Alexander Haughton Campbell Gardner (Gordana Khan) (1785 - 1877) was a soldier and mercenary. He travelled to Afghanistan and Punjab and served in various military positions in the region. By his own accounts he was born in Wisconsin to a Scottish father and an Anglo-Spanish mother, but it has been alleged that he in reality was Irish, from Congloose. He was trained as an artillery gunner, most likely by the British army, and served most of his life as a mercenary in Central Asia.

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  • Alexander Haughton Campbell Gardner (Gordana Khan) (1785 - 1877) was a soldier and mercenary. He travelled to Afghanistan and Punjab and served in various military positions in the region. By his own accounts he was born in Wisconsin to a Scottish father and an Anglo-Spanish mother, but it has been alleged that he in reality was Irish, from Congloose. He was trained as an artillery gunner, most likely by the British army, and served most of his life as a mercenary in Central Asia. Originally, he had tried to secure a position in the Russian Army. Failing this, he drifted east and south, into Central Asia. Eventually, he reached Afghanistan and joined the rebel Habibullah Khan fighting against Dost Mahommed Khan. Gardner's wife, a local, and his baby were murdered by Dost Mahommed's forces. Gardner left Afghanistan as an outlaw for Punjab in August 1831, where he was appointed Commandant of Artillery. He served in this position for many years before he was transferred to the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, where he was one of between 32 and 100 Western soldiers in Ranjit's army. He later promoted to the rank of Colonel by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Gardner was involved in numerous gunfights and sword fights during his career. He was described as being six foot, with a long beard, an all around warrior and fighter. Gardner was known to have saved the City of Lahore in 1841 when his comrades abandoned him and he fired the guns that killed 300 enemies. Gardner remained in the service of the Maharajas as they came and went, and witnessed the fall of the Punjab as a sovereign kingdom. This he vividly described in his book The Fall of Sikh Empire . In his old age he retired to Jammu then to Srinagar, where he died, well into his nineties. Gardner's adventures are recounted in Memoirs of Alexander Gardner: Soldier and Traveler Edited by Major Hugh Pearse. Gardner appears as a major supporting character in the novel Flashman and the Mountain of Light.
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  • Alexander Gardner (photographer)
  • the photographer of the same name
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  • Alexander Haughton Campbell Gardner (Gordana Khan) (1785 - 1877) was a soldier and mercenary. He travelled to Afghanistan and Punjab and served in various military positions in the region. By his own accounts he was born in Wisconsin to a Scottish father and an Anglo-Spanish mother, but it has been alleged that he in reality was Irish, from Congloose. He was trained as an artillery gunner, most likely by the British army, and served most of his life as a mercenary in Central Asia.
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  • Alexander Gardner (soldier)
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