Exiled Maharaja Duleep Singh

How the British decimated the strongest kingdom of North India and saw to it that none of the offshoots, of last exiled Maharaja Maharaja Duleep Singh of Lahore, were allowed to produce their  heirs.

Maharaja Duleep Singh married twice, first to Bamba Muller  and then to Ada Douglas Wetherill. He had eight children in total, six from his first marriage to Bamba:

• Prince Victor Duleep Singh
• Prince Frederick Duleep Singh
• Prince Albert Edward Duleep Singh
• Princess Bamba Duleep Singh
• Princess Catherine Duleep Singh
• Princess Sophia Duleep Singh 

He also had two children from his second marriage to Ada Douglas Wetherill:

• Princess Pauline Alexandra Duleep Singh
• Princess Ada Irene Beryl Duleep Singh

All the eight children died without legitimate issue, ending the direct line of the Sikh Royalty.

It is strongly rumored by the family that all were given slow food poisoning so that they remained incapable of producing any kids. Thus a whole powerful Sikh Royalty family was systematically eliminated, so that British could rule ruthlessly and longer.

Duleep Singh was much admired by Queen Victoria (Britain Queen, between (1838-1901), who is reported to have written of the Punjabi Maharajah: "Those eyes and those teeth are too beautiful". The Queen was godmother to several of his children.

Singh is considered as Britain's first Sikh settler, having been exiled to its shores in 1854, after being dethroned and having his country annexed by the East India Company in 1849.

Here is an astonishing but true story retold below:




It is an emotional encounter and marks the reunion of Maharajah Duleep Singh, exiled King of the Punjab and ruler of the Sikhs, with his ailing mother, Maharani Jind Kaur.

       With his mom Maharani Jinda

The two had not seen each other for almost 14 years following the seizure of Duleep Singh’s kingdom by the British and his deportation from India.


In the intervening period he had converted to Christianity and become an English aristocrat, the toast of smart society and on the closest of terms with Queen Victoria and her family. Yet he never regained his throne.

Almost a century-and-a-half later Duleep Singh remains a fascinating and complex personality. An exhibition later this year at the Ancient House Museum in Thetford, Norfolk, will bring new attention to his extraordinary life.

Born in Lahore in 1838, Duleep Singh was the heir to Maharajah Ranjit Singh of the Punjab, one of the most powerful and wealthy of all India’s princely states. He acceded to the throne at the age of five but his kingdom posed a real obstacle to the expansion of the British Raj and after two bitter wars the British forced the Sikhs to capitulate. Fear of a further rebellion remained so great that the decision was taken to remove Duleep Singh from India altogether and send him into exile in England.

The young Maharaja Duleep Singh submits to Sir Henry Hardinge at the end of the First Sikh War

In May 1854 he arrived at Southampton before moving into a luxurious suite in a top London hotel. An early audience with Queen Victoria marked the beginning of what was to become a deep friendship with both the queen and her consort, Prince

Despite never setting foot on the Indian sub-continent, Victoria was fascinated by all things Indian and revelled in the company of the Maharajah, describing him as being “extremely handsome, [with] a graceful and dignified manner”. He rapidly became a court favourite, with Victoria commissioning a marble bust of him and Albert designing a special coat of arms.

In receipt of a generous pension from the British government, Duleep Singh established himself as the quintessential English country gentleman. He bought Elveden Hall, a Georgian house on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, and converted it into an Indian-style palace.

Expensive carpets, embroideries, ceramics and glassware filled the Mughal-decorated rooms, and the exotic flavour of the interior was reflected in the grounds, where a huge aviary was built to accommodate the Maharajah’s collection of rare birds of prey. Cheetahs, leopards and monkeys were kept in a menagerie, with parrots in the trees and peacocks and golden pheasants adorning the immaculate lawns.


At Elveden, Duleep Singh hosted extravagant house parties and proved to be a top sportsman. He seemed just at home in a kilt on the grouse moors of Scotland as in his Indian robes. Charming and flirtatious, he indulged in a series of indiscreet romps with some of the great society beauties of the day, apparently also forcing his attentions on a long list of domestic servants. With the Prince of Wales a close friend and frequent guest, Elveden became a symbol of the glittering yet hypocritical excesses of the Victorian aristocracy.

