13 Facts About Lal Singh

Raja Lal Singh was Wazir of the Sikh Empire and commander of Sikh Khalsa Army forces during the First Anglo-Sikh War.

Lal Singh was regularly supplying information and even receiving instructions from Company officers, communicating through Captain Peter Nicholson.

Lal Singh was, a shopkeeper native to Sahgol in the Jehlum District.

Lal Singh entered the service of the Sikh government in 1832, working as a writer in the treasury, and, according to some sources, converting from his original Hinduism to Sikhism in order to secure a place at court.

Lal Singh was patronised by the Wazirs Dhian Singh Dogra and Hira Singh Dogra, gaining favour by engineering, in 1843, the murders of Beli Ram and Bhai Gurmukh Singh, both of whom were disliked by Hira Singh.

Nevertheless, when Maharani Jind Kaur turned against Hira Singh, Lal supported the Maharani and her brother Jawahar, helping them to persecute Hira Singh.

Lal quickly won the Maharani's confidence, and became her closest advisor - contemporaries assumed that he was her lover, although Lal denied that in later life - being appointed to the Council of Regency.

When Jawahar Singh, who had since been appointed Wazir, was assassinated by the Sikh Khalsa Army on 21 September 1845, Lal Singh was made Wazir of the Sikh Empire in his place on 8 November.

At the start of the war, Lal Singh kept his divisions entrenched at Ferozeshah even when the British garrison at Ferozepur was open to attack, allowing John Hunter Littler to retreat from the village and join forces with Hugh Gough.

Gough's East India Company army subsequently defeated the Khalsa in the Battle of Mudki, from which Lal fled after a single exchange of fire, and at the Battle of Ferozeshah, which was only won with the help of Tej Singh's treachery.

Lal Singh was tried by a Court of Inquiry, found guilty, and exiled to Agra with a pension of 12,000 rupees a year.

Lal Singh was interviewed by journalist John Lang, who found that he had no complaints about his situation, and had taken up archaeology and surgery as hobbies.

Lal Singh was later moved to Dera Doon, where he eventually died in 1866.