Princess Sophia Duleep Singh's UK home gets Blue Plaque honour

PTI

London, May 26

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh – the last ruler of the Sikh empire – and the goddaughter of Queen Victoria, was honoured with a commemorative Blue Plaque in London on Friday.

The Blue Plaque scheme, run by the English Heritage charity, honours the significance of particular buildings associated with historical figures. In memory of the British-Indian Princess, it now adorns Faraday House, which was granted to Sophia and her sisters as a grace and favour apartment at Hampton Court Palace southwest of London by Queen Victoria.

“As a political journalist, I thought I knew the story of the suffragettes, and then I found this extraordinary woman and she blew me away,” said Anita Anand, the author of the biography ‘Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary’. Furnished to her luxurious taste, the house – or “Apartment 41” to give it its grace-and-favour title – was Princess Sophia’s base during the many years she campaigned as a suffragette for women’s voting rights.

Peter Bance, a British Sikh historian and author of ‘Sovereign, Squire and Rebel: Maharajah Duleep Singh & the Heirs of the Lost Kingdom’, who campaigned for the plaque said, “I came upon the story of the princess when I was researching her father Duleep Singh. It was as if her story had been erased from history. But once a forgotten princess, she has now become an icon.”

“I remember my godmother Princess Sophia telling me about the suffragettes and how women weren’t always allowed to vote. And then, as a child, I made a solemn vow to her that I would always exercise my right to vote,” said Drovna Oxley, goddaughter to Princess Sophia.

The princess, who died aged 71 in August 1948, dared the authorities to punish her as she shrewdly chose which political protests to attend, ones they could not ignore.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.

#England #London #Maharaja Duleep Singh #maharaja ranjit singh #Sikhs