Quote · Empire: World History
372. The First British Indians: The Sisters Rejected By Queen Victoria (Ep 4)
Where this was said
Freddie's Death and the Collapse of Support
At 43:25 · chapter starts 41:10
By 1925 Vilmont had separated from Irene, and she had thrown herself from a top-floor window — surviving, but with her body broken and the French press descending with headlines about 'la princesse indienne suicidaire'. Then, in 1926, Frederick Duleep Singh died [1] — Anita Anand "Frederick Duleep Singh, the antiquarian Norfolk bachelor who collected Jacobite art, was the one member of the first family who opened his …" 22:55 . He was not old — his father had died at 55, and Freddie too had heart problems — but his death removed the one person who had held together whatever fragile bonds existed between the two families. At his funeral at St Andrew's Church in Blow Norton, the other four sisters gathered for the last time, but Irene was absent: she was on the Riviera, gambling away the last of her money, convinced she was losing her mind. Pauline came and stood at the grave beside Bamba, the woman she most detested. Irene could not. As Anita puts it: who could not have affection for Freddie?
On 8 October 1926, Irene left two notes before walking into the sea near Monte Carlo. Her letter to her lawyer ended with the phrase 'I am homeless' — despite having an estate of £30,000. The final Princess of Punjab had nowhere she belonged.
