Victor Duleep Singh
Maharaja of Lahore
Prince Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh (10 July 1866 – 7 June 1918) was the eldest son of Maharani Bamba Müller and Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of Lahore, and of the Sikh Empire, and the grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Victor Duleep Singh was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he met Lady Anne Blanche Alice Coventry whom he would later marry. In 1887 he entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, with a special Cadetship and left it the following December to be commissioned as Lieutenant into the 1st (Royal) Dragoons. In 1889 Singh was stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a member of the staff of General Sir John Ross, commander of British forces in British North America. In December, he was rumoured to be engaged to marry Jeanne Turnure, daughter of Lawrence Turnure, a New York City banker, after staying at the Turnure house in Newport, Rhode Island, the previous summer; the rumour was however denied by the banker. In February the following year, Singh took a three-month leave of absence from the army to meet his father in Paris, when rumours of unpaid creditors in Halifax became current
for the first time. He continued to serve in the Royal Dragoons until he resigned his commission in 1898. On the death of his father, Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, on 23 October 1893, Victor succeeded him as Head of the Royal House of the Punjab. On 4 January 1898, Prince Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh married Lady Anne Coventry, a daughter of the 9th Earl of Coventry, who was eight years younger than himself. The marriage created a sensation: it was the first time an Indian prince had married an English noblewoman, and the marriage was made possible primarily due to the intervention of the Prince of Wales (subsequently King Edward VII). The wedding took place at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square, London, where Queen Victoria was also represented. Although Queen Victoria gave the couple her blessing, she allegedly told Lady Anne to never have children with the Prince. The marriage remained childless. Singh was declared bankrupt on 4 September 1902, with debts totaling £117,900 (approximately £12.8 million in today's value), despite his £8,250 annual allowance and his wife's income of £2,500. The bankruptcy was attributed to bad investments and to gambling, something that plagued him for the rest of his life.
The Punjab Irregular Force (PIF) was created in 1851 to protect the NW frontier of British India. It was termed "Irregular" because it was outside the control of the Regular British East India Company Presidency armies of the three Presidencies of Bengal, Bombay or Madras, but was under the control of the British chief magistrate of Punjab, known as the President of the Board of Administration from 1849, then as the Chief Commissioner from 1853. Its soldiers were not subject to parade ground drill and showed unconcern towards routine orders given to regiments of the line. They practiced swift tactical movements in small groups, showing special elan and flair. It comprised the various regiments raised earlier for the same purpose on the orders of General Charles James Napier and Col. Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence between 1843 and 1849 of the former Frontier Brigade established in 1846 and Transfrontier Brigade established in 1849. In 1865, the PIF was redesignated Punjab Frontier Force and in 1903 became the Frontier Force. Frontier Brigade was established in 1846 by Sir Henry Lawrence, on the British victory in the First Anglo-Sikh War. It comprised 4 regiments largely composed of native Sikh troops, although other native groupings were also included, each religious or tribal grouping forming a separate company. These were therefore designated 1st - 4th Sikh Infantry Regiments. In 1847 they were redesignated 1st - 4th Sikh Local Infantry Regiments. To the Frontier Brigade was later added
the Corps of Guides which had been raised in 1846 at Peshawar by Lt Harry Burnett Lumsden, by order of Sir Henry Lawrence, and which was largely inspirational for the creation of the 2 Brigades. The Guides were long considered the ultimate "crack" unit of the PIF, and Lumsden had pioneered the use of Khaki in their uniform. In 1903, the regiments were renumbered 51st - 54th Sikh Regiments (Frontier Force). Transfrontier Brigade was established in 1849 following the British victory in the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the British annexation of Punjab on 2 April 1849, also by Sir Henry Lawrence, having achieved success with his earlier Brigade. It comprised originally 5 regiments of native infantry, designated 1st - 5th Punjab Infantry Regiments and 5 of native cavalry. To the Transfrontier Brigade in 1853 was added a 6th infantry regiment, that of the Scind Camel Corps raised in 1843 at Karachi by Lt. Robert FitzGerald by order of General Charles James Napier following the latter's conquest of Scind. It was redesignated as the 6th Regiment, and thus effectively became the most senior, by age, of all the units within the PIF.
The Sukerchakia Misl was one of twelve Sikh misls in Punjab during the 18th century, concentrated in Gujranwala and Hafizabad districts in western Punjab (in modern-Pakistan) and ruled from (1752–1801). The misl was founded by Charat Singh of Sandhawalia, grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The last Sukerchakia Misldar (commander of the Misl) was Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh united all the misls and established an independent Sikh Empire. The Sikh Empire was a regional power based in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. It existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the British East India Company in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. It was forged on the foundations of the Khalsa from a collection of autonomous misls. At its peak in the 19th century, the empire extended from Gilgit and Tibet in the north to the deserts of Sindh in the south and from the Khyber Pass in the west to the Sutlej in the east as far as Oudh. It was divided into four provinces: Lahore, which became the Sikh capital; Multan; Peshawar; and Kashmir from 1799 to 1849. Religiously diverse, with an estimated population of 4.5 million in 1831 (making it the 19th most populous country at the time), it was the last major region of the Indian subcontinent to be annexed by the British Empire. The formation of the empire began with the capture of Lahore from its Durrani ruler,
Zaman Shah Durrani. Ranjit Singh was proclaimed as Maharaja of the Punjab on 12 April 1801 (to coincide with Vaisakhi), creating a unified political state. Sahib Singh Bedi, a descendant of Guru Nanak, conducted the coronation. The formation of the empire was followed by the progressive expulsion of Afghans from Punjab by capitalizing off Afghan decline in the Afghan-Sikh Wars, and the unification of the separate Sikh misls. Ranjit Singh rose to power in a very short period, from a leader of a single misl to finally becoming the Maharaja of Punjab. He began to modernise his army, using the latest training as well as weapons and artillery. After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the empire was weakened by the British East India Company stoking internal divisions and political mismanagement. Finally, in 1849, the state was dissolved after the defeat in the Second Anglo-Sikh War.
Awards: Insignia, sash and star of the Order of the Propitious Star of Punjab, Star of the Order of Ranjit Singh.
