Admiral of the Fleet 'Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma',
KG,
GCB,
OM,
GCSI,
GCIE,
GCVO,
DSO,
PC (
25 June 1900–
27 August 1979) was a
British admiral and
statesman and an uncle of
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was the last
Viceroy and
first Governor-General of independent
India, and
First Sea Lord, as was his father,
Prince Louis of Battenberg. Mountbatten was
assassinated by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who planted a bomb in his boat at
Mullaghmore, County Sligo in the
Republic of Ireland.
Ancestry
Mountbatten was born in
Frogmore House, Windsor, in
England, as ''His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg'', although his
German styles and titles were dropped in 1917. He was the youngest child and the second son of
Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife
Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. His maternal grandparents were
Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and
Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, who was a daughter of
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His paternal grandparents were
Prince Alexander of Hesse and
Princess Julia of
Battenberg. His siblings were
Princess Alice, (mother of
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh),
Queen Louise of Sweden, and
George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven.
[1]
His father was
First Sea Lord at the outbreak of the
First World War, but the prevailing extreme anti-German feelings obliged him to resign. In 1917, when the Royal Family stopped using their German names and titles,
Prince Louis of Battenberg became Louis
Mountbatten, and was created
Marquess of Milford Haven. His second son acquired the
courtesy style 'Lord Louis Mountbatten' and was known as 'Lord Louis' informally until his death notwithstanding his being granted a viscountcy in recognition of his wartime service in the Far East and an earldom for his role in the transition of India from British dependency to sovereign state. In childhood he visited the Imperial Court of Russia at St Petersburg and became intimate with the doomed Imperial Family; in later life he was called upon authoritatively to rebut claims by pretenders to be the supposedly surviving
Grand Duchess Anastasia. As a young man he had romantic feelings towards Anastasia's sister, the
Grand Duchess Maria, and until the end of his own life he kept her photograph at his bedside.
After his nephew's change of name and engagement to the future Queen, he is alleged to have referred to the United Kingdom's dynasty as the future "House of Mountbatten", whereupon the Dowager
Queen Mary reportedly refused to have anything to do with "that Battenberg nonsense", and the name of the Royal house remains Windsor by subsequent Royal decree - this can, however, be changed on the Monarch's wishes.
Career
Early career
After Lockers Park Prep School, and Naval Cadet School, Mountbatten served in the
Royal Navy during the First World War. He accompanied
Edward, Prince of Wales on a 1922 royal tour of India (where Edwina Ashley met him and he proposed marriage) and consolidated a firm friendship with the Prince. His relations with Edward cooled substantially during the latter's 1936 reign as Edward VIII and during the Abdication Crisis. Mountbatten's loyalties between the wider Royal Family and the throne, on the one hand, and the then-King, on the other, were tested. Mountbatten came down firmly on the side of Prince Albert, the Duke of York, who was to assume the throne as
George VI in his brother's place.
Second World War
In the
Second World War he commanded the 5th
Destroyer Flotilla. His ship, the destroyer
HMS ''Kelly'', was famous for many daring exploits. In early May
1940, Mountbatten led a British convoy in through the fog to evacuate the Allied forces participating in the
Namsos campaign. In
1940 he invented the
Mountbatten Pink naval camouflage pigment. His ship was sunk in May 1941 during the
Crete Campaign.
In August 1941 Mountbatten was appointed captain of
HMS ''Illustrious'' which lay in
Norfolk, Virginia for repairs following action in the Mediterranean in January. During this period of relative inactivity he paid a flying visit to
Pearl Harbor, where he was not impressed with the poor state of readiness and a general lack of co-operation between the US Navy and US Army, including the absence of a joint HQ.
