WGeneral Paolo Crescenzo Martino Avitabile Hindko: ; was an Italian soldier, mercenary and adventurer. A peasant's son born in Agerola, in the province of Salerno near Amalfi, he served in the Neapolitan militia during the Napoleonic wars. After Waterloo he drifted east like many other adventurous soldiers. In 1820 he joined the army of the Shah of Persia, attaining the rank of colonel and receiving several decorations before returning to Italy in 1824.
WPadshah Sultan Shah Shuja Durrani was ruler of the Durrani Empire from 1803 to 1809. He then ruled from 1839 until his death in 1842. Son of Timur Shah Durrani, Shuja Shah was of the Sadduzai line of the Abdali group of Ethnic Pashtuns. He became the fifth Emir of Afghanistan.
WMajor-General William George Keith Elphinstone CB was an officer of the British Army during the 19th century.
WGeneral Bakht Khan was commander-in-chief of the Indian independent forces in the region of Delhi during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the East India Company.
WEmir Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai, nicknamed the Amir-i Kabir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of the Durrani dynasty, he became the Emir of Afghanistan in 1823. He was the 11th son of Payendah Khan, chief of the Barakzai Pashtuns, who was killed in 1799 by King Zaman Shah Durrani.
WWazīr Akbar Khān, born Mohammad Akbar Khān and also known as Amīr Akbar Khān, was an Afghan prince, general, emir for a year, and finally wazir/heir apparent to Dost Mohammad Khan until his death in 1847. His fame began with the 1837 Battle of Jamrud, while attempting to regain Afghanistan's second capital Peshawar from the Sikh Empire.
WMohan Lal Zutshi KLS was an Indian traveler, diplomat, and author. He played a central role in the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1838–1842. His biography of Dost Mohammad Khan, the Emir of Afghanistan in Kabul, is a primary source on the war.
WSir William Hay Macnaghten, 1st Baronet, was a British civil servant in India, who played a major part in the First Anglo-Afghan War.
WEldred Pottinger was an Anglo-Indian army officer and diplomat. In 1837 he happened to be in Herat in Afghanistan to gather intelligence on the area when the Persian army, supported by Russians, laid siege to the city. He helped the Afghan commander repulse the Persians, and was subsequently dubbed the "Hero of Herat" by British historians.
WFlorentia Sale was an Englishwoman who travelled the world while married to her husband, Sir Robert Henry Sale, a British army officer. She was dubbed "the Grenadier in Petticoats" for her travels with the army, which took her to regions such as Mauritius, Burma and India, and various other areas under the control of the British Empire.
WJean-Baptiste Ventura, born Rubino, was an Italian soldier, mercenary in India, general in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Sarkar-i-Khalsa, and early archaeologist of the Punjab region of the Sikh Empire.