Koh-i Noor leaves India for Great Britain (1849-to date)

One of the terms of the Treaty of Lahore, the legal agreement formalizing this occupation, reads as follows :-

"The gem called the Koh-i-Noor which was taken from Sha Shuja-ul-Mulk, by Maharajah Ranjit Singh, shall be surrendered by the Maharajah of Lahore to the Queen of England."

On the side of the British, the Treaty of Lahore was ratified by Lord Dalhousie, the Governor General, who at the age of 35, was the youngest holder of this office, to be sent to India. Dalhousie was chiefly responsible for acquiring the Koh-i-Noor for the British, and he displayed a keen interest in the diamond for the rest of his life. Not long after the signing of the Treaty of Lahore, Dalhousie was severely criticized by the officials of the East India Company, the former Governor General of India, Lord Ellenborough and others, for the manner in which the diamond was acquired for the British. While the East India Company felt that the diamond should have been handed over to them to be presented to the Queen as a gift on a subsequent occasion, Lord Ellenborough was indignant because Dalhousie did not confiscate everything to Her Majesty the Queen. In a letter written to his friend Sir George Cooper in August 1849, Lord Dalhousie Stated as follows:-

"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, are indignant because I did not confiscate everything to Her Majesty, and censure me for leaving a Roman pearl in the court. I was fully prepared to hear that the court chafed at my not sending the diamond to them, and letting them present it to her Majesty. They ought not to do so. They ought to enter into and cordially approve the sentiment on which I acted thus. The motive was simply this : that it was more for the honor of the Queen that the Koh-i-Noor should be surrendered directly from the hands 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 favor- by any joint stock company among her subjects. So the court ought to feel. As for their fretting and censuring, that I do not mind, so long as they do not disallow the article. I know I have acted best for the Sovereign, and for their honor too."

Lord Dalhousie, assigned Dr. John Login, the important task of taking the Koh-i-Noor into the safe custody of British Officials in Lahore, from the Toshakhana (the jewel house), whose custodian was the treasurer of the Punjab Government. The crucial task was executed smoothly with the excellent Co-operation extended by the treasurer, who was indeed very happy to be relieved of the responsibility for the diamond. The treasurer further added that the diamond had been the cause of so many unfortunate deaths in his own family, and he never expected to be spared either. The old treasurer also gave some useful advice to Dr Login, as to how the stone should be handled, when showing it to visitors. The first advice was that he should take extra precautions when handling the jewel, and under no circumstances should he allow it to fall out of his hand. The second advice was that he should twist the ribbons that tied it as an armlet, around his fingers.

The second important assignment entrusted to Dr login by Lord Dalhousie, was the guardianship of the young Prince Dulip Singh, the last son and successor to Maharaj Ranjit Singh, who was still a minor.

Dr John Login having taken the Koh-i-Noor into his safe custody, formally handed it over to three British Officials of the Punjab Government, which included Sir Henry Lawrence, his younger brother John Lawrence (later Lord Lawrence), and C. C. Mausel. Out of the three officials, two of them decided that John Lawrence be entrusted , with the safe keeping of the diamond, as he was believed to be more practical and business-like in his approach to his duties. but they were proved to be totally wrong in their assessment, when the diamond was nearly lost, while it was in the custody of John Lawrence.

When the small box containing the diamond was handed over to John Lawrence, he put it into his coat pocket and went about his normal day to day activities. Later in the evening when changing for dinner, he threw his coat aside absent mindedly, completely forgetting that the precious diamond was in one of the pockets. After about six weeks an urgent message was received from Lord Dalhousie, saying that the Queen had ordered the Koh-i-Noor be transmitted to her immediately.

Sir John Lawrence raised the topic at the next board meeting. A chill ran down the spine of John Lawrence, as he suddenly remembered, that the Koh-i-Noor was given to him for safe keeping. He could only remember, having put the small box containing the diamond into his coat pocket. When John Lawrence said quietly, "Send for it at once" his bother replied., "Why? you've got it." John Lawrence managed to preserve his composure, and pretended as if nothing was amiss. He said quietly to himself, "Well this is the worst trouble I have ever got into. "But, said audibly, "Oh yes, of course, I forgot about it." and the meeting went on as if nothing had happened. As soon as he had opportunity to slip away to his private room, he did, with his heart in the mouth; sent for his old servant, and asked him, "Have you seen a small box which was in my waist coat pocket sometime ago?" The man replied "Yes Sahib, I found it and put it in one of your boxes." "Bring it here," replied Lawrence, where upon the old man went over to a tin box and removed the little one from it. "Open it," said Lawrence, "and see what is inside." he watched the old man anxiously, as fold after fold of small rags were taken off and was very relieved when the precious gem appeared. The servant seemed to be unaware of the treasure which he had in his keeping, and remarked, "There is nothing here, Sahib, but a bit of glass."

John Lawrence rushed back to the meeting with the Koh-i-Noor, and displayed it to the members of the board, who then initiated action for it's long journey to England. But the first leg of the journey , was the transport of the diamond from Lahore to Bombay, a route that was one of the most dangerous in India, at the time, swarming with arm bandits and other criminals. Having realized this danger, Lord Dalhousie himself undertook to carry the Koh-i-Noor from Lahore to Bombay. The Governor General carried the stone in his person, double sewn into a belt, secured around his waist, and one end of the belt was fastened to a chain around his neck. He said that it never left him either in the day or night , except on one occasion when he left the stone with Captain Ramsay, locked in a treasure chest. Eventually he was able to deposit the stone at he treasury in Bombay, until the arrival of a ship, to transport it to England. Lord Dalhousie had confessed that he was the happiest person in the world when he was finally able to handover the stone to the safe custody of the Bombay treasury.

