:00:32. > :00:36.This is a story about families. About parents and children. And how
:00:36. > :00:44.we use pictures to remember our past.
:00:44. > :00:49.To honour our heritage, or bring our loved ones back to life. It's a
:00:49. > :00:54.tale of forgotten people. Hidden paintings. And one man's
:00:54. > :01:03.extraordinary passion to belong in a land far away from his ancestral
:01:03. > :01:06.home. It all starts here in Thetford, Norfolk.
:01:06. > :01:11.These days, Thetford is probably best known as the birthplace of
:01:11. > :01:17.this chap, Thomas Payne, the famous revolutionary. But I'm on the trail
:01:17. > :01:22.of another local hero who's almost been completely forgotten.
:01:22. > :01:26.Back in 1926 27, he was the talk of the town. When a three-day public
:01:26. > :01:32.holiday was announced, just so the locals could visit an art
:01:33. > :01:38.exhibition. The paintings were collected by
:01:38. > :01:43.this man. Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, or Freddy to his friends.
:01:43. > :01:48.His family once ruled a mighty Indian King donl. But Freddy lived
:01:48. > :01:52.and died just a few miles from here in the heart of rural East Anglia -
:01:52. > :01:55.- kingdom. In his will, he left 90 of his
:01:55. > :02:05.paintings to the people of Thetford and suggested this place, the
:02:05. > :02:05.
:02:05. > :02:09.Guildhall, as a good venue to show them. It's a suitably grand setting
:02:09. > :02:19.for Freddy's generous gift and I can't wait the see the pictures for
:02:19. > :02:24.
:02:24. > :02:29.But it looks as though I'll have to wait a little longer!
:02:29. > :02:31.The bowls club meet here every Tuesday. But there's not a canvas
:02:32. > :02:35.in sight. There used to be a load of
:02:35. > :02:39.portraits hanging up here in the Guildhall? Yes, many years ago, yes.
:02:39. > :02:44.There doesn't seem to be anything here at all? No. What a shame. Do
:02:44. > :02:48.you know who collected them, by the way? No. Have you ever heard of
:02:48. > :02:55.prince Freddy Duleep Singh? Yes, I have. Oh, you have?! OK. So you
:02:55. > :02:58.have heard of the deep Singh family? Yes. I'm on the hunt for
:02:58. > :03:03.the pictures. To find them? Yes, like a detective and maybe I can
:03:03. > :03:06.give you a game of bowls after, I'm very bad though. Wfrpblgts we are
:03:06. > :03:10.not very good either. I've been searching for a collection of
:03:10. > :03:16.portraits that used to hang up in the Guildhall. I asked around some
:03:17. > :03:24.more, but no-one could throw much light on the enigmatic prince or
:03:24. > :03:32.elusive paintings. Still, since I was here...
:03:32. > :03:39.That's better. Good. Nice! I hit it! You're a very good
:03:39. > :03:45.teacher. Do I win any money? No.
:03:45. > :03:49.If only my quest for the paintings had started so well. There were 90
:03:49. > :03:54.of them and there are 90 listed portraits in here, every single
:03:54. > :03:58.inch of this hall must have been covered and now there's absolutely
:03:58. > :04:02.no trace of them. I've drawn a blank at the Guildhall but I did
:04:02. > :04:10.leave with a couple of leads. Five minutes down the High Street is the
:04:10. > :04:18.King's House, apparently some of the paintings ended up here.
:04:18. > :04:23.Wow. Very dark in here. Somehow I don't think these are the portraits
:04:23. > :04:28.we are actually looking for. But, there's one over there that looks a
:04:28. > :04:31.lot more promising. By my brilliant powers of deduction,
:04:31. > :04:37.there's a number here which looks very much to me like a catalogue
:04:37. > :04:44.number. So, who are you? Mrs French, you must be in here. Well, Mrs
:04:44. > :04:50.French, here you're described as an aged lady, but I'm pretty sure this
:04:50. > :04:55.is you, wink dress with a white scarf and a white cap on the head.
