James Skinner

Colonel James Skinner (1778 – 4 December 1841) was an Anglo-Indian military adventurer and soldier of the Maratha Empire and the Bengal Army of British India. He became known as Sikandar Sahib later in life and is most known for two cavalry regiments he raised for the British at Hansi in 1803, known as 1st Skinner's Horse and 3rd Skinner's Horse (formerly 2nd Skinner's Horse), which are still units of the Indian Army. Born to a Scottish father and an Indian mother from the Bhojpur region, he was also fluent in Persian, the court and intellectual language of India in his day. Skinner composed several works in the language, including an extensively illustrated manuscript Kitāb-i Tashrīḥ al-Aqvām (History of the Origin and Distinguishing Marks of the Different Castes of India), now held by the Library of Congress. The historian, Mildred Archer, said of Skinner that: "Among military adventurers who have served in India, none was more dashing than the half-Indian leader of the famous Irregular Cavalry Corps known as Skinner's Horse." Early life Skinner was born in 1778 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. His father was Lieutenant-Colonel Hercules Skinner ( – 12 July 1803), an officer in the East India Company Army of Scottish origin. Skinner claimed that his mother Jeany was an Indian aristocrat, daughter of a zamindar from the ”Bojepoor country” (standard spelling is Bhojpuri) around Benares district. She was taken prisoner at the age of fourteen, and came under the care of his father, then an ensign, who treated her with much regard. Subsequently, they had seven children, two girls and five boys, Joseph, James, Hercules, Alexander, Thomas, Louisa and Elizabeth. When he was 12 years old, his mother Jeany committed suicide, because her daughters were sent to a school for children of mixed heritage.