Aroor Singh[i] of Kohali in District Amritsar was a valet-cum-personal Secretary to Maharajah Duleep Singh when he purchased the Elveden Estate in the early 1860’s. He accompanied the Maharajah and his family when they left England for India in 1886, and when Duleep Singh was arrested in Aden. While the Maharani and the children went back to England, Aroor Singh stayed with Duleep Singh, and was one of the four Sikhs chosen to participate in the ceremony of Pahul when the Maharajah was initiated back into Sikhism on 25 May 1886.[ii] From here he travelled with Duleep Singh to Moscow via Paris and Berlin. The Lahore Tribune described him as the Maharajah’s ‘Aide de Camp’.[iii]

Aroor Singh, Elveden, c.1877

He often used the alias Partab Singh when travelling for Duleep Singh, as British Intelligence was keeping an eye on him. He spent a number of years in Europe with the Maharajah, later being sent to India as his ‘accredited ambassador,’ and as an emissary to get support from other Indian Maharajahs. He was arrested on the 5 August 1887 in Calcutta by British Intelligence, who described him as a ‘dull and heavy man,’[iv] and  a ‘Europeanized Sikh,’[v]  because of his love for the love of ‘brandy, ice and claret and Vichy water,’ when arrested. Aroor Singh was detained at Chunar for three years, and released from prison on the 15 December 1890 with permission to return to England if he wished. He was present at the funeral of the Maharajah at Elveden, where he placed flowers.^[vi]

'Hush' by the French artist James Tissot, 1875 (with Hookam Singh and Aroor SIngh sitting in front of Maharajah Duleep Singh)

 Aroor Singh at Elveden with old collegues, c.1893

Aroor Singh at a studio in Thetford, c.1893 

Aroor Singh, Old Buckenham, Norfolk, c.1905