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Khalid Sheldrake: The East Dulwich man who would be King

Bertie Sheldrake was a South London pickle manufacturer who converted to Islam and became king of a far-flung Islamic republic before returning to London and settling back into obscurity.

By 1928 there were just three mosques in London: in Woking, Southfields and East Dulwich and Sheldrake expressed disappointment at British Islam’s slow progress for which he blamed sectarianism (division to which he himself contributed). None of the area’s geopolitical complexities were reported, the story was treated as a jolly jape with many newspapers not even using a photo of Sheldrake but one of a generic Muslim in a fez instead. King Khalid and Queen Ghazia headed to Hyderabad where Sheldrake announced, ‘I am not ready to be the pawn of any political game … I am awaiting events before actually proceeding to my kingdom’.

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