Home
People
Organizations
Events
Themes
Oral Histories
Learning Resources
Other names
Sardar Bahadur Bhai Ram Singh
Bhai Ram Singh
Place of birth
Date of arrival to Britain
Location(s)
Isle of Wight
PO32 6JX
United Kingdom
Date of time spent in Britain
1891–1902
About
Bhai Ram Singh was an artisan from Amritsar who designed and worked on the Durbar Room at Osborne House in the 1890s.
Born in the Punjab in 1857, Ram Singh was educated at the Mission School in Amritsar. Ram Singh came to the notice of Lockwood Kipling, the father of Rudyard Kipling, in India. Lockwood Kipling was Principal and Director of the Mayo School of Industrial Arts in Lahore and was invited by Queen Victoria to design a banqueting hall for Osborne House. Kipling took Ram Singh to England to design this room for the Queen in 1891. Ram Singh stayed in England for three years and was principal craftsman on the job. He was then commissioned to design an 'Indian Extension' for the Duke of Connaught at Bagshot Park, Surrey. After his return to India, he became Principal of Mayo School and received various honours for his work. He died in 1916.
Attended National Indian Association soirée, February 1892 (see Birmingham Daily Post, 25 February 1892)
Lockwood Kipling, Queen Victoria.
Ata-Ullah, Naazish, 'Stylistic Hybridity and Colonial Art and Design Education: A Wooden Carved Screen by Ram Singh', in T. Barringer and T. Flynn (eds) Colonialism and Object: Empire, Material Culture and the Museum (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 68–81
Bance, Peter, The Sikhs in Britain: 150 Years of Photographs (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2007)
Singh, Harbans, Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (Patiala: Punjab University, 1995)
English Heritage Photo Library
Osborne House, Isle of Wight
Lockwood Kipling sketch of Ram Singh, University of Sussex
Banner image credit
Thurston Hopkins/Picture Post/Hulton Archives via Getty Images
Image credit
© Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks, 1930s – present
