Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh

Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh
Catherine at the center flanked by sisters Bamba and Sophia
Born	Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh 27 October 1871 Elveden Hall, Elveden, Suffolk, England
Died	8 November 1942(1942-11-08) (aged 71) Penn, Buckinghamshire
Full name Princess Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh
Religion	Sikh
Occupation	Suffragette in the United Kingdom

Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh (27 October 1871 – 8 November 1942), born to royalty, was a suffragette in the United Kingdom. She lived in Germany before World War II with her governess Fräulein Lina Schäfer, with whom she had a lifelong relationship. She was the daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh, son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, known as the "Lion of the Punjab", who abdicated his kingdom of Punjab to the British Raj following political maneuvering by Governor-General Dalhousie in India. Her mother was Maharani Bamba Müller.

Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh and Schäfer lived in and toured Europe until the latter's death on 27 August 1937. Singh died in 1942. After World War II, her name was again in the news upon the discovery of a jewel box stashed in a vault and a joint bank account in a Swiss bank. After several claimants had been rejected, the box and contents of the bank account were awarded by a Swiss tribunal to the family of a secretary of her elder sister Bamba in Pakistan.

Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh was born on 27 October 1871 at Elveden Hall, Suffolk, in England. She was the second daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh, who was the last ruler of Punjab and son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who was popularly called the "Lion of the Punjab". Duleep Singh was exiled from his kingdom in May 1854 (though he had been shifted from Lahore on 21 December 1849) by the British following political maneuvering by Governor-General Dalhousie in India. When he was fifteen years old, he was moved from Lahore to England, where he lived in a lavish style. He had also surrendered the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria favoured him and treated him very kindly and provided for his upkeep; his handsome stature and regal bearing led to his becoming her platonic lover. He had converted to Christianity. In 1864, on his way to London, he married Bamba Müller in Cairo at the British Consulate on 7 June 1864; her father was a German banker and mother a Coptic Christian slave from Abyssinia. Bamba and Duleep Singh had six surviving children, and Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh was their second daughter. Catherine's siblings were her elder sister Bamba Sofia Jindan (1859–1957) and younger sister Sophia Alexandra (1876–1948), and three brothers Victor Albert Jay (1866–1918), Frederick Victor (1868–1926), and Edward Alexander (1879–1942); Sophia was the best known of the three sisters as she was an active suffragist. As Duleep Singh was working against the interests of the British empire and in favour of Indian independence, he moved to Paris, where he was involved in activities related to getting back his Sikh Empire and was therefore under surveillance by British intelligence. In Paris, Duleep Singh married again, as his first wife Bamba Müller had died earlier due to illness. He married Ada Douglas, an actress in Paris, on 21 May 1889, and had two daughters by her – Ada Pauline (1887–?) and Irene (1880–1926). Duleep Singh died in Paris in 1893 in a Paris hotel, two years after his last meeting with Queen Victoria. He was interred at Elveden Hall with "floral tributes from the Queen".