November 18, 1910, Black Friday. It was a moment that Princess Sophia’s grandfather would have been immeasurably proud of. In a savage spectacle right in front of the House of Commons, policemen were beating up all the women who had turned up to protest. Their demand was simply the right to vote but the cops set at them with cavalry and batons. And all that stood between one particularly violent cop and a wounded suffragette was an Indian princess who had made women’s emancipation her cause.
Born in Norfolk, Sophia was the granddaughter of the Maharajah Ranjit Singh – the lion of Punjab in the 18th century. Ranjit Singh is a legendary figure in Punjab and to the Sikhs, who managed to completely repel an invading Afghan horde from his territories. He established the Sikh Empire at its mightiest – and is rightly celebrated in India today. But it is his granddaughter who arguably left the more lasting legacy – the universal franchise of women in the United Kingdom.
Sophia was not just another protester on the streets of London. She was a celebrity, one of the most popular princesses of her time – and perhaps among the first whose every activity was made famous by the eager press. She was also the goddaughter of Queen Victoria – and when it was her fierce face that got between the brutal policeman, he recognized her instantly and fled. But not before she had taken down his badge number – V700. Sophia wrote a strongly worded letter in a complaint.
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