Pierre Cuillier-Perron (1753 to 1755–1834) was a French mercenary active in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
.
Born Pierre Cuillier (or Cuellier) at
Luceau near
Château-du-Loir
Château-du-Loir (; literally 'Château of the Loir') is a former commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France. On 1 October 2016, it was merged into the new commune Montval-sur-Loir. was the son of a cloth merchant. In India, he changed his name to Perron (a diminutive of Pierre). He was generally referred to by his contemporaries and posterity as General Perron.
[''Biographie universelle et portative des contemporains'', Paris, 1826, p. 900.]
In 1780 he went out to India as a sailor on a French frigate, deserted on the
Malabar coast
The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...
, and made his way to
upper India, where he enlisted in the
Rana
Rana may refer to:
Astronomy
* Rana (crater), a crater on Mars
* Delta Eridani or Rana, a star
Films
* Rana (2012 film), an Indian Kannada-language action drama
* Rana, a 1998 Telugu-language action film directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy
* R ...
of
Gohad's corps under a Scotsman named Sangster. In 1790 he took service under
De Boigne, and was appointed to the command of his second brigade.
In 1795 he aided the
Maratha
The Marathi people (; Marathi: , ''Marāṭhī lōk'') or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, ''Marāṭhī'') are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-A ...
forces in winning the
Battle of Kharda
The Battle of Kharda also called the Battle of Khurla, took place in 1795 between the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maratha Empire, in which the Nizam was defeated.
During the Battle
Governor General John Shore followed the policy of non-intervent ...
against the ''
nizam
Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the ruler of Hyderabad State ( part of the Indian state of Telangana, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka). ''Nizam'' is a shortened form of (; ), and was the title bestowed upon Asaf Jah I ...
'' of
Hyderabad
Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
, and on De Boigne's retirement became commander-in-chief of Maratha general
Mahadji Sindhia's army. At the
Battle of Malpura (1800) he defeated the
Rajput
Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...
forces.
After the
Battle of Ujjain (1801) he refused to send his troops to the aid of
Scindia
House of Scindia or earlier known as the Sendrak was a Hindu Maratha Royal House that ruled the erstwhile Gwalior State in central India. Ranoji Scindia rose as a prominent military commander under Peshwa Bajirao I. Ranoji and his descendants ...
. His treachery on this occasion shook his position, and on the outbreak of war between Scindia and the British in 1803 Perron was superseded and fled to the British camp.
In the battles of
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
,
Laswari,
Ally Ghur (now Aligarh) and
Assaye, Perron's battalions were completely destroyed by
Lord Lake and
Sir Arthur Wellesley. He returned to France with a large fortune, and died in 1834.
Buildings

Sir Shah Sulaiman Hall's main Building, which currently serves as the
Provost Office (Administrative Block), was built by him in year 1802.
[The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan](_blank)
, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2
The palatial home he built for himself at
Chinsurah
Hugli-Chuchura (), also known by its former names Chinsurah or Hooghly-Chinsurah, is a city of Hooghly district and the district headquarters of Hooghly division in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is one of the densely populated citie ...
was to house Hooghly College (
Hooghly Mohsin College
Hooghly Mohsin College, established in 1836 after the Macaulay Report, is one of the oldest colleges in India. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Arts, Commerce and Sciences. It is affiliated to University of Burdwan.
History
Ho ...
) from 1837 to 1937.
References
*
Herbert Compton''A particular account of the European military adventurers of Hindustan, from 1784 to 1803''(1892).
*
1750s births
1834 deaths
French sailors
French mercenaries
Mercenaries in India
People from Sarthe
People of the Second Anglo-Maratha War
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