History's HEROES? 1876 - 1948

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh - Timeline

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• 1847 Anne Knight, a social reformer, produces what is considered the first leaflet for women's suffrage.
• 1867 November 6th - the National Society for Women's Suffrage is formed by Lydia Becker.
• 1870 Lydia Becker and Jessie Boucherett found the 'Women's Suffrage Journal'.
• 1876 August 8th - Princess Sophia Alexdrowna Duleep Singh is born at Elveden in Norfolk. Her parents are Maharaja Duleep Singh and Maharani Bamba.
• 1887 September 17th - Princess Sophia catches typhoid and becomes seriously ill. Her mother, Maharani Bamba, sits through the night, praying at the child's bedside. During the night she too becomes ill, falls into a deep coma and dies.
• 1889 May 21st - The princess's father, the maharaja, gets married again to Ada Wetherill whom he has met some years earlier. They are married in Paris at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
The Women's Franchise League is created by Emmeline Pankhurst and her husband Richard. The organisation's aim, amongst other things, is to secure the vote for women in local elections.
• 1893 October 22nd - At the age of 55, Sophia's father, Maharaja Duleep Singh, dies in Paris.
• 1894 Due to the campaigning of the Women's Franchise League, a Local Government Act is passed which gives women who own property the right to vote in local elections.
• 1896 Sophia is given the grand, three-storey, Faraday House by her godmother, Queen Victoria, and an allowance of £200 a year for its upkeep. She does not live there until later. She lives at the Manor House, Old Buckenham in Suffolk, near her brother, Prince Frederick.
• 1897 National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) is formed under the leadership of Lydia Becker and Millicent Fawcett. They are known as the suffragists, not the suffragettes (which came later).
• 1903 October 10th - The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) is formed in Manchester. It is a militant organisation formed by women disappointed at the lack of progress of the NUWSS. They are the suffragettes.
• 1905 October 13th - Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney interrupt a Liberal Party meeting by shouting demands for votes for women. They resist arrest and are forcibly removed and imprisoned. The publicity brings many more women to the cause.
• 1907 Princess Sophia visits India for the first time with her sister, Princess Bamba. They travel to Amritsar and Lahore where she is able to meet up with old family members.
February 7th - The Mud March: NUWSS organise a march from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall. Over 3,000 women take part despite the cold and the thick mud. Thousands line the route, many in support. The press take it seriously.
Women are admitted to the register both to vote in and stand for election to local authorities.
• 1908 November - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, is elected mayor of Aldeburgh - the first woman mayor.
• 1909 Prince Frederick, Sophia's brother, rents the luxurious Blo Norton Hall in South Norfolk, and around the same time he buys the ‘Thatched Cottage’ in Blo Norton, for his sisters.
Princess Sophia attends the farewell party of Mahatma Gandhi at the Westminster Palace Hotel.
Sophia becomes a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), persuaded to join by Una Dugdale who is a close friend of the Pankhurst sisters.
July 5th - Marion Wallace Dunlop goes on the first hunger strike. She is released after nearly four days.
September - Force feeding is introduced in English prisons for hunger strikers.
• 1910 November 18th - 'Black Friday'. The princess, Mrs Pankhurst and other activists, go to the House of Commons. They ask to see the Prime Minister but the delegation is very roughly handled on the orders of the Home Secretary. Many of the women are seriously hurt.
• 1911 May 22nd - She is summoned to appear at Spelthorne Petty Sessions for keeping a carriage, a man-servant and five dogs without licences and for using 'armorial bearings'. She protests that she should not have to pay these fees if she has no right to vote but she is fined £3.
July - The county of Middlesex sends bailiffs to Faraday House to demand payment of 14 shillings for her refusal to pay rates. They seize her diamond ring in payment and sell it at auction 10 days later. Mrs Jopling Rowe buys it and immediately returns it to her friend Sophia.
• 1913 December - The princess appears in court again with other members of the Women's Tax Resistance League (WTRL). She is accused of keeping dogs without a licence.
'Cat and Mouse' Act introduced. Hunger strikers no longer force fed but allowed to get very weak, then released. When they regain health, they are rearrested using any trivial excuse and the process starts again.
June 4th - Emily Davison walks out in front of the king's horse at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies.
• 1914 August 4th - Britain declares war on Germany and enters World War 1.
• 1915 Princess Sophia joins the 10,000 strong Women's War Work procession, led by Mrs Pankhurst, which aims to involve more women in supporting the war effort.
• 1918 The Representation of the People Act. All women over the age of 30 are given the vote.
• 1919 Princess Sophia joins the Suffragette Fellowship. She will remain a member to the end of her life.
• 1924 Sophia visits India for the second time with Princess Bamba and her husband Colonel Sutherland. They tour Kashmir, Lahore, Amritsar and Murree. In some places they are almost mobbed by crowds wishing to see the daughters of the maharaja.
• 1928 June 14th - Mrs Pankhurst dies and Princess Sophia is appointed President of the Committee of the Suffragette Fellowship in her place.
July 2nd - Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act is given Royal assent. Women are able to vote on equal terms with men (over the age of 21).
• 1934 In the 1934 edition of 'Women's Who's Who', Princess Sophia gives her only interest as "The advancement of women".
• 1939 At the outbreak of World War 2, Princesses Sophia and Catherine move away from London and spend the whole of the wartime period at Penn in Buckinghamshire.
• 1942 Sophia's sister, Princess Catherine dies aged 71.
• 1948 August 22nd - Princess Sophia Alexdrowna Duleep Singh dies at the home previously owned by her sister Catherine, Coalhatch House (by now renamed Hilden Hall). She is cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 26th August.
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