:04:55. > :04:59.Found one of Prince Freddy's collection. It's not only Mrs
:04:59. > :05:04.French who lives here now, she shares the premises with some more
:05:04. > :05:14.of Freddy's friends. Stern looking chap.
:05:14. > :05:18.Number five. You look a bit scary. Elizabeth Blomfields, in a dress
:05:18. > :05:25.aligned with blue and white robe over the shoulders, flowers in it.
:05:25. > :05:32.You have made an effort. Now, this is really interesting.
:05:32. > :05:41.Clearly, not one of Prince Freddy's, no catalogue number on it. This has
:05:41. > :05:45.to be something to do with the Duleep Singhs, it's Indian, the
:05:45. > :05:50.eyes and the jewellery. Spot the odd one out. I've a feeling I'll
:05:50. > :05:54.meet him again later. First on with my quest to find Freddy's paintings.
:05:54. > :05:58.According to the catalogue, there were nearly 100 of them, but I've
:05:58. > :06:04.only seen a handful so far. Maybe someone here knows where the
:06:04. > :06:08.rest of them ended up. The ancient house museum was
:06:08. > :06:12.another of Freddy's gifts to Thetford.
:06:12. > :06:15.Curator Oliver Bone has a treasure trove of material about the
:06:15. > :06:20.exhibition which obvious lib caused quite a stir.
:06:20. > :06:25.We have here an interesting thing. A wooden block with a metal plate
:06:25. > :06:32.which shows the opening event itself with the people and the
:06:32. > :06:36.paintings on the wall. I think in in the middle; there's a photograph
:06:36. > :06:41.of Prince Duleep Singh, so it's poignant because he didn't live to
:06:41. > :06:48.see the day when all the portraits were on display. It's a very Indian
:06:48. > :06:52.thing to do, strangely. Really. have photographs of ancestors that
:06:52. > :06:56.have passed over, particularly your parents, they're garlanded and will
:06:56. > :07:01.beed every day, so the idea of a portrait keeping the past alive,
:07:01. > :07:06.it's really interesting that they did that spontaneously.
:07:06. > :07:12.Then here are some of the photographs of the paintings as the
:07:12. > :07:22.backdrop to local lives in Thetford. Old time dancing group. A great
:07:22. > :07:23.
:07:24. > :07:33.photograph. A lot of hair spray. This one is one of my favourites.
:07:33. > :07:39.The knitting party, part of the war effort. All these ladies proudly
:07:39. > :07:42.displaying their scarves, socks and things. At the top of the
:07:42. > :07:48.photograph, this portrait is the one you can see over there on the
:07:48. > :07:52.wall. Yes. For years, Freddy's paintings were part of the fabric
:07:52. > :07:57.of Thetford life. During the 50s and 60s, most were taken down and
:07:57. > :08:01.put in storage. At least these ones escaped that fate. Colourful
:08:01. > :08:05.snapshots of local people and familiar landscapes as they looked
:08:05. > :08:10.centuries ago. Dogs in the fields. Then on the
:08:10. > :08:14.skyline, you can see the outline of Norwich with the spire of the
:08:14. > :08:18.cathedral pointing up. They're striking pictures, but I
:08:18. > :08:21.wonder what Freddy saw in the portraits of people he'd never have
:08:21. > :08:24.known. At first glance, it's hard to
:08:24. > :08:30.connect these portraits with a person who actually collected them.
:08:30. > :08:34.They bring back a world that's a million miles away from Prince fed
:08:34. > :08:39.Rick's homeland. So what drew him particularly to these portraits and
:08:39. > :08:43.why was he so keen to ensure that none of them travelled too far from
:08:43. > :08:48.home -- Prince Frederick. To understand Freddy's fascination for
:08:48. > :08:52.the characters, you need to understand more about his own
:08:52. > :08:57.extraordinary family. Do you remember the boy with the
:08:57. > :09:04.almond eyes? He was Freddy's father who grew up expecting to rule the
:09:04. > :09:08.Punjab, an opulent Indian kingdom thousands of miles from Thetford.
