WD108-110, WD360

ALLAN, Sir ALEXANDER, 1st BARONET (1764-1820)

Allan served in the 3rd and 13th Madras Native Infantry from 1780 to 1804. Lieutenant 1786; Captain 1796; Major 1803; resigned 1804. From 1814 he was a Director of the East India Company. He took part in the third and fourth Mysore Wars. At the siege of Seringapatam in 1799, Allan was sent to the palace of Tipu Sultan with a flag of truce. He figures in H. Singleton’s engraving of the surrender of the two sons of Tipu Sultan to General Sir David Baird. An engraving of the assault on Seringapatam, 4 May 1799, was made from a drawing by Allan. He had already published drawings made during the third Mysore War in his ‘Views in the Mysore Country’ (London, 1794). Two drawings for plates in this book are in the present collection.

Bibliography: Mildred Archer, ‘Tippoo’s Tiger’ (London, 1959), 17-19, plates 13, 15.

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WD108-110; WD360

4 drawings in similar style of hill forts in S. India, said to have belonged to Sir Gore Ouseley (1770-1844). Purchased 12 December 1919. WD107 from the same group has been reattributed to Robert Hyde Colebrooke (‘q.v.’).