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PRINCE FREDERICK DULEEP SINGH'S GAME BOOK FOR 1894
The Maharajah Dhuleep Singh and
Prince Frederick Dhuleep Singh
In any account of the long and colourful history of game shooting in Britain the figure of Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, father of Prince Frederick, is always prominent and substantial, and linked unfailingly with Elveden, the famous sporting estate in Suffolk which he once owned.
The Maharajah was the son of Runjit Singh, the Lion of the Punjab - a man it was said of small stature and unpleasing countenance. By 1838, the year of Dhuleep's birth, Runjit was in poor health and partially paralysed. In 1839 he died, and as a result of inter-necine warfare amongst relatives and adherents Dhuleep emerged from the fray as maharajah and emperor of the Sikhs at the tender age of five.
In 1849 a Sikh uprising led by the semi-independent governor of the province of Mooltan and without the blessing of the Maharajah, resulted in the British entering the Punjab with a force of fifteen thousand troops to put the rebels down. At the conclusion of this, the second Sikh War, the Punjab was annexed by the British and, in consequence, Dhuleep Singh removed from his throne. Under the terms governing his dethronement Dhuleep was to receive in compensation a considerable pension from the British East India Company. The famous Koh-in-Noor diamond however had to be surrendered to the Company who then presented it to Queen Victoria.
Dhuleep Singh later came to England in 1853 at the age of 15 and Queen Victoria was at once captivated by his pleasant personality and refined manners and actively encouraged him to play with the royal children. For his part he found the British way of life and, in particular, the field sports very much to his taste. For brief periods he either rented or owned a variety of sporting estates but it was at Elveden, purchased by his trustees in 1863, that the he gave full rein to his plans to own the finest shooting in the land. He was himself already a superb shot.
In 1864 the Maharajah married Bamba Müller, a Christian, who by birth was half Abyssinian and half German. She bore him between 1866 and 1879 three sons and three daughters. The two eldest sons Victor and Frederick displayed in due course the same level of skill with the gun as their father. As an example the two brothers on a September morning in the early 1890s had already bagged 846 partridges when the supply of cartridges ran out - and all this before lunch! Not surprisingly their names feature in many of the game books of the finest shoots at that period. Little seems to be known of Frederick's life outside the world of shooting other than that he was educated at Eton and Cambridge University and later became the squire of Blo' Norton Hall in Norfolk and a notable student and collector of antiques. He died unmarried in 1926.
The game book covers the years 1894 to 1898 and records shooting days at Hockwold, Feltwell, Wilton and Weeting; areas lying just north west of the great Elveden estate. Many notable names appear as guns, other than himself and his brother Victor, including The Earl of Carnarvon, The Duke of Marlborough, Lord Ashburton, Lord Walsingham, Viscount Raincliffe, The Earl of Albemarle and The Earl of Craven.
The Maharajah Dhuleep Singh and
Prince Frederick Dhuleep Singh
In any account of the long and colourful history of game shooting in Britain the figure of Maharajah Dhuleep Singh, father of Prince Frederick, is always prominent and substantial, and linked unfailingly with Elveden, the famous sporting estate in Suffolk which he once owned.
The Maharajah was the son of Runjit Singh, the Lion of the Punjab - a man it was said of small stature and unpleasing countenance. By 1838, the year of Dhuleep's birth, Runjit was in poor health and partially paralysed. In 1839 he died, and as a result of inter-necine warfare amongst relatives and adherents Dhuleep emerged from the fray as maharajah and emperor of the Sikhs at the tender age of five.
In 1849 a Sikh uprising led by the semi-independent governor of the province of Mooltan and without the blessing of the Maharajah, resulted in the British entering the Punjab with a force of fifteen thousand troops to put the rebels down. At the conclusion of this, the second Sikh War, the Punjab was annexed by the British and, in consequence, Dhuleep Singh removed from his throne. Under the terms governing his dethronement Dhuleep was to receive in compensation a considerable pension from the British East India Company. The famous Koh-in-Noor diamond however had to be surrendered to the Company who then presented it to Queen Victoria.
Dhuleep Singh later came to England in 1853 at the age of 15 and Queen Victoria was at once captivated by his pleasant personality and refined manners and actively encouraged him to play with the royal children. For his part he found the British way of life and, in particular, the field sports very much to his taste. For brief periods he either rented or owned a variety of sporting estates but it was at Elveden, purchased by his trustees in 1863, that the he gave full rein to his plans to own the finest shooting in the land. He was himself already a superb shot.
In 1864 the Maharajah married Bamba Müller, a Christian, who by birth was half Abyssinian and half German. She bore him between 1866 and 1879 three sons and three daughters. The two eldest sons Victor and Frederick displayed in due course the same level of skill with the gun as their father. As an example the two brothers on a September morning in the early 1890s had already bagged 846 partridges when the supply of cartridges ran out - and all this before lunch! Not surprisingly their names feature in many of the game books of the finest shoots at that period. Little seems to be known of Frederick's life outside the world of shooting other than that he was educated at Eton and Cambridge University and later became the squire of Blo' Norton Hall in Norfolk and a notable student and collector of antiques. He died unmarried in 1926.
The game book covers the years 1894 to 1898 and records shooting days at Hockwold, Feltwell, Wilton and Weeting; areas lying just north west of the great Elveden estate. Many notable names appear as guns, other than himself and his brother Victor, including The Earl of Carnarvon, The Duke of Marlborough, Lord Ashburton, Lord Walsingham, Viscount Raincliffe, The Earl of Albemarle and The Earl of Craven.