:09:08. > :09:13.But then came the British. They seized control of his homeland and
:09:13. > :09:19.forced the young Maharajah to convert from his Sikh faith to
:09:19. > :09:24.Christianity. This is a beautiful and significant
:09:24. > :09:31.book. Yes, this is amazing isn't it. It's a Bible that was given to the
:09:31. > :09:36.young Maharajah just as he was leaving India in 1854 by the Lord
:09:36. > :09:41.who was the Governor General of India at the time. If you look at
:09:41. > :09:46.the inscription inside the Bible, you can just make out the words
:09:47. > :09:54.where it says "to his highness, Maharajah Duleep Singh, in this
:09:54. > :09:57.holy book to which he's been led by God's grace, find an inheritance
:09:57. > :10:02.far greater than all earthly kingdoms". So in other words,
:10:02. > :10:06.that's a good swap, we'll take the Punjab and you have the Bible?
:10:06. > :10:10.seems to be the implication, yes. Never mind the earthly riches,
:10:10. > :10:15.we'll look after those for you, you have this! The British can take
:10:15. > :10:19.care of those and you have the Bible. One priceless treasure came
:10:19. > :10:25.to symbolise the deal the Maharajah was forced to strike with the
:10:25. > :10:28.British. This was one of the family's most
:10:28. > :10:32.prized processions, a legendary jewel mined in India over a
:10:32. > :10:37.thousand years ago. This was the nearest that Freddy ever got to it.
:10:37. > :10:45.This is only a glass replica. The real one is, of course, in the
:10:45. > :10:49.Tower of London locked away with the rest of the Crown Jewels.
:10:49. > :10:53.In return for giving up his inheritance and his faith, Freddy's
:10:53. > :10:57.father was offered a pension and the chance to build a new life in
:10:57. > :11:01.England. He settled at efl don Hall and
:11:01. > :11:08.these pictures from the family album show how he threw himself
:11:08. > :11:12.into the role of a hunting, shooting and gambling aristocrat --
:11:12. > :11:16.Elvedon Hall. Later he came to regret his deal with the British,
:11:16. > :11:22.he tried to reclaim his throne and went back to Sikhism. He never made
:11:22. > :11:25.it home, dying in exile in Paris. The British Government were
:11:25. > :11:30.determined that Maharajah Duleep Singh shouldn't receive a
:11:30. > :11:36.traditional Sikh cremation. So they insisted that his body be returned
:11:36. > :11:41.to Britain and buried here at the church yard at Elvedon, a stone's
:11:41. > :11:45.throw from where he used to live the life of an English aristocrat.
:11:45. > :11:50.Today this has become a place of pilgrimage for Sikhs all over the
:11:50. > :11:56.world and a memorial to the first ever Sikh settler in Britain.
:11:56. > :12:01.The Maharajah's story is dark and tragic. But what does it have to do
:12:01. > :12:06.with Freddy's pictures? Perhaps the answer lies in the
:12:06. > :12:11.contrasts between father and son. From everything I've learned so far,
:12:11. > :12:17.Prince Freddy seems to have been the exact opposite of his papa.
:12:17. > :12:20.Maharajah Duleep Singh was a party animal, a ladies' man and had a
:12:20. > :12:25.passionate love/hate relationship with the British. Prince Freddy on
:12:25. > :12:29.the other hand, was reserved, quiet, a budding historian, never married
:12:29. > :12:39.and seemed to model himself on the perfect English country gent.
:12:39. > :12:42.It was a role he began to play early in life. When Prince Freddy
:12:42. > :12:47.was young, he used to ride around the countryside around his home
:12:47. > :12:51.looking at old churches and stately homes. This was just the beginning
:12:51. > :12:58.of a life long passion, some would say obsession, of wanting to record
:12:58. > :13:06.the local history of the place that he called home.
:13:06. > :13:09.Walk on by. Keep walking... She really likes grass!
:13:09. > :13:16.I'm inclined to let her have some, frankly.
:13:16. > :13:20.Lovely view. Freddy loved the country life, so it's no surprise
:13:20. > :13:27.he chose to settle in East Anglia, setting up home at old Buckenham
:13:28. > :13:33.Hall in the wilds of Norfolk. The house was later demolished, but
:13:33. > :13:36.the gardens live on, tucked away in one corner of them is a solitary
:13:37. > :13:40.reminder of Freddy's desire to live a quiet life and draw a line under
:13:40. > :13:46.his father's battles with the establishment.
