Princess Sophia Alexandrovna Duleep Singh (8 August 1876 – 22 August 1948) was a prominent suffragette in the United Kingdom. Her father was Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, who had lost his Sikh Empire to the Punjab Province of British India and was subsequently exiled to England. Sophia's mother was Bamba Müller, who was half German and half Ethiopian, and her godmother was Queen Victoria. She had four sisters, including two half-sisters, and three brothers. She lived in Hampton Court in an apartment in Faraday House given to her by Queen Victoria as a grace-and-favour home. During the early twentieth century, Singh was one of several Indian women who pioneered the cause of women's rights in Britain. Although she is best remembered for her leading role in the Women's Tax Resistance League, she also participated in other women's suffrage groups, including the Women's Social and Political Union. Early life Sophia Duleep Singh was born on 8 August 1876 in Belgravia and lived in Suffolk. She was the third daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh (the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire) and his first wife, Bamba Müller. Bamba was the daughter of Ludwig Müller, a German merchant banker of Todd Müller and Company, and Sofia, his mistress, who was of Abyssinian (Ethiopian) descent. The Maharaja and Bamba had ten children, of whom six survived. Singh combined Indian, European, and African ancestry with a British aristocratic upbringing, which her string of names reflected. She was named Sophia for her maternal grandmother, the formerly enslaved woman from Ethiopia; and Alexandrovna in tribute to her godmother, Queen Victoria ("Alexandrina Victoria"). Some sources also report an additional forename, Jindan, after her paternal grandmother, Maharani Jind Kaur. In the aftermath of the Second Anglo-Sikh War, her father had been forced, at age11, to abdicate his kingdom to the East India Company and give the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Lord Dalhousie. He was exiled from India by the East India Company at age15 and moved to England, where Queen Victoria treated him with maternal fondness. She and Prince Albert were impressed by his handsomeness and regal bearing. They formed a close bond with him over the years. The queen was godmother to several of his children, and his family's upkeep was provided for by the East India Company. Duleep Singh converted to Christianity at a young age, some time prior to his removal from India. In later life, he