London remembers Sophia Duleep Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 20

As the UK commemorates the centenary of women’s suffrage, Sikh princess Sophia Duleep Singh is featuring in London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s series celebrating women behind some of the greatest achievements and discoveries in Britain’s capital.

Every week this year, the Mayor is telling a woman’s story from his Instagram account. This week is dedicated to Sophia, daughter of Duleep Singh, the last Sikh Maharaja. She was one of the major suffragettes of the movement that secured British women the right to vote.

Her 1910 march, which was led by her along with Emmeline Pankhurst, to the House of Commons, where her comrades were attacked and molested by the police, is legendary. On another occasion, Sophia had thrown herself before the Prime Minister’s car holding a placard saying, “Give women the vote”.

Yesterday, Sadiq Khan wrote on his Instagram account: “Princess Sophia was a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, and campaigned for women’s votes nationally as well as locally in Richmond and Kingston-upon-Thames. She was often seen selling newspaper The Suffragette outside Hampton Court, and led a 400-strong demonstration to Parliament on Black Friday in 1910.

A committed campaigner to women’s rights more broadly, Sophia also belonged to the Women’s Tax Resistance League. #HiddenCredits #BehindEveryGreatCity”.

Sophia’s name will also be etched on the statue of feminist Millicent Fawcett, to be unveiled in Parliament Square.