In March 2026 Kensington Palace will open a new exhibition, The Last Princesses of Punjab, to mark the 150th birthday of princess and suffragette Sophia Duleep Singh, the goddaughter of Queen Victoria.
The exhibition will explore the lives of Princess Sophia and the women who shaped her, including her sisters Catherine and Bamba, Mother Bamba Muller, Grandmother Jind Kaur and Godmother Queen Victoria. These six royal women each expressed womanhood, power, and royalty in different ways, infusing their identities and heritage into the causes they devoted themselves to.
Princess Sophia Duleep Singh is best known for her activism in support of women’s right to vote, as a suffragette who used her position to further the cause. In The Last Princesses of Punjab, audiences will explore her commitment to women’s suffrage through items including an original copy of The Suffragette, featuring the iconic image of Sophia selling the newspaper on the gate of Hampton Court Palace, where she was granted a residence by her godmother Queen Victoria.
Polly Putnam, Curator of The Last Princesses of Punjab, said, “Kensington Palace was the childhood home of Queen Victoria, Godmother to Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, and it is a privilege to tell this story in a space that has long represented the lives of royal women. The Last Princesses of Punjab will invite visitors to examine the lives of Sophia and the women who shaped her through the lens of resistance, heritage and identity, displaying objects from their lives alongside contemporary responses to exhibition themes.”
Mishka Sinha, Exhibition Historian for The Last Princesses of Punjab, said “We are thrilled to be celebrating the 150th birthday of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh in this new exhibition at Kensington Palace. Visitors will have the chance to explore the stories of royal women from one family who lived in very different worlds from one generation to the next. The exhibition is an opportunity to centre powerful women in this chapter of our shared history, and we hope that visitors will be surprised, moved, and inspired by what they find.”
The Last Princesses of Punjab opens to the public on 26 March 2026 and is included in palace admission. To find out more about the exhibition or to book tickets, visit www.hrp.org.uk.
