplined infantrymen for Sansar Chand; for this service King Katoch made him a 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 made weapons.
Unfortunately, he had a falling out with O’Brien in 1820, after which he left the service of the Rajput ruler and joined that of the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh.
HAS 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… sansar Chand consequently expelled him.
William O’Brien also designed uniforms for the Sansar Chand infantry, which can be seen in this blog post: http://royalsplendour.blogspot.com/2008/01/kangra-modern-era.html. He remained in the service of the picturesque mountainous state of Kangra even after the death of Sansar Chand in 1823. His own death came a few years later: his dying wish was to be buried in a tomb overlooking the Beas River. Behind this tomb, the new Rajah, Aniruddha Chand, placed sculptures of two horses, which were the favorites of the Irishman and had died on 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 grave of the Irish colonel is visible today in the picturesque state of Himachal Pradesh (India).