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Victor Duleep Singh

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Crown Prince of Punjab

Prince Victor Duleep Singh

Crown Prince of Punjab

Photograph of Victor as EmperorAkbar of India taken at theDevonshire House Ball byAlexander Bassano in 1897.^[1]

Head of the Royal House of Punjab

Period

22 October 1893 – 7 July 1918

Predecessor

Duleep Singh

Successor

Frederick Duleep Singh

Born

Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh
(1866-07-10)10 July 1866
London, England, United Kingdom

Died

7 July 1918(1918-07-07) (aged 51)
Monte Carlo, Monaco

Spouse

Lady Anne Coventry

(m. 1898)

Names
Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh

Father

Mother

Prince Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh (10 July 1866 – 7 June 1918) was the eldest son ofMaharani Bamba Müller andMaharaja SirDuleep Singh, the last Maharaja ofLahore, and of theSikh Empire, and the grandson of MaharajaRanjit Singh.^[2]

Biography

[edit]

Victor Duleep Singh was educated atEton andTrinity College, Cambridge,^[3] where he met Lady Anne Blanche Alice Coventry whom he would later marry. In 1887 he entered theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst, with a special Cadetship and left it the following December to be commissioned as Lieutenant into the1st (Royal) Dragoons.

Prince Victor's portrait oil on canvas bySydney Prior Hall made in 1879 now a part of theRoyal Collection.

In 1889 Singh was stationed atHalifax,Nova Scotia, as a member of the staff ofGeneral Sir John Ross, commander of British forces inBritish North America. In December, he was rumoured to be engaged to marry Jeanne Turnure, daughter of Lawrence Turnure, aNew York City banker, after staying at the Turnure house inNewport, Rhode Island, the previous summer; the rumour was however denied by the banker.^[4] In February the following year, Singh took a three-month leave of absence from the army to meet his father inParis, when rumours of unpaid creditors in Halifax became current for the first time.^[5] He continued to serve in the Royal Dragoons until he resigned his commission in 1898.^[6]

On the death of his father, Maharaja SirDuleep Singh, on 23 October 1893, Victor succeeded him as titular head of the Royal House of the Punjab.^{[citation needed]}

On 4 January 1898, Prince Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh married Lady Anne Coventry, a daughter ofthe 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 ofthe Prince of Wales (subsequently King Edward VII). The wedding took place atSt Peter's Church, Eaton Square, London, whereQueen Victoria was also represented.^[7] Although Queen Victoria gave the couple her blessing, she allegedly told Lady Anne to never have children with the Prince.^[8] The marriage remained childless.^[9]

Singh was declaredbankrupt on 4 September 1902, with debts totaling £117,900 (approximately £15.3 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.^[10]

He died, without legitimate issue, aged 51, on 7 June 1918, and was buried at the Anglican Cemetery aboveMonte Carlo. Beside him is the grave of his wife who died aged 82, on 2 July 1956.^[11]