ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>GARDNER ALEXANDER HAUGHTON CAMPBELL (1785-1877)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="GARDNER,ALEXANDER,HAUGHTON,CAMPBELL,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279GARDNER, ALEXANDER HAUGHTON CAMPBELL (1785-1877), son of a Scottish immigrant, was, according to an autobiographical account, born in North America in 1785. As a boy, he learnt Italian, Spanish, Latin and Greek, and proceeded in 1807 to Ireland to train for a maritime career. Returning to America, he set out on a journey to Astrakhan where his elder brother was in the Russian service. In 1817, he left Russia and after wandering for many years in Central Asia, drifted to Afghanistan where he took up service under Am&#299r Hab&#299bullah <u>Kh</u>&#257n. When in 1826, Am&#299r Dost Muhammad became master of K&#257bul, Gardner fled and reached Pesh&#257war in 1831 to be appointed commander of artillery by Sult&#257n Muhammad <u>Kh</u>&#257n B&#257rakza&#299, a tributary of the Sikh government. In 1832, he was summoned to Lahore where he became an artillery officer in Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh's army with the rank of colonel. Gardon&#257 S&#257hib, as he was popularly known in the Sikh army, served in several military campaigns until 1836 when R&#257j&#257 Dhi&#257n Si&#7749gh took him over from the Mah&#257r&#257j&#257's service and placed him in full command of his own artillery. He successively served H&#299r&#257 Si&#7749gh and Gul&#257b Si&#7749gh.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Details of his experience as a traveller and soldier, as recorded in the <i>Memoirs of Alexander Gardner</i> (edited by Major Hugh Pearse, London, 1898), have been seriously challenged. C. Grey, author of <i>European Adventurers of Northern India, 1785 to 1849</i>, for instance, describes him as a fake, who never occupied any position of consequence in the Sikh army, and as one who took his incidents, adventures and travels from the books of the period, and drawing upon his imagination, wove a fictitious narrative.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gardner, however, claims to have firsthand knowledge of many of the tumultuous events which overtook the Punjab after the death of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh. Hugh Pearse records that he was an eye-witness to the series of assassinations planned and executed by the &#7692ogr&#257 minister, Dhi&#257n Si&#7749gh. He, for instance, witnessed the murder of Chet Si&#7749gh in the royal palace on 9 October 1839. He, likewise, narrates in his book how Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Kha&#7771ak Si&#7749gh was slowly poisoned to death; how Ka&#7749var Nau Nih&#257l Si&#7749gh was killed in November 1840; how Mah&#257r&#257&#7751&#299 Chand Kaur's head was crushed with stones in June 1842; how the Lahore Fort was stormed by Ka&#7749var Sher Si&#7749gh in January 1841 and how he, as Mah&#257r&#257j&#257, and his young son, Part&#257p Si&#7749gh, were slain on the same day; how Dhi&#257n Si&#7749gh met his death followed by the killing of the Sandh&#257&#7749v&#257l&#299&#257 <i>sard&#257rs;</i> how Suchet Si&#7749gh was finished off by his nephew; how H&#299r&#257 Si&#7749gh and his adviser, Pa&#7751&#7693it Jall&#257, were punished by Sikh troops; and how Waz&#299r Jaw&#257har Si&#7749gh was brought down from his elephant and done to death.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gardner was dismissed from service along with other European officers during the time of Pa&#7751&#7693it Jall&#257's ascendancy, but he somehow lingered on at Lahore serving Mah&#257r&#257&#7751&#299 Jind Kaur. He did not take part in the first Anglo-Sikh war. On the formation of Council of Regency in December 1846, R&#257j&#257 Tej Si&#7749gh had him expelled from the Punjab. Gardner thereupon entered the service of Gul&#257b Si&#7749gh who gave him command of Kashm&#299r artillery and a battalion of infantry.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gardner died at Jamm&#363 on 22 January 1877 at the age of 92 and was buried at the military cemetery at Si&#257lko&#7789.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Pearse, Hugh, <i>Soldier and Traveller : Memoirs of Alexander Gardner.</i> Edinburgh, London,1898<BR> <li class="C1"> Grey, C., <i>European Adventurers of Northern India. 1785-1849</i> [Reprint]. Patiala, 1970<BR> <li class="C1"> S&#363r&#299, Sohan L&#257l, <i>'Umd&#257t-ut-Tw&#257r&#299<u>kh</u>.</i> Lahore, 1885-89<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Gulcharan Si&#7749gh <br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>