PIERRE CUILLIER

See also:

• PERRON (a French word meaning properly a "large stone," Ital. Petrone, from Lat. Petra, Fr. pierre, stone)
• PIERRE CUILLIER PERRON (1755-1834)

PERRON (1755-1834)  , French military adventurer in India, whose name was originally Pierre Cuillier, was born in 1755 at Chateau du Loire in France, the son of a cloth merchant . In 1780 he went out to India as a sailor on a French frigate, deserted on the Malabar coast, and made his way to upper India, where he enlisted in the rana 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 assisted to win the battle of Kardla against the nizam of Hyderabad, and on De Boigne's retirement became commander-in-chief of Sindhia's army . At the battle of Malpura (1800) he defeated the Rajput forces . After the defeat of Ujjain (1891) he refused to send his troops to the aid of Sindhia . His treachery on this occasion shook his position, and on the outbreak of war between Sindhia and the British in 1803 Perron was superseded and fled to the British camp . In the battles of Delhi, Laswari 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 . See H . Compton, European Military Adventurers of Hindustan (1892) .