Lady Almina Carnarvon - Prince Victor Duleep Singh
Lord George Carnarvon
Their Friendship Explored
By William Cross, FSA Scot
To the living we owe respect, to the dead we owe the truth.
Lord George Carnarvon’s perpetual companion, Prince Victor Duleep Singh, was the grandson of Maharajah Ranjit Singh of Lahore, the Lion of the Punjab and the founder of the great Sikh empire.
Prince Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh
Victor's full name of Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh, he was born in Britain. His godmother was Queen Victoria, who stood as sponsor for him in the Private Chapel at Windsor at his baptism in the year 1866.
The Prince was brought up an English gentleman; he was regularly at Court and dined with the Queen and other members of the Royal family.
With his handsome appearance of being half- Indian, half -European, (he had a white mother) Victor stood out as an attractive male figure in Society circles. His mother, Bamba Muller was the daughter of a German merchant named Ludwig Muller of Alexandria, Egypt. and an Abyssinian- Egyptian, Sofia. Bamba had married Victor’s father at the British Consulate in Alexandra on 7 June 1864.
For more information e-mail William Cross author of
“ The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon”
A candid biography of Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon
The Maharajah Duleep Singh
First Sikh Settler in Britain
Prince Victor Duleep Singh, (1866-1918) was the grandson of Maharajah Ranjit Singh of Lahore, the Lion of the Punjab and the founder of the great Sikh empire, who died in 1839. Outside his family circle Victor's dear friend was George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, later the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Both boys were born in 1866. They were deeply attached to each other.
When in 1893, Almina Wombwell became engaged to Lord George Carnarvon she too became a close and intimate friend of Prince Victor.
Victor’s father Maharajah Duleep (sometimes recorded as Dilip or Dhuleep) Singh was born in 1838 and died in Paris, in 1893, he was deemed the last Maharajah of the Indian state of Lahore, in the Punjab, although he lived most of his life in Scotland and England, and later in semi-exile in Paris, France.
Today, Prince Victor’s father the Maharajah Duleep Singh is regarded as the first Sikh settler in Britain This is because he was brought to Britain, as a boy in 1854, after his country, the Punjab was annexed by the East India Company in 1849.
Any surviving ancestral line stemming from such vivid and historic Sikh roots should be justly proud. Descendants should rejoice their links, sacred, religious, and heritage-related, especially as the Sikh people occupy a hugely important place in British life and culture.