One day in the early 19th century, a young soldier in the 8th Dragoons, came on guard duty without his complete ceremonial outfit. The officer in charge sternly reprimanded him, but the tough Irishman responded with insolent words-the enraged officer then struck him with a cane. The soldier, William O’Brien, stepped forward and knocked down the officer with the butt of his carbine.
O’Brien then grabbed a horse and galloped off, never to return.
The 8th Dragoon were then in the service of the East India Company, which by the early 19th century had acquired control over most of India. The only places outside the company’s hold were the Punjab plains and the Western Himalayas, bordering Tibet. The prominent ruler in the Himalayan region was Maharaja Sansar Chand, of the ancient Katoch Rajput clan of Kangra.
Willim O’Brien took up service with the Rajput ruler sometime around 1814-Sansar Chand’s country of Kangra in the modern era had become subject to Ranjit Singh of the Punjab, but the Raja still enjoyed local independence and his forces were employed in wars against neighboring 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 corps of 1400 disciplined infantry for Sansar Chand-for this service the Katoch King made him a colonel. O’Brien was joined later by an Englishman, named Jackson, but who took the alias of James. He was an artilleryman and took charge of the Raja’s armoury, which he enlarged with his own manufactured arms.
Unfortunately he had a falling out with O’Brien in 1820, after which he left the Rajput ruler’s service, and joined that of the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh.
A third soldier named MacDonald also served under Colonel O’Brien, but he was involved in an undiplomatic incident where a messenger from Ranjit Singh to Sansar Chand was insulted…..consequently he was expelled by Sansar Chand.
William O’Brien also designed uniforms for Sansar Chand’s 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 quaint hill-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 interred in a tomb overlooking the River Beas. Behind this tomb the new Raja, Aniruddha Chand, placed sculptures of two horses, which were the Irishman’s favorites and had been killed 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 Irish colonel’s tomb is visible today in the picturesque state of Himachal Pradesh (India).