Mountbatten was a favourite of
Winston Churchill—though Churchill was famously annoyed with Mountbatten's later role in the independence of India—and on
27 October 1941 he replaced
Roger Keyes as Chief of
Combined Operations. He personally pushed through the disastrous
Dieppe Raid of
19 August 1942 (which certain elements of the Allied military, notably
Field Marshal Montgomery, felt was ill-conceived from the start). The raid on Dieppe was widely considered to be a disaster, with casualties (including those wounded and/or taken prisoner) numbering in the thousands, the great majority of them Canadians. Mountbatten claimed that the lessons learned from the Dieppe Raid were necessary for planning the Normandy invasion. However, military historians such as former Royal Marine
Julian Thompson have written that these lessons should not have needed a debacle such as Dieppe to be recognised.
[ The Royal Marines: from Sea Soldiers to a Special Force, , Julian, Thompson, Pan Books, 2001, ]
As a result, Mountbatten became a controversial figure in Canada,
[2] with the Royal Canadian Legion distancing itself from him during his visits there during his later career; his relations with Canadian veterans "remained frosty".
[3] Mountbatten's perceived callousness, and that of other prominent figures, towards Canadian forces served to encourage Canada's increasing distancing of itself from Britain in the postwar years. Nevertheless, a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet corps (RCSCC #134 Admiral Mountbatten in
Sudbury, Ontario) was named after him in 1946.
In late 1942, Mountbatten proposed
Project Habakkuk to Churchill; the
Pykrete supercarrier project was never completed. In October 1943, Churchill appointed Mountbatten the Supreme Allied Commander
South East Asia Theatre. Characteristically he set up an elaborate headquarters in the Royal Palace at
Kandy,
Sri Lanka, although the American generals proved unimpressed. His less practical ideas were sidelined by an experienced planning staff led by Lt-Col.
James Allason, though some, such as a proposal to launch an amphibious assault near
Rangoon, got as far as Churchill before being quashed.
[4] He would hold the post until
South East Asia Command (SEAC) was disbanded in 1946.
During his time as Supreme Allied Commander of the South-East Asia Theatre his command oversaw the recapture of Burma from the Japanese by General
William Slim. His diplomatic handling of
General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, his deputy—and also the officer commanding the American
China Burma India Theater—and Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the
Chinese Nationalist forces, was as gifted as that of General
Eisenhower with General Montgomery and Winston Churchill. A personal high point was reception of the Japanese surrender in
Singapore when British troops returned to the island to receive formal surrender of the Japanese forces in the region led by General
Itagaki Seishiro on
September 12,
1945.
The Last Viceroy

Mountbatten at his installation as Viceroy of India
His experience in the region and in particular his perceived
Labour sympathies at that time led to
Clement Attlee appointing him
Viceroy of India after the war. In his position as Viceroy, Mountbatten oversaw the granting of independence to the Partitioned India as India and
Pakistan (In subsequent years, pre-Independence India has often been referred to as "British India." Prior to Partition and Independence, "British India" referred to those parts of India which were directly administered by the British, as opposed to those portions of pre-Independence India which were under the control of the Indian Princes.)
He developed a strong relationship with the Indian princes who were said to have considerable confidence in him, and on the basis of his relationship with the British monarchy persuaded most of them to accede to the new states of India and Pakistan. This was vitally important in the lead-up to Indian independence, though ultimately post-Independence India and Pakistan abolished their prerogatives. The major continuing irritant between India and Pakistan has been over their rival claims to the former princely state of Kashmir. British Indian provinces were in general automatically allocated either to post-Partition India or Pakistan on the basis of the religion of the majority of such provinces; princely states' accession to one or other of the two countries was in the discretion of their respective princes. As a Hindu, the Maharajah, Hari Singh, chose to accede to India after the partition despite a majority of Kashmiris being Muslim.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the
Indian National Congress leader was a Kashmiri Hindu and had a strong wish to retain Kashmir for India; as has been well-documented, Mountbatten got on extremely well with Nehru (they had both been at the University of Cambridge and were active members of the Union Society although they had not been contemporaries), and not at all with
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the leader of the
Indian Muslim League, a factor that complicated the issue.

