Dalip Singh, the last Sikh ruler of the Punjab, was the youngest son of Rani Jindan, a junior queen of Ranjit Singh, the powerful “Lion of Lahore,” who controlled the Punjab for nearly fifty years.

After Ranjit's death in 1839, assassinations and struggles for power prevailed, but the boy's mother finally succeeded in having him proclaimed maharajah in 1843 when he was only five years old. However, the British government claimed his kingdom in 1846, and the young king relinquished his title and property and surrendered the famous Kohinoor diamond to Queen Victoria. In return, he was given a pension on condition that he remain obedient to the British government.

After annexation, Singh was separated from his mother, who the British regarded as a dangerous influence on the young boy. Singh was given into the care of Dr John Login and they moved to Fategarh, a remote provincial town in north India. Removed from his cultural roots and living in a predominantly Christian household, Singh converted to Christianity. Soon afterwards, the Governor General gave him permission to travel to London.

Dalip Singh arrived in England in 1854, quickly gaining a royal audience and an invitation to stay with the royal family at Osborne, where Queen Victoria sketched him playing with her children and Prince Albert photographed him. Winterhalter, the court artist, was asked to paint the maharajah's portrait. During the painting of that portrait, while the maharajah stood in his full costume on a plinth, a party of yeoman warders in full uniform entered the room, escorting an official carrying a box. The queen called the maharajah over and showed him the newly recut Kohinoor diamond, which he took to the window to inspect. With a gesture worthy of the most polished renaissance courtier, the maharajah presented the diamond back to the queen, saying how much pleasure it gave him to be able this time to make the gift in person.

In 1861, Singh returned to India to rescue his now ageing mother from political exile in Nepal, bringing her to London where she died in 1863. On the journey to take her body back to India, he met a part German, part Ethiopian girl. Her name was Bamba Muller, and she became his wife in 1864. They lived at Elveden Hall in Suffolk with their children, where the maharajah looked after his estate and organised shooting parties for his aristocratic friends.

Later in life he became increasingly embittered about the loss of his fortune. The stakes rose on both sides with the India Office successively suggesting that he was a spendthrift and a gambler, and that he kept a mistress. In the face of the India Office's determined resistance and the increasing note of the challenge by the maharajah, Queen Victoria was forced to distance herself. In 1882, the maharajah went public with a letter to 'The Times', publicising his discontent with the British government's refusal to increase his stipend.

Finally, in 1886, he made up his mind to return to India and place himself as the prophesied moral head of the Sikh people, revitalising the religion and purifying it of Hindu influences, especially caste. He published a public message in the papers to that effect and set sail. He stopped in Yemen where the Indian government's authority began, and was accused of issuing a disloyal proclamation. Difficulties were put in the way of his receiving pahul, or re-initiation into Sikhism. Singh challenged the viceroy to substantiate the charge of disloyalty but the government refused, being keen to keep the matter out of court. They did however allow the pahul to go ahead and Dalip Singh once more became a Sikh. Unable to proceed to India from Yemen, he sent his family back to Elveden but could not himself bear the humiliation of returning. Instead, he went to Paris and from there wrote that he would be content with his private estates in the Punjab and a seat on the Council of India. No viceroy would agree to this.

In Paris, he met Irish nationalists and Russian revolutionaries, becoming part of an international web of intrigue to destabilise British power. The plans came to nothing. Back in Britain, Princess Bamba died, and the maharajah's family was in trouble. He returned to Paris where he suffered a massive stroke. While ill, he was visited by his eldest son Prince Victor and those of his British friends who had remained faithful to him, and taken care of by his children. Queen Victoria was holidaying in Nice, and it was these friends who arranged for her to have one last meeting with the maharajah. According to the queen, it was a highly emotional meeting in which the obviously very sick man broke down and asked for forgiveness. He was buried at Elveden in 1893 and amongst the wreaths were one from Queen Victoria and another from the Prince of Wales.