Victor Duleep Singh was the eldest son of the Maharaja Duleep Singh and Princess Bamba. He studied at Eton College, and then Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1887, he joined the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, having gained special dispensation to join the Army from his godmother, Queen Victoria. He held various positions in the Army but resigned from the Royal Dragoons in 1898.

In January 1898, Victor married Lady Anne Blanche Alice of Coventry. She was the sister of his friend, George, and daughter of the Earl of Coventry.

During the First World War, Victor was ordered to remain in Paris and died in France shortly before the war ended.

Born in 1891, Bhupinder Singh was put on the throne of Patiala State in 1901, a year after his father died. Patiala State was a Sikh Princely State in the Punjab. Bhupinder Singh was educated at Aitchison Chief's College in Lahore and was a talented polo and cricket player. In 1911, the Maharaja of Patiala captained the India XI that toured England. He played for various teams in India and as a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club for the season 1926/7. He contributed generously to the Indian Gymkhana Club in London which catered for Indian students and which with his donation was able to move to Osterley Park. He also founded the Sikh Dharamsala in Putney in 1911 (which later moved to Shepherd's Bush).

The famous ‘Patiala Necklace’, one of the most expensive pieces of jewellery ever made, was created for him by the house of Cartier in 1928. Besides his passions for beautiful women (he married ten times and had eighty-eight children) and sparkling gems, the Maharaja’s addiction to the prestigious Rolls-Royce Motor car practically kept the firm in business. In his garage at Moti Bagh, Patiala, the Maharaja had forty-four Rolls-Royces, all especially built for him.

Bhupinder Singh was extremely loyal to the British empire. In October 1914, he left Patiala with his Imperial Service Troops and headed for the Western Front to command his troops there for the British. However, on the journey over he was beset by ill-health and had to return to India. He did though donate his troops to the First World War and spearheaded a large recruitment drive for volunteers. Patiala State sent more than 28,000 men to fight in the war and their involvement encouraged other Sikhs in the Punjab to volunteer; nearly 89,000 Sikhs were involved in the war. The total financial contribution of Patiala to the war in terms of material and cash was Rs 1,17,16,822/6/2. Singh was a member of the Imperial War Council in 1918. After the Armistice, he was appointed Honorary Colonel of 1/140th Patiala Infantry, and had already been appointed Honorary Colonel of the 15th Sikhs. Singh was given Freedom of the City of Cardiff in 1918 and Freedom of Edinburgh in 1935. He was given the keys to Brighton in 1921 and unveiled the Southern Gateway of the Royal Pavilion there in October 1921, a gift from Indian princes for the kindness of Brighton to their wounded soldiers during the war.

Singh was awarded the GCIE in 1911, the GBE in 1918, the GCSI in 1921 and the GCVO in 1922. He also served as a representative of India at the League of Nations assembly in 1925. In 1919, during the 'Amritsar Massacre', the Maharaja gave aid to the British. Sir Michael O'Dwyer, Governor of the Punjab, remembers this assistance in his autobiography and his obituary of the Maharaja for The Times. His eldest son, Yadavindra Singh, succeeded him to the throne when he died in March 1938 in Patiala.

Maharaja Duleep Singh was the former Maharaja of Punjab who in 1849 at the age of 10 was removed from from the Punjab with his title and power devolved. The Koh-i-Noor Diamond was surrendered to Queen Victoria. Despite his exile and the removal of sovereignty, Duleep Singh became famous as a friend of Queen Victoria. He converted to Christianity in 1853 and settled in the UK in 1854. In 1864, Duleep Singh married Bamba Müller (of German and Egyptian descent) in Cairo and then established his family at Elveden Hall in Suffolk. Duleep Singh had raised the money by a loan from the India Office. They had eight children together. Queen Victoria was godmother to their eldest son.

Duleep Singh became known for his extravagant lifestyle, enjoying the countryside and game-shooting in particular. Duleep Singh also rebuilt the church, cottages and school in Elveden. Despite his lifestyle in Britain, he decided to fight to reclaim his land and title in the Punjab. In 1886 he returned to India where he re-converted to Sikhism. He went to live in Paris where he enlisted the help of Irish revolutionaries and the Russians to lead a revolt against the British in the Punjab but he was ultimately unsuccessful in bringing these plans to fruition. Bamba died in 1887, and in 1889 Singh married Ada Douglas Wetherill, an Englishwoman, in Paris. They had two children. He died in 1893 in Paris but his body was returned to Elveden, where he was buried.