Editing Duleep Singh (section)

==Life in exile==

===London===
[[File:dalip singh winterhalter.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Duleep Singh (1838–1893) in 1854; portrait by [[Franz Xaver Winterhalter]]]]

Duleep Singh arrived in England in late 1854 and was introduced to the British court. [[Queen Victoria]] showered affection upon the turbaned Maharaja, as did the [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Consort]]. Duleep Singh was initially lodged at [[Claridge's Hotel]] in London before the [[East India Company]] took over a house in [[Wimbledon, London|Wimbledon]] and then eventually another house in [[Roehampton]] which became his home for three years. He was also invited by the Queen to stay with the Royal Family at [[Osborne House|Osborne]], where she sketched him playing with her children and Prince Albert photographed him, while the court artist, [[Franz Xaver Winterhalter|Winterhalter]], made his portrait.<ref>[http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/asia/asia_features/sikhism/art/dalipsingh/index.html Maharaja Dalip Singh in London] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080729034641/http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/asia/asia_features/sikhism/art/dalipsingh/index.html |date=29 July 2008 }} ''[[Victoria & Albert Museum]]''.</ref>

He eventually got bored with Roehampton and expressed a wish to go back to India but it was suggested by the East India Company Board he take a tour of the European continent, which he did with Sir John Spencer Login and Lady Login. He was a member of the Photographic Society, later the [[Royal Photographic Society]], from 1855 until his death.<ref>[http://rpsmembers.dmu.ac.uk/rps_results.php?mid=540 Royal Photographic Society. Members: 1853–1901] Accessed 6 July 2014</ref>

===Castle Menzies===

On his return from [[Continental Europe]] in 1855 he was given an annual pension of £25,000 a year<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sophia Duleep Singh|url=https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/sophia-duleep-singh/|access-date=2021-05-22|website=Historic Royal Palaces|language=en-GB}}</ref> (approximately £{{Inflation|UK|25000|1855|r=-5|fmt=}} in today's value) provided he "remain obedient to the British Government," and was officially under ward of Sir John Spencer Login and Lady Login, who leased [[Castle Menzies]] in [[Perthshire]], Scotland, for him. He spent the rest of his teens there, but at 19 he demanded to be in charge of his household. Eventually, he was given this and an increase in his annual pension.

In 1859 [[James Oliphant|Lt Col James Oliphant]] was installed as Equerry to the Maharaja at the recommendation of Sir John Login. Oliphant was to be a possible replacement should anything happen to the Maharaja's most trusted friend Sir John Login (who did indeed die four years later in 1863).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/sirjohnloginand00logigoog|title=Sir John Login and Duleep Singh|first=Lena Campbell|last=Login|date=23 November 1970|publisher=[Patiala] Languages Dept., Punjab|accessdate=23 November 2023|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

In the 1860s, Singh moved from Castle Menzies to [[Grandtully Castle]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst8030.html|title=Grandtully Castle from The Gazetteer for Scotland|website=www.scottish-places.info}}</ref>

===Mulgrave Castle===

From 1858 to 1862 Duleep Singh rented [[Mulgrave Castle]], near Whitby.
<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nyma.org.uk/_webedit/uploaded-files/All%20Files/History%20Tree/14%201859%20The%20Maharajah%20of%20Mulgrave.pdf|title=The Maharajah of Mulgrave|accessdate=23 November 2023}}</ref>

===Sir Samuel White Baker===
[[File:Duleep Singh00.jpg|thumb|200px|Duleep Singh, in ceremonial dress, 1852, by the English painter [[George Duncan Beechey]]]]

While [[Sir Samuel White Baker]] was visiting the [[Duke of Atholl]] on his shooting estate in Scotland, he befriended Maharaja Duleep Singh. In 1858–1859, the two partnered an extensive hunting trip in central Europe and the Balkans, via Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna and Budapest. On the last part of the voyage, Baker and the Maharajah hired a wooden boat in Budapest, which was eventually abandoned on the frozen Danube. The two continued into [[Vidin]] where, to amuse the Maharajah, Baker went to the Vidin slave market. There, Baker fell in love with a [[white slave]] girl, destined for the Ottoman Pasha of Vidin. Baker was outbid by the Pasha but bribed the girl's attendants. The two ran away in a carriage together and eventually, as [[Florence Baker]], she became Baker's lover and wife and accompanied him everywhere he journeyed.

