George Thomas

George Thomas (; 22 August 1802), known in India as Jaharai Jung and Jahazi Sahib, was an Irish mercenary and ultimately a Raja who was active in 18th-century India. From 1798 to 1801, he ruled a small kingdom in India, which he carved out of the Hisar and Rohtak districts of Haryana. He is often known in popular memory as the 'Raja from Tipperary'. Early life Thomas was born in Roscrea, County Tipperary, the son of a poor Irish Catholic tenant farmer who died when George was a child. Originally forced to press-gang at Youghal, County Cork, where he worked as a labourer on the docks, Thomas deserted from the British Navy at the age of 25 in Madras in 1782. Still illiterate at the age of 32, he led a group of Pindaris north to Delhi by 1787, where he took service under Begum Samru of Sardhana. Though he was the favourite general of Begum Samru, due to jealous intrigues of his French rival Le Vassoult (committed suicide in 1795) he was supplanted in 1792 in her favour. He then transferred his allegiance to Apa Khande Rao, a Maratha chieftain under Mahadaji Scindia of Gwalior State. He worked for Apa Khande Rao for four years from 1793 to 1797 to conquer Haryana by subduing Rajputs of Rajasthan, Kachwaha Shekhawat Thakur rulers of Haryana and Shekhawati, Mughals under Wazir Mirza Najaf Khan and Bhatti Muslim Rajputs. In return for service to the Marathas, he was gifted the jagir of Jhajjar. Here he constructed a fort known as Georgegah, which was locally known as Jahazgarh.