reconverted to Sikhism and espoused the independence movement in India as he became more aware of the way in which the politics of the British Empire had resulted in the loss of his own kingdom. Singh's brothers included Frederick Duleep Singh; her two full sisters were Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh, a suffragette, and Bamba Duleep Singh. Singh developed typhoid at age 10. Her mother, who was attending her, contracted the disease, fell into a coma, and died on 17September 1887. On 31May 1889 her father married Ada Wetherill, a chambermaid, with whom he had two daughters. In 1886, when Sophia was ten, her father attempted to return to India with his family against the wishes of the British government; they were turned back in Aden by arrest warrants. Queen Victoria was fond of Duleep Singh and his family, particularly Sophia, who was her goddaughter, and encouraged her and her sisters to become socialites. Sophia, with her fashionable address, wore Parisian dresses, bred championship dogs, pursued photography and cycling, and attended parties. After a period of ill health, her father died in a rundown Paris hotel on 22October 1893 at age 55. She inherited substantial wealth from her father at his death in 1893, and in 1898 Queen Victoria, her godmother, granted her a grace and favour apartment in Faraday House, Hampton Court. Singh did not initially live in Faraday House; she stayed at the Manor House in Old Buckenham, near her brother Prince Frederick. The British government lessened their vigilant watch on the shy, silent, grief-stricken Singh, which proved a misjudgment. She made a secret trip to India with her sister, Bamba, to attend the 1903 Delhi Durbar, where she was ignored. This impressed on Singh the futility of public and media popularity, and she returned to England determined to change her course. During a 1907 trip to India, she visited Amritsar and Lahore and met relatives. This visit was a turning point in her life, as she faced the realities of poverty in India and what her family had lost by choosing to surrender. In India, Singh hosted a "purdah party" in Shalimar Bagh in Lahore (her grandfather's capital). During the visit, all the while shadowed by British agents, she encountered Indian independence activists such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Lala Lajpat Rai and expressed sympathy for their cause. Singh admired Rai, and his imprisonment by the authorities on