Sophia Duleep Singh’s UK home gets commemorative Blue Plaque
LONDON : Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, the 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’.
“As the last princess of the Sikh Empire, goddaughter of Queen Victoria, society darling and fashion icon, a life of comfort and celebrity was hers for the taking, but she chose a harder path. Using her international fame and influence, putting herself in physical danger, she fought for the right of women to vote. Campaigning with unrelenting ferocity, loyalty and selflessness, she moved the dial,” she said.
Named after another former resident, the eminent English physicist Michael Faraday (1791–1867), Faraday House was Princess Sophia’s main residence for over four decades.
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 at a time when no one had heard about her. It was as if her story had been erased from history. But once a forgotten princess, she has now become an icon.” Uniquely spanning the different worlds of the British court and the movement for women’s suffrage in the early 20th century, Princess Sophia made full use of her royal title and public persona. “I remember my godmother Princess Sophia telling me 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, and I always have,” said Drovna Oxley, goddaughter to Princess Sophia.