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Sake Dean Mahomed
Oil painting by Thomas Mann Bayes, c1810.
The painting shows a well dressed man with high collared white shirt and black coat against a pale background.
This is Sake Dean Mahomed, who owned and operated an Indian Medicated Vapour Bath in Brighton where the Queens Hotel now stands.
He was born in India in 1759, wrote the first work of Indian literature in English (The Travels of Dean Mahomed) and introduced Indian cuisine to England.
He also introduced the word ‘shampoo’ to the English language and became the person shampoo surgeon to George IV.
There’s a Brighton bus with his name on it.
What obstacles do you think he might have encountered in 18th century England?
How different might it be if he arrived today?
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