Bhai Ram Singh (1858–1916) was one of pre-partition

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

's foremost

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s, dominating the scene for nearly two decades from the 1890s.The Sunday Tribune - Books
/ref> Amongst his works is the Durbar Room,

Osborne House Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house in the style ...

, on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, England;

Lahore Museum The Lahore Museum (; ) is a museum located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 1865 at a smaller location and opened in 1894 at its current location on The Mall in Lahore during the British colonial period, Lahore Museum is Pakistan's larg ...

and Governor's House in Simla. Amongst Bhai Ram Singh's most famous works are: the Lahore Museum, the

Mayo School of Arts The National College of Arts (colloquially known as NCA) is a public university located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Overview The National College of Arts – Federally Chartered Institute, is the oldest art school in Pakistan and the second o ...

Aitchison College Aitchison College is an elite private, boarding school, boarding Junior School, Secondary School for boys in Lahore, Pakistan. It has educated Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime ministers, including Imran Khan, Feroz Khan Noon, president of Pakist ...

, Chamba House and

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a state university in Kapurthala, Punjab * Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Techn ...

, all in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, and

Islamia College, Peshawar Islamia College Peshawar (ICP) () is a public university located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. In

Simla Shimla, also known as Simla (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summe ...

, the Governor’s House and in Lyallpur (now

Faisalabad Faisalabad, formerly known as Lyallpur, is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, second-largest city and primary List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, industrial center of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan ...

), the College of Agriculture. He also worked with

John Lockwood Kipling John Lockwood Kipling (6 July 1837 – 26 January 1911) was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling. Life and career Lockwood Kipling was b ...

to design the Durbar room in

, Queen Victoria's summer home on the Isle of Wight. He designed

Khalsa College, Amritsar Khalsa College ( ''khālsā kālaj'') is a historic educational institution in the northern Indian city of Amritsar in the state of Punjab (India), Punjab, India. Founded in 1892, the sprawling campus is located about eight kilometers from the ...

. Most of his work fits under the style of

Indo-Saracenic architecture Indo-Saracenic architecture (also known as Indo-Gothic, Mughal-Gothic, Neo-Mughal) was a Revivalism (architecture), revivalist architectural style mostly used by British architects in India in the later 19th century, especially in public and gov ...

, of which he was the most significant Indian architect. Many of his commissions were built by the leading contractor Sir

Ganga Ram Rai Bahadur Sir Ganga Ram (born Ganga Ram Agarwal; 13 April 1851 – 10 July 1927) was an Indian civil engineer and architect. In view of his extensive contributions to the urban fabric of Lahore, then in Pre-Independence India and now in mod ...

, and also involved

Lockwood Kipling John Lockwood Kipling (6 July 1837 – 26 January 1911) was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling. Life and career Lockwood Kipling was b ...

, father of

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

, to some extent Singh's mentor. The precise contributions of these can be hard to estimate; Ram was mainly an engineer and contractor, but is sometimes given credit as the architect of his buildings.

Biography

Singh came from Ramgarhia

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

family of

Rasulpur Rasulpur Tarar is a village of Hafizabad District, Punjab, Pakistan. The village is part of Pindi Bhattian Tehsil. A road from the village leads to Jalalpur Bhattian and then to Hafizabad Hafizabad ( Punjabi / ; ; ) is a city and capital of ...

, near

Batala Batala is the eighth largest city in the state of Punjab, India in terms of population after Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Bathinda, Mohali and Hoshiarpur. Batala ranks as the second-oldest city after Bathinda. It is a municipal cor ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, and showed early talent.RC He is supposed to have repaired the piano of the Deputy Commissioner of

Amritsar Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-List of cities in Punjab, India by population, largest city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportatio ...

when he was 13, despite being unfamiliar with the instrument. He became a student at the Mayo School of Arts (now

National College of Arts The National College of Arts (colloquially known as NCA) is a public university located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Overview The National College of Arts – Federally Chartered Institute, is the oldest art school in Pakistan and the second ...

), in

, founded in 1875, and became a protege of the principal

, father of

. He became assistant drawing master at the school, and eventually, its principal from 1903 to 1913, as well as designing its building. Ram_Singh_architect

In 1885-7 he worked with Kipling, decorating the "Indian Passage" and ballroom at

Bagshot Park Bagshot Park is a List of British royal residences, royal residence located near Bagshot, a village south of Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor. It is on Bagshot Heath, a tract of formerly open land in Surrey and Berkshire. Bagshot Park occupies wi ...

for the

Duke of Connaught Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that was granted on 24 May 1874 by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to her third son, Prince Arthur. At the same time, he was al ...

, Queen Victoria's third son, who he had met in India when the duke was Commander-in-Chief of the

Bombay Army The Bombay Army was the army of the Bombay Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. It was established in 1668 and governed by the East India Company until the Government of India Act 1858 transferr ...

from December 1886 to March 1890. This led to the Osborne House commission, and other work in Britain.

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

met him when he was working at Osborne in January 1891 and her diaries describe him as "a very intelligent, pleasant, nice man, a Seikh p. 'Sikh' we looked at sketches he had made for the decoration of the room". He became Principal of Mayo School of Arts in 1910 and the following year he was made an MVO (Member of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order () is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the m ...

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. George was born during the reign of his pa ...

. He retired in 1913 and died in Lahore, three year later in 1916 aged 58.

File:Close view of Lahore Museum.jpg,

, begun 1890 File:Front elevation, Aitchison College.jpg,

, begun 1886 File:National College of Arts in Lahore.jpg,

(Mayo School),

File:Islamia College Peshawar mosque interior.jpg, The mosque,

Islamia College, Peshawar Islamia College Peshawar (ICP) () is a public university located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.short biography

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic List of British royal residences, royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King ...

*Singh, Amrik,
"The forgotten master"
''The Tribune'', India 2006. Retrieved 9 December 2020

Biography

Further reading