Transfer of power. Mountbatten and Nehru at the microphone; Edwina in front of her throne. Viceroy's House, 15 August 1947
With his strong friendship with Nehru and amicable relations with Mahatma
Gandhi but inability to work his famous charm on Jinnah, Mountbatten quickly gave up hope of salvaging a unified independent India, becoming resigned to
Partition into a post-Independence Pakistan and Bharat (India). After Independence (midnight of
14 August/
15 August 1947, celebrated on the 14th in Pakistan and the 15th in India) he remained in New Delhi for ten months, serving as the first of independent India's two governors general until June 1948 (the monarchy being abolished in 1950 and the office of governor general of India replaced with a non-executive presidency.) Notwithstanding extremely effective self-promotion during his lifetime as to own his part in Indian independence — notably in the television series "The Life and Times of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Mountbatten of Burma", produced by his son-in-law
Lord Brabourne, and
Dominique Lapierre and
Larry Collins's rather sensationalised ''
Freedom at Midnight'' (as to which he was the main informant) — his record is seen as mixed; one view is that he hastened the independence process unduly, foreseeing vast disruption and loss of life and not wanting this to occur on the British watch, but thereby actually causing it to occur, especially during the partition of the Punjab but also to a lesser extent, Bengal.
John Kenneth Galbraith, the Canadian-American Harvard economist, who advised governments of India during the 1950s, became an intimate of Nehru and served as the American ambassador from 1961-63, was a particularly harsh critic of Mountbatten in this regard. The horrific casualties of the partition of the Punjab are luridly described in Collins' and LaPierre's ''Freedom at Midnight'' and more latterly in
Bapsi Sidhwa's novel ''Ice Candy Man'' (published in the USA as ''Cracking India''), made into the film ''Earth, 1947''. In all renderings of the appalling carnage that followed the Partition, Lady Mountbatten is universally praised for her heroic efforts in relieving the misery and to this day she remains a heroine of the Partition period in India.
Career after India
After India, Mountbatten served in the Mediterranean Fleet and as a staff officer in the Admiralty. He took great personal pride and pleasure in serving as
First Sea Lord and later as
Chief of the Defence Staff for six years (1959–1965), which he also took as reparation for the slur on his father who had been forced to resign as First Sea Lord in 1914 after being falsely accused of pro-German sympathy.
It is claimed that in 1967 Mountbatten attended a private meeting with press baron and MI5 agent
Cecil King, and the Government's chief scientific adviser,
Solly Zuckerman. King wanted to stage a coup against the then crisis-striken Labour Government of
Harold Wilson, and urged Mountbatten to become the leader of a Government of national salvation. Mountbatten apparently considered the idea of heading the coup, but Zuckerman pointed out that it was treason, and the idea came to nothing because of Mountbatten's reluctance to act.
[5] Claims of an MI5 plot against Wilson have been investigated a number of times and no credible evidence discovered.
[1]
Mountbatten was appointed the first
Lord Lieutenant of the
Isle of Wight following that county's creation in 1974. He kept the position until his death.
Mountbatten took great pride in enhancing intercultural understanding and in 1984, with his eldest daughter as the patron, the
Mountbatten Internship Programme was developed to allow young adults the opportunity to enhance their intercultural appreciation and experience by spending time abroad.
From 1967 until 1978, Mountbatten became president of the
United World Colleges Organisation, then represented by a single college: that of
Atlantic College in South Wales. Mountbatten supported the United World Colleges and encouraged heads of state, politicians and personalities throughout the world to share his interest. Under Mountbatten's presidency and personal involvement, the United World College of South East Asia was established in Singapore in 1971, followed by the UWC of the Pacific in Canada in 1974. In 1978, Lord Mountbatten of Burma passed the Presidency to his great-nephew, HRH The Prince of Wales.
