Martanda Bhairava Tondaiman had left India as the British Resident of the State of Pudukkottai felt that the marriage would undermine his position among his subjects.

Sydney was educated at the Institut Le Rosey, Switzerland and Clare College, Cambridge from where he graduated in history.

In 1938, while travelling between Cannes and Paris, Sydney met with a road accident and was left with a limp, which allowed him to use a Faberge cane that enhanced his already elegant appearance.

The New York Times reported on February 18, 1945 that the prince had stated that his own "considerable funds were unavailable" to him, and that he had "only a couple of thousand dollars in the bank, not nearly enough to maintain my usual style of living".

Sydney himself died sixteen years later, on January 20, 1984, at the Hotel de la Ville, Florence, of heart failure.