Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Stuart of Annat and Rait was born at Powblack Farm in Doune on 13 May 1744. He was the son of farmer Robert Stuart.

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Stuart died on 18 February 1820 and is buried in Kilspindie Churchyard, Carse of Gowrie. On his tomb is a plaque written in Persian “The Support of the State, Helper of the Kingdom General Robert Stuart, Behadur War a Veritable Sword of Mohammed A faithful Servant of Shah Alam Ghazi”.

He joined the Bengal Army of the East India Company as a cadet in 1764 serving in India. By the 1780s the army consisted of 70,000 sepoys and 15,000 British Troops, in Bengal half of the officers were Scottish. By 1791, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Stuart commanded the 6th Native Infantry Brigade on the western frontier of Oudh, northwest Delhi with order to resist Sikh attacks. On 3 January while out riding his horse he was captured and made prisoner by the Sikh Chief Banga Singh who demanded a ransom for his return.

Stuart’s release from captivity was secured by a 4 ½ foot former dancing girl called Begum Samru. She had been picked up from the red light district by a mercenary soldier Walter Reinhardt Sombre. Sombre treated Samru as his equal and allowed her to train as a mercenary and was renowned for her bravery when leading her army into battle.  On Sombre’s death, Samru took over the lucrative Principality of Sardhana. Samru had converted to Catholicism and on discovering that the Catholic Lieutenant-Colonel, Robert Stuart, had been kidnapped she set out securing his release.

Stuart wrote to Sumru whilst in captivity and she supported him with food and clothing. On 24 October 1791 she managed to secure his release in exchange for payment of a 15,000 Rupee ransom (later reimbursed by the East India Company). Stuart was awarded the title Behadur (the Brave) by the Moghul Emperor Shah Alam. Samru has been depicted in various works including Sir Walter Scott’s The Surgeon’s Daughter.

When Stuart returned to Scotland he brought back black buffalo and Arabian horses. He settled at Annat lodge, Kinnoull Hill, Perth which was named after his ancestral home in Doune. His house would later be associated with the painter Sir Everett Millais and his wife Effie Gray.

With the huge fortune Stuart had accumulated during his colonial service he provided pensions for several of his widowed and spinster cousins, including the sisters of John Stewart, 5th and last of Annat, who was a drunk and sold the family estate of Annat in Kilmadock.

Forty-one letters and other possessions are held in Perth and Kinross archives chronicling his life including the 10 months he spent in captivity. His portrait by Baird is hung at the Perth Museum and Gallery.

Sources:

• madeinperth.org/lieutenant-general-robert-stuart-soldier.
• Begam Samru (1925) by Banerji Braindranath
• ‘The incredible story of Begum Samru’ by Archana Garodia Gupta, Swarajya Magazine, Mar 21, 2015