Queen Victoria always had a fascination for her black and colonial subjects at a time when such interest was rare among the white aristocracy. She readily took up the cause of the poor little ‘Dahoman captive’, affectionately calling her Sally, and becoming a loyal friend and protector until she was old enough to marry. Sarah was first invited to visit the queen at Windsor Castle in November 1850, when she impressed the queen by being ‘sharp & intelligent’. Victoria commissioned the photographer John Mayall to take her photograph (which is in the Royal Archives). For about a year after her arrival in England, Sarah lived with the Forbes family. Captain Forbes was astonished at her progress: ‘She is a perfect genius; she now speaks English well, and has a great talent for music. […] She is far in advance of any white child of her age, in aptness of learning, and strength of mind and affection.’

During this first year in England Sarah visited the queen and royal children at Windsor on several occasions, becoming particularly attached to the queen’s second daughter, Princess Alice. But when she was about eight, and apparently suffering from a persistent cough, she was sent back to Africa in May 1851 to attend a mission school in Sierra Leone, (the queen thinking the damp English climate was harmful to her health).

Frederick Forbes published an account of his mission – Dahomey and the Dahomans that same year but he did not live long enough to see the girl he had rescued grow up into a cultured English ‘lady’. He died, aged 34, at sea on board the HMS Tortoise on 4 June 1852, on his way to St Helena, ‘for the benefit of his health’ – which had been wrecked by fever and dysentery caught during his time in West Africa.