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Duleep Singh
‐
Maharaja of the Punjab who was deposed as a child and brought to England as a favourite of Queen Victoria
Other names
Maharaja Duleep Singh
Place of birth
Date of arrival to Britain
Location(s)
IP24 3TG
United Kingdom
Place of death
Paris, France
Date of time spent in Britain
1854–93
About
Maharaja Duleep Singh was the former Maharaja of Punjab who, in 1849 at the age of 10, was removed from the Punjab with his title and power devolved. The Koh-i-Noor diamond was surrendered to Queen Victoria. Despite his exile and the removal of sovereignty, Duleep Singh became famous as a friend of Queen Victoria. He converted to Christianity in 1853 and settled in the UK in 1854. In 1864 Duleep Singh married Bamba Müller (of German and Egyptian descent) in Cairo and then established his family at Elveden Hall in Suffolk. Duleep Singh had raised the money by a loan from the India Office. They had eight children together. Queen Victoria was godmother to their eldest son.
Duleep Singh became known for his extravagant lifestyle, enjoying the countryside and game-shooting in particular. Duleep Singh also rebuilt the church, cottages and school in Elveden. Despite his lifestyle in Britain, he decided to fight to reclaim his land and title in the Punjab. In 1886 he returned to India where he reconverted to Sikhism. He went to live in Paris, where he enlisted the help of Irish revolutionaries and Russians to lead a revolt against the British in the Punjab, but he was ultimately unsuccessful in bringing these plans to fruition. Bamba died in 1887, and in 1889 Singh married Ada Douglas Wetherill, an Englishwoman, in Paris. They had two children. He died in 1893 in Paris but his body was returned to Elveden, where he was buried.
Nilakantha Goreh, Lord Kimberley, Lady Login, Lord Login, Sir Henry Ponsonby, Joseph Salter, Queen Victoria.
Children: Bamba Sofia Jindan Duleep Singh, Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh, Frederick Victor Duleep Singh, Edward Alexander Duleep Singh, Sophia Alexandra Duleep Singh, Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh, Paulina Alexandra Duleep Singh, Ada Irene Helen Duleep Singh.
Alexander, Michael and Anand, Sushila, Queen Victoria's Maharajah: Duleep Singh, 1838–93 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980)
Bance, Peter, The Duleep Singhs: The Photograph Album of Queen Victoria's Maharajah (Stroud: Sutton, 2004)
Bance, Peter, Sovereign, Squire and Rebel: Maharajah Duleep Singh and the Heirs of a Lost Kingdom (London: Coronet House, 2009)
Bell, Evans, The Annexation of the Punjab and the Maharajah Duleep Singh (London: Trubner & Co., 1882)
Campbell, Christopher, The Maharajah's Box (London: HarperCollins, 2000)
Chakrabarty, Rishi Ranjan, Duleep Singh: The Maharajah of Punjab and the Raj (Oldbury: D. S. Samara, 1988)
Gulati, S. P., The Tragic Tale of Maharajah Duleep Singh (Delhi: National Book Shop, 1998)
Login, E. Dalhousie, Lady Login's Recollections: Court Life and Camp Life, 1820–1904 (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1916)
Login, Lena Campbell, Sir John Login and Duleep Singh (London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1890)
Madra, Amandeep Singh, ‘Singh, Duleep (1838–1893)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2007) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/41277]
The Maharajah Duleep Singh and the Government: A Narrative (London: Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., 1884)
Singh, Ganda (ed.) Maharajah Duleep Singh Correspondence (Patiala: Punjab University, 1977)
Ancient House Museum, Thetford
Correspondence with Lord Kimberley, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Correspondence with W. E. Gladstone, British Library Manuscript Reading Room, St Pancras
Mss Eur E377, family papers, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras
Correspondence, Royal Archives, Windsor Castle
Maharaja Duleep Singh ('Men of the Day. No. 266') by Sir Leslie Ward, chromolithograph, published in Vanity Fair 18 November 1882, NPG D44094
© National Portrait Gallery, London, Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Image credit
Maharaja Duleep Singh by Antoine Claudet, albumen carte-de-visite, circa 1864, NPG x1506
© National Portrait Gallery, London, Creative Commons, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