:13:46. > :13:50.This is a monument which Prince Frederick built in 1897 on the
:13:50. > :13:55.Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. I would like to get a closer look
:13:55. > :13:59.at the inscription. We can just about read it there.
:13:59. > :14:05.Very moss-covered, isn't it? That's rite. You can just about make out
:14:05. > :14:10.Victoria. Yes, that's Victoria. Under the moss. There is the D for
:14:10. > :14:14.Duleep and Singh next to hit. That's it. You need Braille really
:14:14. > :14:20.to read that. This is very much a statement,
:14:20. > :14:24.isn't it? It says "I am nailing my colours to the British mast"?
:14:24. > :14:27.That's right. "this is where I belong". I couldn't wish for a
:14:27. > :14:32.better guide than Peter who shares some of Freddy's passion for
:14:32. > :14:37.collecting. He's tracked down an amazing array of artefacts linked
:14:37. > :14:40.to the Duleep Singh family. This is the photograph album of Prince
:14:40. > :14:45.Frederick Duleep Singh and these would have been taken by Prince
:14:45. > :14:49.Frederick, a keen photographer. did a fine job. This is the inside,
:14:49. > :14:53.yes. There are the paintings, or some of them. Is this where he
:14:53. > :14:57.started his collection of paintings? He started as a
:14:57. > :15:03.schoolboy from whatever small means he had, saving his pocket money.
:15:03. > :15:06.a schoolboy. Impressive, isn't it? Many of the paintings at Old
:15:07. > :15:10.Buckenham ended up as part of Freddy's gift to Thetford and he
:15:10. > :15:13.was always on the lookout for new pictures.
:15:13. > :15:17.This was an age when many great country houses found it hard to
:15:17. > :15:22.make ends meet. If you knew what you were looking for, there were
:15:22. > :15:27.rich pickings to be had. At auction rooms like this one in Diss where
:15:27. > :15:32.Freddy knew well. Prince Freddy built up a very
:15:32. > :15:37.impressive collection and even though he was fairly wealthy, he
:15:37. > :15:40.didn't have bottomless pockets, so I reckon he had an eagle eye for a
:15:40. > :15:44.bargain. Wonder if there was anything here that might have
:15:44. > :15:50.caught his fancy. His collection was growing year-by-year and I've
:15:50. > :15:54.already discovered where some of Freddy's paintings ended up. His
:15:54. > :15:59.gift numbered nearly 100 canvasses and others are harder to find.
:15:59. > :16:04.I've tracked down these ones to the storage area of the Castle Museum
:16:05. > :16:07.in Norwich where they come under the watchful eye of head curator
:16:07. > :16:12.Andrew Moore. Tell us about this portrait which
:16:12. > :16:16.has just been restored? Looks magnificent actually? A wonderful
:16:17. > :16:24.example of an English portrait, not necessarily by a great English
:16:24. > :16:29.artist, but an artist who had real facility in capturing a real person.
:16:29. > :16:34.He looks so chic in his grey and that beautiful powder blue. Very
:16:34. > :16:41.young. I suppose it was the only way of capturing your children in
:16:41. > :16:46.case you lost them? You did die young of smallpox. That is our
:16:46. > :16:56.document to his life and he would have passed into complete obscurity
:16:56. > :17:01.without that portrait. If family name died out when Edward Lewkenor
:17:01. > :17:05.passed away, just as the Duleep dynasty would come to an end with
:17:05. > :17:08.Freddy's death. Beginning to see why Prince Freddy treasured the
:17:08. > :17:12.painings so much, not because they're great works of art, but
:17:12. > :17:17.much more because they kept alive places and people he was fascinated
:17:17. > :17:21.with. -- paintings. Every picture in the collection has a story to
:17:21. > :17:26.reveal and many had personal significance for Freddy. He was an
:17:26. > :17:33.ardent Monarchist and a prince, so he probably had a soft spot for
:17:33. > :17:38.Roger Le Strange. Who almost had his head chopped off by Oliver
:17:38. > :17:42.Cromwell! And step forward Robert Hopton with his son Ralph, they
:17:42. > :17:47.were Royalists too. Ralph died in exile from his
:17:47. > :17:57.homeland, just like Freddy's father. It's not only people that mattered
:17:57. > :18:06.
