Jean-Baptiste Ventura



Jean-Baptiste Ventura (b. Giovanni Battista Reuben (also Rubino) Ventura in Finale Emilia near Modena, Italy 25 May 1794 - Lardenne (Toulouse, France) 3 April 1858) was an Italian soldier, mercenary and adventurer who ended up in the Sikh Empire in Punjab.

Of Italian Jewish origin from Modena, Ventura, at the age of seventeen enrolled as a volunteer in the militia of the Kingdom of Italy, served with Napoleon's imperial army where he reached the rank of colonel of infantry. After the Waterloo and the final downfall of Napoleon he returned to his home; but in 1817, yet known by the local authorities for his revolutionaries and Napoleonic sympathies owing to a dispute between him and a local member of the reactionary Ducal police, he was obliged to leave the country.

He went first to Triest, and then to Constantinople, where he was for a time a ship-broker.

Learning that Persia was seeking the services of European soldiers, he obtained an officer's commission, and helped to instruct the forces of the shah in European methods of warfare. He soon attained the rank of colonel. On the death of the shah in 1822, Ventura offered his services to his successor, 'Abbas Mirza. In the latter's service, however, were a number of English officers who were decidedly hostile to the French, with whom they classed Ventura on account of his having fought under Napoleon; and through their intrigues Ventura was dismissed.

He travelled east, ending in Lahore with Jean-François Allard in 1822. They took service with the Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, and soon got to prove their worth.

In March the following year, both Allard and Ventura held command in the Battle of Nowshera where a combined Afghan force was defeated, resulting in Punjab's capture of Peshawar.

A rebellion having arisen in Afghanistan, Ventura conducted successfully several campaigns of a difficult nature, and greatly enlarged the boundaries of the kingdom of Lahore.

Together with Allard, Paolo Di Avitabile and Claude August Court, Ventura formed the group of European mercenary officers responsible for the modernizing of the Sikh army, and the training and command of the Fauj-i-Khas, the European model brigade, with Ventura as its commander.

"...Jean Baptiste Ventura... reorganised the infantry into a formidable army including Gurkhas, Pathans, Biharis and Ooriyas."

He is also described as "the baron of the Fauj-i-Khas".

Ventura was highly thought of by the Maharajah, and in addition to the rank of General, he was also appointed kazi and Governor of Lahore. He rose rapidly in the Darbar and virtually became the Commander In Chief of the Darbar forces.

Ventura married an Indian (or a local Armenian according other sources) lady, by whom he had a daughter; but he was always desirous of returning to his native country. In 1837 he went on a diplomatic mission to Paris and London, but was recalled to Lahore before he had time to visit his family in Europe.

He spent his spare time in Peshawar exhuming Bactrian Greek and Kushan coins from Buddhist stupas in the Khyber Pass, making numerous excavations then sending the findings on to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta.

On the death of Ranjit Singh, Ventura took part in the contest for the succession, and remained in the service of the new raja, Dhulip Singh. During the reign of the latter, Ventura continued his career of conquest.

He served faithfully under Ranjit Singh and his successors Kharak Singh, Nau Nihal Singh and Sher Singh until his retirement in 1843. Taking his fortune with him, he lived out his days in comfort in Paris.

In France he presented King Louis Philippe with a set of ancient Greek coins which he had unearthed, and which were evidences of the march through that country of Alexander the Great.

In his later years he lost a part of his large fortune in unsuccessful commercial enterprises. According to Flaminio Servi, Ventura received baptism toward the end of his life.