JAMES

See also:

• JAMES SKINNER (1778-1841)
• SKINNER, JOHN (1721-1807)

SKINNER (1778-1841)  , British military adventurer in India, son of Lieut.-Colonel Hercules Skinner, was born in India in 1778, his mother being a Rajput lady . At the age of eighteen he entered the Mahratta army under de Boigne, where he soon showed military talents; and he remained in the same service under Perron until 1803, when, on the outbreak of the Mahratta War, he refused to serve against his countrymen . He joined Lord Lake, and raised a regiment of irregular horse called " Skinner's Horse " or the " Yellow Boys," which became the most famous regiment of light cavalry in the India of that day . He was present at the siege of Bharatpur, and in 1818 was granted a jagir yielding Rs . 20,000 a year, appointed lieutenant-colonel in the British service and made C.B . He had an intimate knowledge of the character of the natives of India, and his advice was highly valued by successive governor-generals and corn--SKIPPON manders-in-chief . He died at Hansi on the 4th of December 1841, and was buried in a church at Delhi which is called after his name . See J . Baillie Fraser, Military Memoir of Lieut.-Colonel James Skinner (1851) .