Yet by the 1880s Duleep Singh was tiring of his life as an English country squire. Overweight and depressed, he became less sociable and increasingly bitter about his treatment at the hands of the British. He was also running out of money.


His mind turned towards a permanent return to his homeland, to regain his throne. He became particularly resentful over what he saw as the theft from his kingdom of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, taken by the British in 1849 and presented to Queen Victoria.


                       Kohlinoor

He closed Elveden down, selling its contents to fund his final journey home. Wary of the political implications, the British initially refused permission for the return, but then relented and he finally set sail for India in March 1886. But at Aden he was told that the British Viceroy had changed his mind and that he must turn back.


Heartbroken and by now in ill-health, he made his way to Paris. There he plotted and schemed, desperately trying to find an alternative route home and even travelling to Russia with his latest amour, a Cockney chambermaid called Ada Wetherill (whom he later married), to try to enlist the support of the Tsar.

Meanwhile the British were watching his every move. The ultimate betrayal for Duleep Singh came via his trusted but duplicitous personal secretary Charles Tevis, an ex-US cavalryman and ruthless double agent. Tevis kept his British masters fully informed on the Maharajah’s thoughts and movements. Copies of virtually every piece of correspondence written by the Maharajah in Paris were later found in British government archives – all had been supplied by Tevis.



Meanwhile, Duleep Singh had re-embraced the Sikh faith and refused his British stipend. As a result he found himself in greatly reduced circumstances and was forced to sell almost all his remaining possessions. In 1891 he was granted a final audience with Queen Victoria at whose side he wept uncontrollably, and two years later he died, impoverished and broken.

Charming and flirtatious

However the British had resolved that only the extinction of the Duleep Singh family line could secure their long-term control over the Punjab. Queen Victoria even instructed the wife of the Maharajah’s eldest son not to have children. Family members were convinced that the cooks at Elveden were British spies and adding poisons to their food to make them infertile. Curiously, none of Duleep Singh’s eight children had any offspring.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh 
The Elveden estate was bought by the Iveagh family, who still own it today. Duleep Singh is buried in the grounds of the adjacent Saxon church alongside members of his family.

The occasional golden pheasant is seen stalking around the grounds, a reminder of the exotic Indian king who once lived there. The Koh-i-Noor remains firmly part of the British crown jewels.

(Excerpts from Article published in The Daily Express, By James Parry, 22 Februrary 2010)

While in exile, he sought to learn more about Sikhism and was eager to return to India. Though previous efforts were thwarted by his handlers, he re-established contact with his cousin Sardar Thakar Singh Sandhawalia, who on 28 September 1884, left Amritsar for England along with his sons Narinder Singh and Gurdit Singh and a Sikh Granthi (priest),Pratap Singh Giani. He also brought a list of properties held by Dalip Singh in India. All this renewed his connection with Sikhism.

The British Government decided in 1886 against his return to India or his re-embracing Sikhism. Despite protests from the India Office, he set sail for 'home' on 30 March 1886. However, he was intercepted and arrested in Aden, where the writ of the Governor General of India began. He could not be stopped from an informal re-conversion ceremony in Aden, far less grand and symbolic than it would have been in India, done by emissaries sent by Sardar Thakar Singh Sandhawalia, who was earlier planning the Pahaul ceremony at Bombay. Dalip was forced to return to Europe.

Duleep Singh died in Paris in 1893 at the age of 55, having seen India after the age of fifteen only during two brief, tightly-controlled visits in 1860 (to bring his mother to England) and in 1863 (to scatter his mother's ashes).

Statue of Duleep Silgh on Butten Island, Thetford.

Duleep Singh's wish for his body to be returned to India was not honoured, in fear of unrest, given the symbolic value the funeral of the son of the Lion of the Punjab might have caused, given growing resentment of British rule. His body was brought back to be buried according to Christian rites, under the supervision of the India Office in Elveden Church beside the grave of his wife Maharani Bamba, and his son Prince Edward Albert Duleep Singh. The graves are located on the west side of the Church