Somerville and Lahore

Bamba Sutherland was a daughter of Duleep Singh, the deposed ruler of Punjab, and grew up in Britain. She and her sister Catherine studied Modern Languages at Somerville between 1890 and 1894. Somerville was one of Oxford’s first institutions established for women students. Faridah Zaman’s college history places their education within a difficult combination of aristocratic privilege and imperial dispossession. College photographs also preserve their participation in student life. Bamba later settled in Lahore and unsuccessfully pursued her father’s birthright. Her move connected the daughter of an exiled dynasty with its former capital; it did not restore the sovereignty her family had lost.[1]

An undated portrait

The Lafayette Negative Archive catalogues an undated studio portrait of two daughters of Duleep Singh. Its costume description, credited to Rosemary Crill, identifies brocade saris. The record preserves their appearance in a studio setting, but supplies neither a dated occasion nor a secure identification of which sister occupies each position.[3]

Decisions about an inheritance

Bamba also made decisions about objects inherited from her brother Frederick. Jennifer Novotny’s study traces his collection’s division between Inverness Museum and his surviving sisters, Sophia and Bamba, after his death in 1926. A long-term loan of the sisters’ portions was arranged in 1935. After Sophia died in 1948, Bamba requested that a Charles I miniature and other objects be sent to Christie’s or Sotheby’s for auction, with proceeds shared with the museum. Novotny states that the proposed sale never occurred. Following Bamba’s death in 1957, the museum purchased as much of the remaining material as it could. This episode concerns Stuart and Jacobite objects held in Scotland. It records Bamba negotiating an inheritance’s disposal and public custody, rather than simply appearing as a passive descendant in a royal family tree.[2]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. Faridah Zaman; Somerville College Magazine 2026. Somerville and the Duleep Singh Sisters ↗ · Source date: 2026-10-15 · Locator: Signed article, paragraphs beginning “Two notable early Somervillians”, “We don’t know precisely”, “After Somerville” and “In the early twentieth century”; article date and final further-research note. Accessed 2026-11-02.The signed college history and archive-photo captions were inspected. The related forthcoming paper was not read.Return to Somerville and Lahore, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Jennifer L. Novotny; University of Glasgow PhD thesis. Sedition at the supper table: the material culture of the Jacobite wars,1688–1760 ↗ · Source date: April 2013 · Locator: Title and declaration; chapter 6 printed 228–230 / PDF 229–231; correspondence and 1948/1959 source references within those pages. Accessed 2026-11-02.The thesis title leaves and selected chapter pages were inspected. The original museum correspondence was accessed through the author’s analysis, not separately.Return to Decisions about an inheritance, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. Russell Harris, compiler; costume identification credited to Rosemary Crill, Indian Department, V&A. Lafayette Negative Archive: SINGH, P. DHULEEP, negative 2251 ↗ · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Full negative 2251 record: Sitter, Neg. Date, Location, Costume, Photographer, Provenance and Acknowledgements; homepage compiler statement. Accessed 2026-11-02.The complete catalogue entry and compiler statement were inspected. Selection is confined to object and costume fields; inconsistent genealogy is excluded.Return to An undated portrait, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-PEO-0070 · English edition · human review not performed