Prince Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh

Education fit for a King; Eton College, Cambridge Univeristy & Sandhurst Military College

Victor was the first of Sikh origin to be educated with the British Royals and aristocrats. When Victor joined Eton College in 1880, his unshorn hair was cut. Unlike himself, they had access to their inherited wealth, a fact which haunted Victor, like it haunted his father.

Frederick Duleep Singh, Victor’s younger brother also attended Eton College. A plaque is still there today, commemorating their presence. The 1st Royal Dragoons

In 1888 Victor was commissioned Lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons. In September of that year, Victor was posted to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, making him the first person of Sikh origin to arrive on the shores of Canada.

First of Sikh origin to arrive in Canada

On 18 September 1888 Victor left Liverpool harbour on the Steamship Caspian, an Allan liner ship. The Caspian was a 1,728-tonne steamer, built in the year 1870, in Glasgow by the London & Glasgow Co. Ltd. It set sail for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and arrived on 30 September. The 12-day journey was also shared with his ponies and horses.

The Canadian publication, ‘Commercial Advertiser’, dated 9 October 1888 talks about Victor’s arrival the previous week.

At the young age of 22, Victor set about making himself as comfortable as possible in the busy shipping town. The initial climate and architecture would have been very similar to what he left behind in England. Winter would soon be upon him, and an appreciation of ‘the great white north’ would have to be cultivated.

Geographically, the city of Halifax can be seen as an ideal hub from which to explore the United States of America. Boston and New York would have been attractive places for His Royal Highness to seek adventures.

‘Structured’ Financial Turmoil

You are forced to remain in a circle of peers who are members of Europe’s elite; the upper-crust families, born into wealth and aristocracy. Like yourself; they are Lords, Earls, and knights of the British realm; you are a Maharaja in exile. The extent of your rightful domain is far more extensive than theirs. Your social circle enjoys the best luxuries that money can buy your wealth yet is capped at £8,500 a year. It doesn’t take a genius or a great mathematician to understand why bankruptcy notices became Victor’s calling card!

The India Office controlled the finances. Being promised £40,000 a year but instead having to live off £12,000 had been akin to a noose placed around Maharaja Duleep Singh’s neck. Reducing the stipend for Victor tightened it painfully.

Public humiliation was being skillfully and cruelly practised. The India Office wanted to make an embarrassment and a laughingstock of the Sikh Maharaja and his family. Heaven forbid that the people begin to understand the Utopia and Eden of the Sikh kingdom that had been snatched away from them let alone the broken promises…

Victor, along with his best friend George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, took to escape. He spent his time visiting places like Paris, Monaco, Cairo and even Argentina.

Retirement & Marriage

The exiled heir to the wealthiest Kingdom of its kind was about to start a family of his own. The young 32-year-old Victor, very much an English gentleman and squire, desperately wanted to fit in and to be accepted as an Englishman. He was quite unaware of what Queen Victoria and, possibly, the India Office had planned for his future.

After the revival of Maharaja Duleep Singh’s desire to understand his faith and culture, the establishment did not want to risk a similar rebellion from the current heir. Queen Victoria asked Lady Anne Coventry to make sure there were to be no heirs to the Sikh Kingdom. No children were to be born into her marriage with Victor. In fact, the eight children of Maharajah Duleep Singh were all destined to die childless!

All accounts show that Victor and Lady Anne lived a happily married life. They both had a love of horses and fine dining and all things regal. The couple took up residence in Hockwold Hall, an Elizabethan manor house once they returned from their honeymoon. An annual pension allowance was set at £8,250 for Victor and £2,500 for Princess Victor as Lady Anne came to be known after marriage. The amounts provided sounded like a pretty penny, but the actual comparisons and facts are quite different. There was an expectation of living a lavish lifestyle, ostensibly in keeping with royal positioning. There was an invisible cage to ensure that Victor was kept close enough to keep an eye on. The little monies ensured that even with frugal living, bankruptcy would be slow in coming but inevitable.

The Death of a Exiled Prince

At the age of 36 with a bankruptcy totalling £117,900, Victor’s humiliation in the public arena was complete. Victor was asked politely but forcefully to take his exile and vacate England. His protector was no more, Queen Victoria passing away in 1901. In 1902 found Victor and his wife moved Paris in a modest apartment situated near the Eiffel tower. This was no Elveden or Hockwold Hall. One can only imagine the dark, depressing thoughts churning through Victor’s mind during his 16 years of exile in France.

He was a broken man, understood to have nothing of wealth and kept in his place, a trophy Indian prince, a lion without its roar…

There were no children to run around the apartment, to nurture and to love. They relied instead on their love of animals as pets to keep themselves emotionally occupied. They took frequent trips to Monaco and the French Riviera to break the routine.

In 1914, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand led to the outbreak of the Great War of Civilisation. Even then the India Office refused to allow Victor to return to England. Paris would have been badly damaged through the raging war, with Victor and Princess Anne moving to the French Riviera for some cover. What is not clear is whether or not the annual pension amount remained fixed during the Great War. The exiled Prince in war-torn France must have made for a sad, lonely existence.

Life after the war consisted of being permitted occasional low-key seasonal visits across the channel to see his brother Frederick at his residence in Buckingham Hall and later to Bio-Norton Hall. The rest of his time was spent in southern France, where he would be often seen amongst European royalty (Archduke of Austria, Earl of Dudley, Duke Oporto and the King Württemberg), playing bridge at places like the Imperial Hotel in Nice.

On 7 June, 1914 Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh, grandson of the Lion of Punjab, Maharaja Ranjeet Singh, and the son of Maharaja Duleep Singh, at the young age of 51 passed away without leaving behind any legitimate heir to the Sikh Kingdom. He died alone with only his loyal, loving wife Princess Anne Duleep at his side. The death occurred in Monaco. On 11 June, Victor was laid to rest at Monte Carlo Cemetery.