The Last Princesses of Punjab at Kensington Palace

The Last Princesses of Punjab: The story of Sophia Duleep Singh and the women who shaped her, opens 26 March 2026

In March 2026 Kensington Palace will open a new exhibition, The Last Princesses of Punjab, marking the 150th birthday of princess and suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh, the goddaughter of Queen Victoria.

The exhibition explores the lives of Princess Sophia and the women who shaped her, including her sisters Catherine and Bamba, Mother Bamba Muller, Grandmother Jind Kaur and Godmother Queen Victoria. These six royal women each expressed womanhood, power, and royalty in different ways, infusing their identities and heritage into the causes they devoted themselves to.

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh is best known for her activism in support of women’s right to vote, as a suffragette who used her position to further the cause. In The Last Princesses of Punjab, audiences will explore her commitment to women’s suffrage through items including an original copy of The Suffragette featuring the iconic image of Sophia selling copies of the newspaper on the gate of Hampton Court Palace, where she was granted a residence by her godmother Queen Victoria. The image caused a scandal in 1913, considered evidence of her support of a “dangerous” cause. Princess Sophia’s spoiled 1911 census record reading “No Vote, No Census” will also be displayed, alongside a photograph of Princesses Sophia and Catherine attending a Suffrage dinner in 1930, demonstrating their prominent role in the movement.

For the first time, Queen Victoria’s childhood home will offer an intimate look into lives shaped by Empire, focusing on the women of a royal dynasty whose destinies were profoundly and violently transformed by it. These women became powerful changemakers in their own right, using their influence to champion causes that mattered to them. The Last Princesses of Punjab will showcase numerous items which illustrate the stories of these five women and their relationships with Queen Victoria, the Empire, and each other.

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh’s grandmother, Jind Kaur, was a defiant Maharani who acted as regent of the Sikh Empire on behalf of her young son, Duleep Singh. Following her armies’ defeat in the Anglo-Sikh Wars, their kingdom in Punjab was lost, and Jind was imprisoned, forcibly separated from her child for thirteen years when he was sent to England. The power and wealth of the Sikh Empire she once presided over will be represented in an emerald and seed pearl necklace confiscated from her by the East India Company in 1848 before being returned following negotiations by her son. The exhibition will display a makara head enamelled gold bangle set with sapphires once owned by Jind Kaur, symbolising protection and fertility. Traditionally passed from mother to daughter, in Jind’s absence, Duleep Singh gifted the bracelet to his bride, Bamba Muller. The young daughter of a German banker and enslaved Ethiopian woman born in Egypt, Bamba grew up in poverty and was educated at a Christian mission in Cairo, where she met her husband Maharaja Duleep Singh and moved to England. The exhibition will feature a letter she wrote in Arabic and English, showing how she was caught between two worlds. Its contents suggest her life in England was not always a happy one, and she died a year after her husband left his family in 1886.

Bamba Sutherland and Duleep Singh’s daughters would all inherit a rich but complex heritage from both sides of their family, which they expressed and connected to in different ways. They grew up in England, moving within, yet considered outsiders by, aristocratic circles. A portrait of the three sisters, Catherine, Sophia and Bamba, as debutantes will be displayed in the exhibition, united with the white gloves worn by Princess Sophia Duleep Singh in the photograph of this coming-of-age event. The portrait paints a picture of three aristocratic young women launched into British society, but their lives tell a more complex story of resistance, activism, and using their own power to influence causes that mattered to them.

Catherine was a ‘guarantor’ to Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Germany and has become an icon for LGBTQ+ South Asian women. She lived a quiet life in Germany with her former chaperone Lina Schaeffer, with whom she shared a deeply personal and intimate relationship. Letters between Catherine and Sophia, some of which are included in the exhibition, offer a glimpse of Catherine’s feelings for her beloved companion. Following Lina’s death Catherine helped numerous Jewish refugees to seek sanctuary in Britain, offering accommodation and employment at her home in Buckinghamshire.

Princess Bamba Sutherland considered herself heir to her grandfather Ranjit Singh’s empire, and returned to live in Lahore in the 1940s. In a letter dating from 1948, Princess Bamba makes her claims to the vast lands of her father, unfairly lost to the British. She valued the rich heritage of her family’s empire and invested in collecting and preserving traditional crafts. Sarees worn by the Princess both in Norfolk and Lahore will be shown in the display.

The voice of British South Asian women today will be present throughout the exhibition, responding to themes of identity, expression, and resistance. The exhibition will explore these remarkable women as inspiring role models for new generations. Historic Royal Palaces has partnered with local British South Asian community groups to create responses to themes in the exhibition, including a film by a mother and daughter which explores the generations of women shaped by empire and its lasting legacy.

Polly Putnam, Curator of The Last Princesses of Punjab, said “Kensington Palace was the childhood home of Queen Victoria, Godmother to Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, and it is a privilege to tell this story in a space that has long represented the lives of royal women. The Last Princesses of Punjab will invite visitors to examine the lives of Sophia and the women who shaped her through the lens of resistance, heritage and identity, displaying objects from their lives alongside contemporary responses to exhibition themes.”

Mishka Sinha, Exhibition Historian for The Last Princesses of Punjab, said “We are thrilled to be celebrating the 150th birthday of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh in this new exhibition at Kensington Palace. Visitors will have the chance to explore the stories of royal women from one family who lived in very different worlds from one generation to the next. The exhibition is an opportunity to centre powerful women in this chapter of our shared history, and we hope that visitors will be surprised, moved, and inspired by what they find.”

The Last Princesses of Punjab opens to the public on 26 March 2026 and is included in palace admission. Tickets are on sale now.

https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/whats-on/the-last-princesses-of-punjab/