Achille Allard

Achille Allard, a young Muslim boy whose parents had been killed in one of the battles of Multan, who was saved by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born at Sayyidpur in the then province of Multan. General Allard noticed his intelligence and asked the Maharaja's permission to adopt him. Jacquemont saw him in Lahore, and Honigberger performed upon him a delicate surgical intervention removing a fistula from his spine. At the time of the operation Achille was little more than skin and bone and none expected him to recover, but he did and in 1834, Achille was baptized as a Christian-the faith of General Allard's family.

In October 1834, he accompanied General Allard to Paris. He was educated at the Ecole Speciale de Commerce in Paris at the expense of the French government. When General Allard had left for Lahore in June 1836, a regular correspondence went on between Achille and his foster father through Feuillet de Conches, Head of the Protocole at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Paris). In 1840, Achille decided to go back to Lahore with Benjamin Allard (the General's brother) in order take charge of the General's eastates. General Allard had died at Peshawar and was buried at Lahore.

He fell sick the next year and died at Lahore in 1841 or 1842 and was buried in a cemetery next to his foster father's, General Allard's tomb.

References

1. Lafont,Jean-Marie, "Bannou Pan Dei Allard and the Family of General Allard," Journal of

2. SIKH Studies, vol. 2. AMRITSAR, 1978

3. Honigberger, John Martin, Thirty-five Years in the East. Calcutta, 1852