The illicit spoils of war.

Our last day in Orkney started with a walk through the old town of Stromness and we soon came to Login's Well. This was where the old sailing ships used to fill their water barrels before departing on their long journeys. Many great ships have watered there including Captain Cook's vessels Resolution and Discovery and Sir John Franklin's ships Erebus and Terror before they departed to try and find the North West passage.

Across the road from the well is the site of the old Login's Inn, a favourite place for the sea Captains and their guests. A blue plaque on the wall serves as a reminder of dark deeds in the old Indian Raj, involving Queen Victoria, the inn-keeper's son, the Maharaja Duleep Singh and the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

Duleep Singh ascended to the throne of Punjab in 1843. At the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the subsequent annexation of the Punjab in 1849, he was deposed, at the age of eleven, by the British East India Company under Governor-General Hardinge. The British took, in controversial circumstances, the Koh-i-Noor diamond along with other items of Duleep Singh's considerable personal wealth as part of the terms of the conclusion of the war. Singh was separated from his mother, who was imprisoned, and put into the care of Dr John Login, a surgeon in the British Army. Login's family had run Login's Inn in Stromness since the early 19th century.

Dr Login, his wife Lena and the 13 year old Duleep Singh travelled to England to present the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria in July 1850. The diamond now forms part of the British Royal Jewels.

Duleep Singh was much admired by Queen Victoria who is reported to have written "Those eyes and those teeth are too beautiful" about the Punjabi maharajah. She was also the godmother to several of his children. However, he was forced to spend the rest of his life in exile, in Europe, dying in Paris in 1893 at the age of 55.

Dr Login for his part received a knighthood in 1854 from Queen Victoria and was known as Sir John Spencer Login.