Princess Victoria Gouramma of Coorg (1841-64)

Glass plate negative of a full length portrait of Princess Victoria Gouramma of Coorg (1841-64), daughter of the ex-Rajah of Coorg. The Princess is seated with her feet positioned on a foot stool. She faces three-quarters to the left and gazes ahead, away from the camera. She wears a dress with corset and crinoline.

The glass plate negative has been photographed showing the coated side and therefore the image appears laterally reversed. Prints from this negative do not seem to exist in the Collection, however a variant from the same sitting is represented by RCIN 2906573.

Princess Gouramma was the daughter of Chikka Virarajendra, the last ruler of the Kodagu (Coorg) kingdom of southern India. Her father was deposed by the British in 1834 and exiled. In 1852, Virarajendra brought his young daughter with him to England, where he hoped to raise a case against the East India Company.

Princess Gouramma was presented to Queen Victoria by her father on 17 May 1852. In her Journal, Queen Victoria wrote: ‘He has come here with the intention of leaving his little girl, to be brought up as a Christian, which is a great step. […] The daughter […] is nearly 11, a dear, pretty little girl.’ Gouramma remained at Buckingham Palace, where on 30 June 1852 she was baptised and given the name 'Victoria', with Queen Victoria as her Sponsor. Through Queen Victoria’s orders, Gouramma was placed under the care of Mrs Drummond, wife of Major Drummond of the 3rd Bengal Calvary who accompanied Virarajendra to England. On 23 November 1854, Queen Victoria wrote that Gouramma ‘is not to go & see her father without Mrs Drummond & the latter is to inform him that I will not allow Gouramma to go anywhere without Mrs D, but that he may go & see her.’

Queen Victoria continued to influence Princess Gouramma’s upbringing, and later unsuccessfully proposed a match between Gouramma and the exiled Maharaja Duleep Singh. In 1860, Gouramma married Lt. Colonel John Campbell, the brother of Gouramma’s later guardian Lady Lena Login. She had a daughter, Edith Victoria Gouramma Campell, in 1861. Princess Gouramma died from tuberculosis at twenty-three years old in 1864.