[6]
Personal life
Marriage

Edwina Mountbatten as a young matron
Mountbatten was married on
18 July 1922 to
Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley, daughter of
Wilfred Ashley, later 1st
Baron Mount Temple, himself a grandson of the
7th Earl of Shaftesbury. She was the favourite granddaughter of the Edwardian magnate Sir
Ernest Cassel and the principal heir to his fortune. There followed a glamorous honeymoon tour of European courts and America which famously included a visit with
Douglas Fairbanks,
Mary Pickford and
Charlie Chaplin in
Hollywood, Chaplin creating a widely seen home movie "Nice and Easy", featuring the talents of Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin and the Mountbattens. They had two daughters:
Patricia Mountbatten, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma (born on
February 14,
1924), and
Lady Pamela Carmen Louise (Hicks) (born on
April 19,
1929).
Lady Mountbatten died at age 58 on
February 21,
1960, in
Jesselton,
North Borneo; as amply documented in the official biography by Philip Ziegler, the marriage had been stormy throughout, with ample adulterous dalliance on both parts. Both husband and wife readily admitted to several affairs, particularly during the 1930s; Lady Mountbatten's intimacy with Nehru has long been well known; and both Mountbatten daughters have candidly acknowledged that their mother had a fiery temperament and was not always supportive of her husband when jealousy of his high profile overbore a sense of their having common cause.
During the Indian viceroyalty, in particular, Mountbatten's evenings were often given over to assuaging his wife's feelings of angry resentment. Latterly, A.N. Wilson in his well-regarded ''After the Victorians: 1901–1953'' has asserted that Mountbatten himself carried on affairs with lovers of both sexes and that he was known to friends as "Mountbottom."
[7] A small item in ''
Private Eye'' magazine regarding drunken naval ratings at Mountbatten's London home, and which alluded to Mountbatten's bisexuality, was widely commented upon. Mountbatten's official biographer wrote that he could find nothing to support the allegation, but several eyewitness accounts supporting ''Private Eye'' were later published.
Passing of titles to Patricia
Since Mountbatten had no sons, when he was created Viscount on
August 23,
1946, then Earl and Baron on
October 28,
1947, the
Letters Patent were drafted such that the titles would pass to the female line and its male issue. This was at his firm insistence: his relationship with his elder daughter had always been particularly close and it was his special wish that she succeed to the title in her own right. There was longstanding precedent for such remainders for military commanders: past examples included the
1st Viscount Nelson and the
1st Earl Roberts. It also acknowledged the regard in which he was held by the British Royal Family—although the Sarah Bradford biography of ''King George VI: The Reluctant King'', indicates clearly that the King was not without a degree of droll awareness of his cousin's famous name-dropping as to his Royal connection—as well as to atone for the disservice done to his father. Thus, on his death in 1979 the titles passed to Patricia as he had wished.
Mentorship of Prince of Wales
Mountbatten was a strong influence in the upbringing of his great-nephew,
The Prince of Wales, and later as a mentor—"Honorary Grandfather" and "Honorary Grandson", they fondly called each other according to the Jonathan Dimbleby biography of the Prince—though according to both the Ziegler biography of Mountbatten and the Dimbleby biography of the Prince the results may have been mixed: he from time to time strongly upbraided the Prince for showing tendencies towards the idle pleasure-seeking dilettantism of his predecessor as Prince of Wales,
King Edward VIII, later known as the Duke of Windsor, whom Mountbatten had known well in their youth; but he also encouraged the Prince to enjoy the bachelor life while he could and then to marry a young and inexperienced girl so as to ensure a stable married life.
[8]
Mountbatten's qualification for offering advice to this particular heir to the throne was unique; it was he who had arranged the visit of George VI and Queen Elizabeth to
Dartmouth Royal Naval College on
22 July 1939, taking care to include the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in the invitation, but assigning his nephew,
Cadet Prince Philip of Greece, to keep them amused while their parents toured the facility. This was the first recorded meeting of Charles's future parents.
[9] But a few months later, Mountbatten's efforts nearly came to naught when he received a letter from his sister Alice in
Athens informing him that Philip was visiting her and had agreed to permanently
repatriate to Greece. Within days, Philip received a command from his cousin and sovereign, King
George II of the Hellenes, to resume his naval career in Britain which, though given without explanation, the young prince obeyed.
