Raja Maharaj Singh


Raja Sir Maharaj Singh was the first Indian Governor of Bombay. He was also the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir during Maharaja Hari Singh’s rule and also the Dewan of Jodhpur for a short while.
Maharaj Singh was the son of Raja Harnam Singh of the Kapurthala royal family. His mother was Rani Priscilla Kaur Sahiba. He was educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he completed his MA, and was called to Bar by the Middle Temple in 1902. Starting off as the Deputy Collector of United Provinces, he held several positions in the government of India. He was elected the chancellor of Lucknow University in 1941 and served for a short span as the Prime Minister of Kashmir. He was the Governor of Bombay from 1948 to 1952. He was appointed a CIE in 1915 and knighted in 1933.
At the age of 72, he captained the Bombay Governor's XI against a touring Commonwealth XI in a cricket match starting on 25 November 1950. This makes him the oldest cricketer to make his first-class debut and the oldest player to play a first-class game. Coming in to bat at No. 9, he edged Jim Laker for 3 and one run later, was caught at first slip off the same bowler. He took no part in the game after the first day and Yadavindra Singh of Patiala captained the side in his absence. Laker was 44 years younger than the man he dismissed. The Test cricketer Rusi Modi served as his ADC while he was the Bombay governor.
Rajkumari Bibiji Amrit Kaur, who was the minister of health in the Nehru government, was his younger sister. Married to Gunwati Maya Das of Ferozepore, Maharaja Singh had two sons, Raja Ranbir Singh and Kanwar Mahindar Singh, and a daughter, Prem Maharaj Seth, who is the only surviving child.

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