The Koh-i-Noor was held up in Bombay for almost two months, until the arrival of a ship, sailing to England. At the time the Koh-i-Noor was deposited in the Government treasury in Bombay, it was put in an iron box, which was again placed in a larger dispatch box. Even the officer in the treasury was not aware of the contents of the box, as it was kept a secret, for security reasons. The dispatch box was loaded into the ship H. M. S. Medea, but the identity of the contents in the box was withheld from it's Captain Commander Lockyer. The only individuals who knew about it were the officers entrusted with the custody of the dispatch, Lieutenant Colonel Mackeson and Captain Ramsay. H. M. S. Medea sailed from Bombay on the 6th of April 1850.

The voyage of the H. M. S. Medea turned out to be a perilous one, which the feeble minded would have attributed to the unwelcome guest aboard the vessel-the Koh-i-Noor. There were two occasions on which disaster was narrowly averted. The first one was when the ship reached the Mauritius Island. Cholera broke out on board the vessel, and the local people refused to sell necessary supplies to the crew, requesting the immediate departure of the ship. When the Medea did not move, they asked their Governor to open fire and destroy the vessel. However, the ship left Mauritius after some days.

A few days later the Medea was caught up in a severe storm, that lasted for about twelve hours, before subsiding finally.

Eventually the H. M. S. Medea reached the port of Plymouth in England, where all the passengers disembarked, and the mail was unloaded except for the box containing the Koh-i-Noor, which was forwarded to Portsmouth. The two officers in charge disembarked at Portsmouth, with the box containing the precious cargo, which was then delivered to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the East India Company. Subsequently the Deputy Chairman delivered it to the Queen, at Buckingham Palace on July 3rd 1850.

The arrival of the Koh-i-Noor in England caused a lot of unease among people who were aware of the superstitions associated with the diamond. Certain unfortunate happenings involving the Queen was attributed to it's arrival, and necessitated Lord Dalhousie's intervention, in reassuring the Queen, that the stories associated with the Koh-i-Noor, that it always brings misfortune to it's possessor were all baseless. On the Contrary, Dalhousie said that the stone could bring good fortune to it's possessor, and grants superiority to the possessor over all his enemies. He quoted the conversation which the owner of the diamond Shah Shoja had with Ranjith Singh at a subsequent occasion, after surrendering the diamond. When asked by Ranjit Singh, as to what was the value of the Koh-i-Noor, Shah Shoja replied, "It's value is good fortune, for whoever possessed it has been superior to all his enemies."

In April 1851, the Director of the British Museum, requested and obtained permission from the Queen to turn out a model of the Koh-i-Noor Diamond. The diamond had to be removed from the setting it was placed in , when it arrived from India. One of those involved in this task, Sebastian Garrard, keeper of he Majesty's Jewels, took this opportunity to find out the exact weight of the stone. The weight of the stone turned out to be 186.10 carats, far short of 279 carats, the weight stated by Tavernier in his publication, giving rise to the unfounded speculation that the Koh-i-Noor diamond must have been substituted by a fictitious one. But, all these doubts were laid to rest, when people acquainted with the diamond, asserted that it was impossible for Dulip Singh, to have substituted the diamond, when the young king's habit of wearing it on state occasions , must have rendered it perfectly familiar to thousands , who would have instantly detected any attempt at substitution. It was said that the more probable explanation for the discrepancy would have been that the weight of the Koh-i-Noor had been somewhat exaggerated.

In accordance with his original plan, Governor General Dalhousie, arranged for the diamond to be presented by Maharaj Ranjit Singh's successor, Dulip Singh, to Queen Victoria in 1851. Dulip Singh traveled to England, to take part in the official presentation ceremony.

Later in the same year, the British public was given a chance to see the renowned Koh-i-Noor diamond, when the great Exhibition was staged in Hyde Park, London.

While the Great Exhibition was on, at the Crystal Palace, a massive structure measuring 1848 ft by 408 ft by 108 ft, built especially for the occasion, a correspondent of the Times newspaper reported as follows :-

"The Koh-i-Noor is at present decidedly the "Lion of the Exhibition." A mysterious interest appears to be attached to it, and now that so many precautions have been resorted to, and so much difficulty attends it's inspection, the crowd is enormously enhanced, and the policemen at either end of the covered entrance have much trouble in restraining the struggling and impatient multitude. For some hours yesterday there were never less than couple of hundred persons waiting their turn of admission, and yet after all , the diamond does not satisfy. Either from the imperfect cutting or the difficulty of placing the lights advantageously, or the immovability of the stone itself, which should be made to revolve on it's axis, few catch any of the brilliant rays, it reflects when viewed at a particular angle."

Even Governor Dalhousie was not impressed by the brilliance of the diamond. In a letter he wrote from Delhi at the time of the exhibition, he says, "The Koh-i-Noor is badly cut. It is rose and not brilliant-cut, and of course won't sparkle like the latter. But, it should not have been shown in a huge space. In the Toshakhana at Lahore, Dr. Login used to show it on a table covered with a black velvet cloth, and relieved by the dark color all round.