LIEUTENANT HIRA SINGH
Is a Hindu of the Kshatraya caste. He comes of a soldier race and family, his father having served in the East India Company's army before him, and he having from his youth followed the same profession for the past eighteen years, serving successively as Private, Lance-Corporal, Corporal, and Sergeant in a native Regiment. He went through the last Afghan campaign, having been to Cabul, Quetta, and other places.
For many years his conduct was excellent, but latterly he took to drinking, got into serious trouble with the police, and was sent to prison for forty days, thus losing his post as well as his claim to pension. He was met by our officers on his release, accompanied them to the Home, gave his heart to God, and has now been an officer in our ranks for more than a year. During most of this time he has been connected with our Bombay Prison Gate work, and has in turn helped to rescue many others. But for the help he then received, a life of drunkenness and crime would probably have been, almost forced upon him. He is a good specimen of numbers who would like to reform, but with ruined reputation have no choice, save between starvation and crime.