Singh was born in Punjab, India, and was brought up in the Moga district, in a village called Charik where his Sikh family were farmers.

[1][4] Two copies of the Guru Granths, the religious scripture of Sikhism, were present in New Zealand by 1930, the first of which was brought over by Phomen Singh in 1892.

[6] The brothers soon went their separate ways, Bir travelled the Whanganui area and worked as a herbalist where he met and married a Māori woman.

Ganda Singh migrated to Aotearoa New Zealand around 1899 and also led an Indian troupe that performed traditional dance and entertainment throughout local towns.

[2] Singh and his family made confectionery at their Palmerston North home at 16 Andrew Young Street and sold it at their local shops and to nearby towns by horse-drawn van.

[3] Before his death, Singh donated his prized copy of Max Arthur Macauliffe's book The Sikh Religion VI to the Palmerston North Public Library.

[1] Phomen Singh is noted among New Zealand's first Indian settlers with his career movements widely documented through newspapers of the time.