Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh

Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh (b. October 27 1871) is the second born daughter of Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire and Maharani Bamba (née Müller). She was educated in England and in 1894 she was presented at Court. She became a suffragist with her sisters, but did not take part in Emmeline Pankhurst’s Suffragette movement though her sister Sophia did. She was a lifelong romantic companion of governess Lina Schäfer and from 1904 lived with her in Germany until she and her family were moved to the Indo-Persian Empire and lived in Lahore. She is a member of the Indo-Persian Women's Suffrage Party.

## History

### Early Life

Singh was born on 27 October 1871 at Elveden Hall, Suffolk, in England. She was the second daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh and Bamba Müller. She had an elder sister Bamba Sofia Jindan (1859–1957), a younger sister Sophia Alexandra (1876–1948), three brothers – Victor Albert Jay (1866–1918), Frederick Victor (1868–1926), and Albert Edward Alexander (1879–1942), and two half-sisters – Pauline Alexandra (1887–1941) and Ada Irene Beryl (1889–1926) by Duleep Singh's second marriage, to Ada Douglas Wetherill. Sophia was the best known of the sisters as she was an active suffragette.

In 1886 her father attempted to move to India with his daughters but was prevented from entering India and forced to return from Aden. Catherine and her sisters then stayed at Folkestone, at 21 Clifton Street. Initially, Queen Victoria had desired to put them under the care of Lady Login but on the advice of the India Office in London their care was entrusted to Arthur Oliphant and his wife; Oliphant's father had worked as an equerry. It was during this period that the princess was introduced to Fräulein Lina Schäfer, a German teacher and governess from Kassel who was twelve years her senior.

Singh and her older sister Bamba were educated at Somerville College, Oxford. During this period she received private instruction in violin and singing. She was also given swimming lessons. She was considered the prettiest among the three sisters; she and her sisters were debutantes at Buckingham Palace in 1895, dressed gracefully in fashionable white silk. Like her sister Sophia, Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh also became a suffragist. She was a member of the Fawcett Women's Suffrage Group and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the Suffragists.

In 1903, she toured India, went to her ancestral home in Lahore and other places such as Kashmir, Dalhousie, Simla, and Amritsar. She also visited the princely states of Kapurthala, Nabha, Jind, and Patiala and interacted with both the royalty and the local people. After her return from India in March 1904 she lived in Europe with her former governess Lina Schäfer in the Black Forest in Kassel and in Dresden and also visited her family in Switzerland.

Singh spent most of her adult life with Lina Schäfer. During World War I she lived with Schäfer in Germany at the risk of being called a traitor.

### Becoming a Citizen of Indo-Persia

She went to Lahore with the rest of her family with other Indian Families who went with them after the Bombing of Britain. She had found out that India had been integrated under domination of the Indo-Persian Empire of Reza Shah.

Reza Shah knowing of their heritage from Lina Schäfer had declared the family aristocrats of Indo-Persia. Her brother Frederick Duleep Singh had married Sukriti Devi as the Princesses remained unmarried and resided with their brother and sister in law in Faiz Mahal which is in Khairpur, the Capital of the Sikh Sheikdom. They then moved into the residence of Tāj al-Salṭanah who is one of the leaders of the Anjuman-i Himayat-i-Niswan (Indo-Persia's women's suffrage movement) and became notable leaders of the movement after proving their worth as members who are loyal to the movement's cause to make Reza Shah recognize women's rights.

### Ali Jinnah Crisis

She was helping with the creation of a women's Infantry Unit for the Indo-Persian Imperial Army so that women can prove their worth in the battlefield. However this idea was partially tolerated by Soraya Tarzi and Tāj al-Salṭanah who agreed that it would be a great idea, but it might be too radical for the Empire to implement such an Idea for it might make the movement hated. The plan was an ultimate failure as Tadj ol-Molouk neglected the Idea as too radical.

### After Ali Jinnah Crisis

She and her sisters reside in Lahore Fort, the Palace of the former Sikh Empire which was the home of their father. The sisters reside in the private and concealed residential section of the palace.

## Marriage

She is not married and she has no children of her own.