UK museum awarded £2,00,000 grant to mark legacy of last Sikh ruler Maharaja Duleep Singh

PTI

London, January 28

A museum in the UK has been awarded nearly £2,00,000 in grant by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to mark the legacy of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last ruler of the Sikh empire.

Ancient House Museum in Norfolk’s Thetford was awarded the money on its 100th anniversary, the BBC reported. The museum was founded in 1924 by Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, son of Maharaja Duleep Singh. The grant will be used to tell the family’s story through displays, the report said.

Maharaja Duleep Singh was the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who founded the Sikh empire in 1799. After the deaths of his father and brother, Duleep Singh became ruler of the kingdom at the age of five but was removed from the throne after Britishers annexed Punjab in 1849.

At the age of 15, Duleep Singh arrived in England and later made his home at Elveden Hall in Suffolk. His family remained in the area for the next century.

Prince Frederick, Duleep Singh’s second son, donated Thetford’s Ancient House Museum to the people of the town. He was a part of the Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry and served in World War I.

The museum is now starting a two-year project to showcase “the fascinating history of the Duleep Singh family”, said Robyn Llewellyn, the director of England, Midlands and East for the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Norfolk County Council said the new displays would include “a sumptuous ‘treasury’ of Anglo-Punjab history, a model of Elveden Hall, a loan of a portrait of Duleep Singh and displays marking the family’s contributions and activism to achieve universal suffrage”.

The museum will also exhibit the family’s items, such as Duleep Singh’s walking stick, which was given to him by King Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales.

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