:18:06. > :18:16.# Straight down the middle... # about this for a hazard? The ruined
:18:16. > :18:16.
:18:16. > :20:06.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 110 seconds
:20:06. > :20:10.A fairly good example of how most of them were. A lot of them still
:20:10. > :20:14.are, to be honest. A very dark varnish, quite a bit of overpaint.
:20:14. > :20:20.It's also quite mouldy. You can really see it from here actually.
:20:20. > :20:24.It's a matter of deciding what's the most important to work on to
:20:24. > :20:30.get a good result and also just to stop them from actually falling
:20:30. > :20:35.apart. So for example, something like this is actually reaching the
:20:35. > :20:38.stage where we really need to rescue it or it's literally going
:20:38. > :20:43.to fall to bits. Do you think they're salvagable? You can mend
:20:43. > :20:47.the tears locally without having to do too much work to it. Just
:20:47. > :20:52.holding the canvas together means that the paint may survive a bit
:20:52. > :21:00.better. Can't imagine that will ever look good again. It turns out
:21:00. > :21:06.I was wrong. In her studio near Cambridge, conservation expert
:21:06. > :21:14.Julie Crick is nursing more of Freddy's friends back to life.
:21:15. > :21:22.It will take time for his wounds to heal. But how about this for a
:21:22. > :21:25.speedy recovery? Years of accumulated grime washed away to
:21:25. > :21:33.reveal this landscape in its true colours.
:21:33. > :21:38.Just as the artist pictured it centuries ago.
:21:38. > :21:42.This is where Freddy's story ends. Blo Norton Hall in Norfolk where he
:21:42. > :21:48.spent the final years of his life. It's recently been restored by a
:21:48. > :21:52.new owner and can be rented for holidays. But I reckon Freddy would
:21:52. > :21:56.still feel right at home here. By now, he'd written his own page in
:21:56. > :22:01.the story of East Anglia. But tuck add way at the very top of the
:22:01. > :22:05.house was a shrine to the other side of his history -- tucked away.
:22:05. > :22:12.Why have you brought me to this room in particular? It's very
:22:12. > :22:17.significant. This attic wing was actually the Sikh gallery where
:22:17. > :22:23.Prince Frederick kept all his Sikh portraits. It shows his father,
:22:23. > :22:28.grandfather, uncles, all in their former glories. There used to be
:22:29. > :22:33.the famous painting which is now in the Lahore Museum and, on the table
:22:33. > :22:40.I think roughly in front of us, there would have been a big table
:22:40. > :22:49.with the delightful one done in Rome. On the left, we would have
:22:49. > :22:54.had a painting of the throne. seems to have been in Freddy such a
:22:54. > :22:58.need to put down roots? Yes. know, the way that he sort of
:22:58. > :23:03.reconstructed a whole web of relationships through paintings in
:23:03. > :23:08.East Anglia, that shows to me a real need of, I want to belong, I
:23:08. > :23:12.want community, solidity? Yes. here we are in the room where the
:23:12. > :23:20.part of his heritage he actually couldn't explore and access, he
:23:20. > :23:25.still lined the walls with what he had? Yes. With what was left?
:23:25. > :23:30.Freddy died here in 1926, surrounded by the fruits of a life
:23:30. > :23:33.dedicated to honouring and preserving the past.
:23:34. > :23:40.When Prince Freddy died, a solicitor made an inventory of
:23:40. > :23:46.everything left in the hall and it ran to 174 pages. Items ranged from
:23:46. > :23:50.very fine antiques and paintings to more unusual items like swords,
:23:50. > :23:59.fossils and even a yak's tail. Theite them caught my eye is buried
:23:59. > :24:03.away on page 56 and it is... Model of Koi Nour in velvet lined
:24:03. > :24:07.case. So he had a replica made of the jewel that his father had to
:24:07. > :24:17.give away to the British. His glass reproduction of that jewel,
:24:17. > :24:19.
