#Taken_from_India_to_England Ranjīt Singh was crowned ruler of the Punjab region. However, after his death in 1839 the British administrators did not execute his will.[11] On 29 March 1849, the British raised their flag on the citadel of Lahore and the Punjab was formally proclaimed part of the British Empire in India. One of the terms of the Treaty of Lahore, the legal agreement formalising this occupation, was as follows: The gem called the Koh-i-Noor which was surrenderd by Shah Shuja-ul-Mulk to Maharajah Ranjit Singh and then surrendered by the Maharajah of Lahore to the Queen of England. A lithograph by Emily Eden showing one of the favourite horses of Maharaja Ranjit Singh with the head officer of his stables and his collection of jewels, including the Koh-i-Noor that he extorted from Afghan Emir Shuja Shah Durrani.[10] The Governor-General in charge of the ratification for this treaty was Lord Dalhousie. He more than anyone, was responsible for the British acquiring the Koh-i-Noor, in which he continued to show great interest for the rest of his life. Dalhousies work in India was primarily aimed at appropriation of Indian assets for the use of the British East India Company. His acquisition of the diamond, amongst many other things, was criticized even by some of his contemporaries in Britain. Although some suggested that the diamond should have been presented as a gift to the Queen, it is clear that Dalhousie felt strongly that the stone was a spoil of war, and treated it accordingly. Writing to his friend Sir George Cooper in August 1849, he stated: The Court [of the East India Company] you say, are ruffled by my having caused the Maharajah to cede to the Queen the Koh-i-noor; while the Daily News and my Lord Ellenborough [Governor-General of India, 1841-44] are indignant because I did not confiscate everything to her Majesty... [My] motive was simply this: that it was more for the honour of the Queen that the Koh-i-noor should be surrendered directly from the hand of the conquered prince into the hands of the sovereign who was his conqueror, than it should be presented to her as a gift—which is always a favour—by any joint-stock company among her subjects. So the Court ought to feel.[12] Dalhousie arranged that the diamond be presented by Maharaja Ranjīt Singhs young successor, Dulīp Singh, to Queen Victoria in 1850. Dulīp Singh was the youngest son of Ranjīt Singh and his fifth wife Maharani Jind Kaur. Dulīp, aged 13, travelled to the United Kingdom to present the jewel. The presentation of the Koh-i-Noor and the Timur ruby to Queen Victoria was the latest in the long history of transfers of the stones as a spoil of war. Dulīp Singh had been placed in the guardianship of Dr Login, a surgeon in the British Army serving in West Bengal, East India. Dr Login, his wife Lena and the young Dulīp Singh travelled to England for the ceremony. In due course the Governor-General received the Koh-i-Noor from Login, who had been appointed Governor of the Citadel, the Royal Fort at Lahore, with the Royal Treasury, which Login valued at almost £1,000,000 (£90.5 million as of 2014),[13] excluding the Koh-i-Noor, on 6 April 1848, under a receipt dated 7 December 1849, in the presence of the members of the Board of Administration —the local resident H.M. Lawrence, C.C. Mansel, John Lawrence, younger brother of H.M. Lawrence, and of Sir Henry Elliot, Secretary to the Government of India. On 1 February 1850, the jewel was sealed in a small iron safe, which was also enclosed in a red despatch box, both sealed with red tape and a wax seal and kept in a chest at Bombay Treasury while awaiting for a steamer ship to arrive from China. It was then sent to England for presentation to Queen Victoria in the care of Captain J. Ramsay in conjunction with Brevet Lt. Col F. Mackeson under strict security arrangements, one of which was the placement of the despatch box into a larger iron safe. They departed from Bombay on 6 April 1850 on board the paddle sloop HMS Medea, captained by Captain Lockyer. The ship had a difficult voyage — an outbreak of cholera on board when the ship was in Mauritius had the locals demanding its departure and they asked their governor to open fire and destroy the vessel if it did not respond. Shortly thereafter the vessel was hit by a severe gale that blew for some twelve hours. Legend in the Lawrence family has it that during the voyage, John Lawrence left the jewel in his waistcoat pocket when it was sent to be laundered, and it was returned promptly by the steward who found it. On arrival in Britain on 29 June 1850, the passengers and mail were unloaded in Plymouth, but the Koh-i-Noor stayed on board until the ship reached Spithead, near Portsmouth, on 1 July 1850. On the morning of 2 July 1850, Ramsay and Mackeson in the company of Mr Onslow, the private secretary of the Chairman of the Court of Directors of the British East India Company, proceeded by train to East India House in the City of London and passed the diamond into the care of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the British East India Company. The handing over of the Koh-i- Noor diamond to the Queen on 3 July 1850[14] as part of the terms of the conclusion of the Sikh War also coincided with the 250th anniversary of the Company. Dr Login received a knighthood in 1854 from Queen Victoria and was known as Sir John Spencer Login (he had added the r to his middle name to change it from Spence to Spencer). The diamond is now set into the crown worn by the female consort to the Monarch of the United Kingdom, and is currently on display in the Tower of London.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 13:56:30 +0000