[10]
In 1974 Mountbatten began corresponding with Charles about a potential marriage to his granddaughter, Hon. Amanda Knatchbull.
[ The Prince of Wales: A Biography, , Jonathan, Dimbleby, William Morrow and Company, 1994, ] It was about this time he also recommended that the 25-year-old prince get on with sowing some wild oats. Charles dutifully wrote Amanda's mother (who was also his godmother),
Lady Brabourne, about his interest. Her answer was supportive, but advised him that she thought her daughter still rather young to be
courted.
[11]
Four years later Mountbatten secured an invitation for himself and Amanda to accompany Charles on his planned 1980 tour of India.
[11] Their fathers promptly objected: Prince Philip thought that the Indian public's reception would more likely reflect response to the uncle than to the nephew.
Lord Brabourne counseled that the intense scrutiny of the press would be more likely to drive Mountbatten's godson and granddaughter apart than together.
[ The Prince of Wales: A Biography, , Jonathan, Dimbleby, William Morrow and Company, 1994, ]
Charles was re-scheduled to tour India alone, but Mountbatten did not live to the planned date of departure. When Charles finally did propose marriage to Amanda, the circumstances were tragically changed, and she refused him.
[11]
Death
Mountbatten usually holidayed at his summer home in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, a small seaside village between
Bundoran,
County Donegal and
Sligo Town on the northwest coast of
Ireland. Bundoran was a popular holiday destination for
volunteers of the IRA, many of whom were aware of Mountbatten's presence and movements in Mullaghmore. Despite security advice and warnings from the
Garda SÃochána, on
27 August 1979, Mountbatten went sailing in his thirty-foot wooden boat, the Shadow V, which was moored in the small harbour at Mullaghmore. The IRA had earlier fitted a radio controlled fifty-pound bomb which was detonated before the boat reached
Donegal Bay. Others killed in the blast were
Nicholas Knatchbull, his elder daughter's fourteen-year-old son, Paul Maxwell, a 15-year-old youth from
County Fermanagh who was working as a crew member and
Baroness Brabourne, his elder daughter's 83-year-old mother-in-law who was seriously injured in the explosion, and died from her injuries the following day.
Nicholas Knatchbull's mother and father, along with his twin brother Timothy, survived the explosion but were seriously injured.
Sinn Féin vice-president
Gerry Adams said of Mountbatten's death:
The I.R.A. gave clear reasons for the execution. I think it is unfortunate that anyone has to be killed, but the furor created by Mountbatten's death showed up the hypocritical attitude of the media establishment. As a member of the House of Lords, Mountbatten was an emotional figure in both British and Irish politics. What the I.R.A. did to him is what Mountbatten had been doing all his life to other people; and with his war record I don't think he could have objected to dying in what was clearly a war situation. He knew the danger involved in coming to this country. In my opinion, the I.R.A. achieved its objective: people started paying attention to what was happening in Ireland.[14]
On that same day Mountbatten was assassinated, the IRA also ambushed and killed eighteen
British Army soldiers from the
Parachute Regiment at
Warrenpoint,
County Down in what became known as the
Warrenpoint ambush.
Funeral
The
President of Ireland,
Patrick Hillery, and the
Taoiseach (Head of Government),
Jack Lynch, attended a memorial service for Mountbatten in
St. Patrick's Cathedral in
Dublin.
Mountbatten was buried in
Romsey Abbey after a televised funeral in
Westminster Abbey which he himself had comprehensively planned.
[15]
On
23 November 1979,
Thomas McMahon was convicted for the bombing and later was released in
1998 under the terms of the
Good Friday Agreement.
