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The Indian king who was not allowed to leave Britain

Shivani ChaudhariEssex
Getty Images A portrait of Duleep Singh on paper that has aged over time and gone brown. He looks away from the camera and is expressionless. He has a 19th Century traditional Indian turban on as well as clothing. He also has a dark and thick beard.Getty Images
Duleep Singh was exiled from his country by the British in the 1800s and tried to return to India several times throughout his life, but was always denied access

Duleep Singh (1838-1893) inherited the title of Sikh Maharaja at five years old, but after the annexation of the Sikh Empire by the British in 1849 he was exiled to Britain. The Maharaja tried to return to India but was always denied access.

Eventually he bought Elveden Hall in Suffolk at 25 years old and settled down with his first wife Bamba Müller who was of German and Abyssinian descent.

More than 100 years later, in 1996, Peter Bance, from Halstead in Essex, visited the home and was immediately intrigued by his life.

He went on to spend three decades collecting stories about the king and said it felt like he was researching his own roots.

Peter Bance Collection A young Indian woman adorned with jewellery and traditional Indian clothes. She is wearing covering her head and holding the shawl with two hands. Peter Bance Collection
Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was a suffragette and fought for women's rights throughout her life

Singh's arrival in Britain in the 1850s demonstrated how far back Punjabi history went in this country, Bance said.

The couple had six children and Bance said his favourite princess was Catherine (1871-1942).

"Her story was largely untold," said the 52-year-old, speaking to the BBC as South Asian Heritage Month enters its final week.

"She saved all these Jewish families who were taken to concentration camps.

"She helped people not from her faith, not from her background, not from her heritage, they were total strangers to her. It was just pure humanity."

He continued: "I really wanted to know more about these children because I can relate to them as a child of immigrants myself.

"I grew up here [in England] and I was born here, so I wanted to know about these mixed race children because they were ethnically Punjabi - but they grew up here."

Peter Bance Collection A man wearing a dark purple turban and is sitting down on a chair outside. He is wearing a cream blazer with a baby blue shirt. He is looking directly at the camera.Peter Bance Collection
Peter Bance first stumbled across the story of the exiled king of Punjab and has since collected many artefacts from the family

In the 1990s, Bance placed adverts in local newspapers in Norfolk and Suffolk to see if anyone had more information about the princesses.

He said he got about 300 replies from people who knew them or worked for the family and a lot of people had been given gifts by the princesses.

Bance said he offered to buy the artefacts but a lot of people gave their treasured items for free, so they could be immortalised in his collection.

Peter Bance Collection Maharajah Duleep Singh exhibition. Old image of Elveden Hall. It is a stately home with a path and grass outside it.Peter Bance Collection
Duleep Singh married Bamba Müller in 1864 and made Elveden Hall their home

Calling the collection both his life's work and a hobby, he added: "I've got over 2,000 pieces belonging to the family and I've got to say, one of my favourite pieces is a beautiful photograph of three princesses at their debutante ball.

"It belonged to Princess Sophia Duleep Singh and she gave it to her goddaughter and it was Faraday House at Hampton Court (south-west London)."

Peter Bance Collection A black and white portrait of the three sisters. Two are sat side by side and one is sitting slightly elevated. They are wearing big dresses with a lot of frills and jewels. None of them are smiling but they are all looking at the camera.Peter Bance Collection
Peter Bance said that the photo of the three sisters at their debutante ball was one of his favourite things in his collection

Bance said the youngest daughter Sophia played a pivotal part in fighting for women's rights throughout her life.

But he only found out that she was a suffragette after he spoke to one of her housekeeper's daughters.

His collection now consists of the Maharaja's jacket, the princesses' saris, toys, letters and paintings.

A lot of the artefacts are on display at Kensington Palace in west London until November as part of their exhibition called The Last Princesses of Punjab.

Wimbledon BookFest A man sitting on a chair while holding a microphone and smiling while looking towards the right. He is wearing a white shirt and a navy blue shirt over it with a embroidered collar. He is speaking at a panel with a purple background Wimbledon BookFest
Jassa Ahluwalia worked on the exhibition

Jassa Ahluwalia worked as an adviser for the London-based exhibition with his own sister Ramanique.

The actor, activist and author, who has both Indian and English heritage, said he was able to draw parallels to his own experiences of mixed-heritage identity.

"These stories have impacted me and my sister and the similarities and difference in our experiences," he told the BBC.

"It [Elveden Hall] felt like a reflection of me, the external appears very English and the internal is very Indian."

Family photo A young boy wearing a white shirt and shorts. He is about six years old and has sunglasses attached to his shirt. He is holding the hand of his Grandad's who is wearing a red turban and has a black beard. He is wearing a light blue shirt and grey trousers with a black belt. They are in India with a lot of people in the background and people riding bikes Family photo
Jassa Ahluwalia, pictured as a child, wrote a book called Both, Not half - where he explored his British and Indian-Punjabi identity

Ahluwalia continued: "We came to those stories as a way of figuring out who we were as mixed heritage Punjabis growing up in England in the 21st Century and realising that our story is not a uniquely modern story and that it has a history and we are part of an ongoing legacy of cross-pollination.

"It is a very living and alive history and it's the history of who we are as a nation.

"If you are not accurately telling the history of our nation then other people will do fictitious versions of it and that is not the story of who we are as a nation."

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