===Reunion with his mother===
When he was 18, Singh wrote to his mother in [[Kathmandu]], suggesting that she should join him in [[Great Britain]], but his letter was intercepted by the British authorities in India and did not reach her. He then sent a courier, Pundit [[Nehemiah Goreh]], who was also intercepted and forbidden to contact the Maharani. Duleep Singh then decided to go himself. Under cover of a letter from Login he wrote to the [[British Resident]] in Kathmandu, who reported that the Maharani had 'much changed, was blind and had lost much of the energy which formerly characterised her.' The British government decided she was no longer a threat and she was allowed to join her son on 16 January 1861 at Spence's Hotel in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] and return with him to England.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/ladyloginsrecoll00logirich
|title=Lady Login's Recollections
|pages=207, 208 (Chapter XIV)
|last1=Login
|first1=Lady Lena Campbell
|date=1916
|website=California Digital Library
|publisher=Smith, Elder & Co
|access-date=18 July 2014}}</ref>

===Auchlyne and Aberfeldy===
In 1858 the lease of Castle Menzies expired and Duleep Singh rented the house at [[Auchlyne]] from the [[Earl of Breadalbane]]. He was known for a lavish lifestyle, shooting parties, and a love of dressing in Highland costume and soon had the nickname "the Black Prince of Perthshire".<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7644716.stm On the trail of the Sikh heritage] ''[[BBC News]]'', 30 September 2008.</ref> (At the same time, he was known to have gradually developed a sense of regret for his circumstances in exile, including some inner turmoil about his conversion to Christianity and his forced departure from the Panjab). His mother stayed in Perthshire with him for a short time, before he rented the Grandtully Estate, near [[Aberfeldy, Scotland|Aberfeldy]]. Following the death of his mother and Sir John Login in 1863, he returned to England.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/blckprnc.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050224022019/http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/blckprnc.htm|url-status=dead|title="The 'Black Prince' of Perthshire", Highlander Web|archivedate=24 February 2005|accessdate=23 November 2023}}</ref>

===Elveden Estate===
[[File:Maharaja Duleep Singh, c 1860s.jpg|190px|right|thumb|Sir Duleep Singh in the 1860s]]
Maharaja Duleep Singh (as he became in June 1861) bought (or the [[India Office]] purchased for him) a {{convert|17000|acre|km2}} country estate at [[Elveden]] on the border between [[Norfolk]] and [[Suffolk]], close to [[Thetford]], in 1863. He enjoyed living in [[Elveden Hall]] and the surrounding area and restored the church, cottages, and school. He transformed the run-down estate into an efficient game preserve and it was here that he gained his reputation as the fourth best shot in England.<ref>Michael Alexander and Sushila Anand. ''Queen Victoria's Maharaja: Duleep Singh 1838–93'' {{ISBN|1-84212-232-0}}, {{ISBN|978-1-84212-232-7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fieldsportsmagazine.com/articles_shoot_how_good_were_they.php|title=The UK's finest country sports publication}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3294208/All-guns-blazing.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3294208/All-guns-blazing.html |archive-date=2022-01-12 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Adam | last=Edwards | title=All guns blazing | date=13 October 2001}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The house was remodelled into a quasi-oriental palace where he lived the life of a British aristocrat.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-275758-elveden-hall-elveden|title = Elveden Hall, Elveden, Suffolk}}</ref> Maharaja Duleep Singh was accused of running up large expenses and the estate was sold after his death to pay his debts. Today, Elveden is owned by [[Edward Guinness, 4th Earl of Iveagh|The 4th Earl of Iveagh]], the head of the [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] [[Guinness family]] of [[Guinness|brewing]] fame; it remains an operating farm and private hunting estate.