[IRA bomb kills Lord Mountbatten — BBC News On This Day][16]
Styles from birth to death
★ ''His Serene Highness'' Prince Louis of Battenberg (
1900–
1917)
★ Mr. Louis Mountbatten (
1917)
★ Lord Louis Mountbatten (
1917–
1920)
★ Lord Louis Mountbatten, MVO (
1920-
1922)
★ Lord Louis Mountbatten, KCVO (
1921-
1937)
★ Lord Louis Mountbatten, GCVO (
1937-
1941)
★ Lord Louis Mountbatten, GCVO, DSO (
1941-
1943)
★ Lord Louis Mountbatten, GCVO, CB, DSO (
1943-
1946)
★ The Right Honourable The Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCVO, KCB, DSO (
1946–
1947)
★ The Right Honourable The Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCVO, KCB, DSO, PC (
1947)
★ The Right Honourable The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, KCB, DSO, PC (
1947–
1955)
★ The Right Honourable The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC (
1955–
1965)
★ The Right Honourable The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC (
1965–
1979)
Honours
★ 1937:
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order – GCVO (1920: MVO, 1922: KCVO)
★ 1941:
Distinguished Service Order – DSO
★ 1943:
Knight of Justice of St John – KJStJ
★ 1946:
Knight of the Garter – KG
★ 1947:
Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India – GCSI
★ 1947:
Knight Grand Commander of the Indian Empire – GCIE
★ 1955:
Knight Grand Cross of the Bath – GCB (1943: CB, 1945: KCB}
★ 1956:
Grand Commander of the Order of Thiri Thudhamma (Burma)
★ 1965:
Member of the Order of Merit – OM
References
1. ''Burke's Guide to the Royal Family'': edited by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, p. 303.
2. Unauthorized Action: Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid, , Brian Loring, Villa, Oxford University Press, 1989,
3. "Who Was Responsible For Dieppe?" CBC Archives, broadcast 9 September 1962. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
4. ''The Hot Seat", James Allason, Blackthorn, London 2006.
5. House of Commons, Hansard: 10 January 1996 Column 287. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199596/cmhansrd/vo950110/debtext/60110-43.htm
6. http://www.uwc.org/about_history.html
7. A.N. Wilson, ''After the Victorians: 1901–1953'' (London: Hutchinson, 2005), pp.493–94.
8. The Firm: the troubled life of the House of Windsor, , Penny, Junor, Thomas Dunne Books, 2005,
9. The Real Prince Philip
10. Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece, , Hugo, Vickers, Hamish Hamilton, 2000,
11. The Prince of Wales: A Biography, , Jonathan, Dimbleby, William Morrow and Company, 1994,
12. The Prince of Wales: A Biography, , Jonathan, Dimbleby, William Morrow and Company, 1994,
13. The Prince of Wales: A Biography, , Jonathan, Dimbleby, William Morrow and Company, 1994,
14. It is "Clearly a War Situation" Louisa Wright
15.
16. A Secret History of the IRA, Ed Moloney, 2002. (PB) ISBN 0-393-32502-4 (HB) ISBN 0-71-399665-X p.176
Notes
:See also: David Leigh, "The Wilson Plot: The Intelligence Services and the Discrediting of a Prime Minister 1945-1976", London: Heinemann, 1988
Further reading
★
Philip Ziegler, ''Mountbatten: the official biography'', (Collins, 1985)
★
Richard Hough, ''Mountbatten; Hero of our time'', (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980)
★ ''The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten'' (Hutchinson, 1968)
★
Andrew Roberts ''Eminent Churchillians'', (Phoenix Press, 1994).
★
Dominique Lapierre and
Larry Collins ''
Freedom at Midnight'', (Collins, 1975).
★
A.N. Wilson ''After the Victorians: 1901-1953'', (Hutchinson, 2005)
★
Jon Latimer ''Burma: The Forgotten War'', (John Murray, 2004)
★ Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (editor), ''Burke's Guide to the Royal Family'', Burke's Peerage, London, 1973, ISBN 0220662223
★ Tony Heathcote ''The British Admirals of the Fleet 1734 - 1995'', (Pen & Sword Ltd, 2002), ISBN 0 85052 835 6
External links
★
Stamp on Louis Mountbatten
★
mountbattenofburma.com - Tribute & Memorial website to Louis, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
★
Combined Ops
★
Interaction with German U-Boat U-35 officers
★ The Mountbatten Assassination: A retrospective
[2]