Ram Singh

Other names: 

Sardar Bahadur Bhai Ram Singh

Bhai Ram Singh

Location

Osborne House Isle of Wight, PO32 6JX
United Kingdom
50° 45' 3.9672" N, 1° 16' 12.864" W
See map: Google Maps
1
Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1857
Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Country of birth: 
India
Date of death: 
01 Jan 1916
Precise date of death unknown: 
Y
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1891
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1891-1902

2
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 in the Mission School in Amritsar. Ram Singh came to the notice of Lockwood Kipling, the father of Rudyard, in India. Kipling was Principal and Director of the Mayo School of Industrial Arts in Lahore and 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.

Connections: 

Lockwood Kipling, Queen Victoria.

Involved in events: 

Attends National Indian Assocation soirée, February 1892. [See Birmingham Daily Post, 25 February 1892]

3
Reviews: 

The Graphic, 29 October 1892

Secondary works: 

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).

Bance, Peter, The Sikhs in Britain: 150 Years of Photographs (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2007)

Singh, Harbans, Encycopaedia of Sikhism (Patiala: Punjab University, 1995)

4
Archive source: 

English Heritage Photo Library

Osborne House, Isle of Wight

Lockwood Kipling sketch of Ram Singh, University of Sussex