Randhir Singh of Kapurthala

Sir Randhir Singh Sahib Bahadur (26 March 1831 – 2 April 1870) was the ruling Raja of the princely state of Kapurthala in British India from 1852 until his death in 1870.

Biography Randhir Singh succeeded his father Nihal Singh Sahib Bahadur as the ruler of Kapurthala on 13 September 1852. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Randhir Singh assisted the British, first at Jalandhar and later led a mixed force in Awadh where he fought against the rebel soldiers.

He had two sons and one daughter by his first wife, one son by his second, and three daughters by his third wife, Rajkumari Bibiji (née Henrietta Hodges and later Henrietta Melvina Oliver) (c. 1843-1893), who was the daughter of Robert Theodore Hodges, former tutor to Raja Randhir Singh when the latter was prince and heir apparent. By the late 1850s, the ruler's annual income was only one lakh rupees, so he sought to marry the daughter of a Britisher who managed his estate. Randhir married Henrietta in 1859 but the couple would divorce a decade later in 1869. After their divorce, Henrietta took their daughters to England. In 1864, Randhir Singh had invited two Christian missionaries to set themselves up in his domain to preach, making him one of the first non-Christian Indian nobles to do so. A further daughter, Victoria Ahluwalia, died in infancy.

Sons

Kharak Singh Harnam Singh

Daughters

Princess Melvina R S Ahluwalia (b. 1860) Princess Victoria Ahluwalia (died as an infant) Princess Helen Marion Ahluwalia (1864–1887)