:24:19. > :24:23.according to this, was valued at five shillings.
:24:24. > :24:30.Freddy's father never really found peace after his fateful deal with
:24:30. > :24:35.the British. Freddy's story has a different and happier ending.
:24:35. > :24:42.I've enjoyed getting to know him better. And through his paintings,
:24:42. > :24:48.I think I've discovered what made him tick.
:24:48. > :24:57.He had a hunger to belong, to put down roots in a way his father
:24:57. > :25:07.never had. At Blo Norton, he managed to do just that. He's
:25:07. > :25:07.
:25:07. > :25:10.buried here in a church yard a few hundred yards from his home. This
:25:10. > :25:15.may seem an unlikely resting place for one of the men who could have
:25:15. > :25:19.ruled one of the great kingdoms of India, but I think Prince Freddy
:25:19. > :25:23.decided earlier on that that is where he wanted to belong and,
:25:23. > :25:31.let's face it, you couldn't get a more English setting than this,
:25:31. > :25:41.could you. Actually, that isn't quite the end
:25:41. > :25:42.
:25:42. > :25:46.of Freddy's extraordinary story. At the Museum of Rural life in
:25:46. > :25:52.Norfolk, more of his paintings emerge from the shadows, ready to
:25:52. > :25:57.great the public once more. I don't know if all 90 of his
:25:57. > :26:03.portraits will ever be reunited under one roof, but I'm sure he'd
:26:03. > :26:12.be pleased to see these familiar faces again.
:26:12. > :26:19.I like to think of them as members of Freddy's extended family. Some
:26:19. > :26:24.are enigmatic, some are beautiful, others rather twished. And some
:26:25. > :26:29.perhaps a little dull. -- distinguished. Then there's the
:26:29. > :26:39.trouble-maker. Every family had one of those. The grumpy old curmudgeon
:26:39. > :26:43.
:26:43. > :26:47.It's wonderful the see the paintings back on the wall finally
:26:47. > :26:52.and the restoration is marvellous. They look beautiful. This is the
:26:52. > :26:56.last one to go up, the last piece of the jigsaw? Yes, it's a
:26:56. > :26:59.particular favourite of mine, this one. We've treated it rather
:26:59. > :27:04.differently. Seems to have a lot of damage in the centre. Why didn't
:27:04. > :27:08.you hide it? Normally what you would do is to fill in the gap and
:27:08. > :27:13.then very carefully and meticulously retouch it to disguise
:27:13. > :27:16.the fact that it ever was damaged. Why are you going to hang it in
:27:16. > :27:20.this state? Well, because the story about this, there was a label on
:27:20. > :27:26.the back of the painting which said the damage was done by a member of
:27:26. > :27:30.the family. Who didn't like... Strutt family who didn't like him
:27:30. > :27:34.and, when you look at the expression of his face and so on,
:27:34. > :27:38.it seems to be just very plausible really. If you tried to repaint
:27:38. > :27:42.that, it would really be a lot of new work. But it tells a story?
:27:42. > :27:47.Tells a huge story, although it's not the greatest work of art in the
:27:47. > :27:53.world, it's a fantastic image. Quite symbolic of the whole
:27:53. > :27:57.collection really, what some of the paintings may lack in artistic
:27:57. > :28:06.merit, they make up for it in flavour and colour and the stories.
:28:06. > :28:12.Absolutely, yes. I think because of what happened to Maharajah Duleep
:28:12. > :28:14.Singh and his family, the tra that of the loss of inheritance, culture
:28:14. > :28:18.and religion, Prince Freddy probably knew better than most
:28:18. > :28:22.people that you can't take the past for granted, that history is
:28:22. > :28:27.something you have to fight for. Because of his passion for East
:28:27. > :28:33.Anglia, his magpie eye for a bargain and huge generosity of
:28:33. > :28:42.spirit, a very small slice of British history has been saved.