Duleep Singh was the youngest son of Ranjit Singh Ji, made Maharaja at five in 1843. At ten he signed the annexation of his state and the surrender of the Koh-i-Noor. He was separated from his mother at eight and put in the charge of a Scottish doctor, John Login.
He was converted to Christianity at fifteen, taken to England at sixteen, and became a favourite of Queen Victoria, who stood godmother to his children. He bought the Elveden estate in Suffolk and became one of the great shots in England.
In middle age he attempted to reclaim his position, reconverted to Sikhi in 1886 at Aden, tried to reach India, was stopped, went to Russia to seek support, and failed there. He died in a Paris hotel in 1893, in debt and under surveillance, at fifty-five.
He is buried at Elveden, in a churchyard, under a Christian rite he had renounced. A statue of him on horseback stands at Thetford.
The Koh-i-Noor was surrendered under Article III of the Treaty of Lahore of 1849 and taken to England in 1850. It is in the Tower of London. Four countries claim it.
He was five when he became Maharaja, ten when he signed the annexation, and fifteen when he was sent to England, where Queen Victoria took an interest in him.
He lived as an English country gentleman at Elveden in Suffolk, spent a great deal, and late in life attempted to return to India and to reclaim his position.
His children left no legitimate heirs and the line ended within a generation. His daughter Sophia became a suffragette in London and campaigned for the vote, which is the part of the family's afterlife least connected to any of the rest of it.
Treaty of Lahore, 1849.
Login family papers.