Peter Bance’s third instalment on the Duleep Singhs “The Last Royals of Lahore” focuses on the children of the Maharajah, offering newly discovered archival material along with exclusive first-hand accounts from those who knew them personally.
This voluminous coffee-table book presents a glowing narrative of Lahore’s last royals and features over 550 images together with numerous original artefacts from the author’s collection. Fascinating aspects on the family are revealed, including of the Maharajah’s five daughters. The book sheds light on his daughter Princess Sophia’s life as a dedicated women’s activist and suffragette, and also reflects on Princess Catherine’s role as a saviour who helped dozens of Jewish refugees escape Nazi Germany making her a “Punjabi Schindler”.
The little-known history of Prince Victor Duleep Singh fraternising with the Ghadar Party and the Indian revolutionaries in Germany during the first World War is brought to light, while Prince Frederick’s extensive work in saving local art and architecture is highlighted. Furthermore, the rags-to-riches tale behind Duleep Singh’s wife Maharani Bamba, and her early life in Cairo, is told with new insights from those who came in contact with her.
The publication is launched to coincide with the opening of a new exhibition at Kensington Palace on March 25, 2026, titled the Last Princesses of Punjab, in which Bance has generously loaned 67 of the 113 objects for display. The exhibition’s emphasis is on the females of the Duleep Singh family, including his fearsome mother Maharani Jind Kaur, the last Queen of Maharajah Ranjit Singh.
Bance is a leading biographer and authority on the Duleep Singhs. His debut book in 2004 “The Photograph Album of Queen Victoria’s Maharajah”, was followed five years later by “Sovereign, Squire & Rebel: The Heirs of a Lost Kingdom”.
Bance is an independent researcher and art collector who has been delving into the Duleep Singh family for almost 30 years, during which time he has amassed an unrivalled collection of original documents, textiles, artefacts and memorabilia relating to the family. Amongst his collection are original clothing, personal diaries and family photograph albums associated with the Duleep Singhs, much of which has been exhibited at various prestigious institutions, including Kensington Palace, The V&A Museum, the Bard Institute, SOAS and the British Museum. He has a permanent display cabinet of his collection at Thetford Museum, an institute founded by Prince Frederick Duleep Singh.
Bance has authored several publications on Anglo-Punjab subjects and on the Duleep Singhs, with major publishing houses and contributed to several highly acclaimed books with his research and photographic archive. He has written for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, The Times, The Wallace Collection, Bristol University, and King’s College. As an authority on the life and history of Maharajah Duleep Singh, he has appeared on numerous BBC, ITV and C4 documentaries, featuring on the Antiques Road Trip and the Antiques Roadshow. He has lectured on various aspects of his research at renowned institutes around the world, namely Oxford University, Kew Records Office, Hampton Court Palace, Punjabi University Patiala, Stanford University, St Georges College Mussoorie, Lahore Museum, and The British Library.
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Popular Sufi singer and actor Satinder Sartaaj’s first movie “The Black Prince” was based on Bance’s 2009 book “Sovereign, Squire & Rebel”, and he was instrumental in the production of Ranjit Bawa’s music video for his renowned song on Maharajah Duleep Singh filmed at Elveden. Sartaaj also provided a beautifully worded foreword for this new publication.
His research has led him to locating many of the final resting places of the Duleep Singhs, and where necessary he has arranged for memorials to be erected or restored. In 2007, Bance was one of the key figures in unearthing the gravestone of Maharani Jind Kaur at Kensal Green and was later instrumental for its restoration and permanent loan to Thetford Museum. He has been responsible for the re-discovery of the burial places of Prince Victor Duleep Singh at Monaco in 2003, and the location of the unmarked graves of Princesses Pauline and Catherine Duleep Singh in France and Germany respectively.
The author’s work is a labour of love culminating from numerous research visits to West Punjab, Cairo, Alexandria, Kassel, Munich and Paris. A key figure in organising an annual remembrance service to the Maharajah at Elveden Church, Bance has ensured every milestone anniversary connected with the family has been eloquently marked and celebrated.
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