Admiral of the Fleet
Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl
Mountbatten of Burma KG, GCB, OM,
GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC , né
Prince Louis of Battenberg (25 June 1900 – 27
August 1979) was a British
admiral and statesman of
German descent, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh. He was the last Viceroy of the British Indian Empire (1947) and the first Governor-General of the
independent Union of India (1947–48),
from which the modern Republic of
India
would emerge in 1950. From 1954 until 1959
he was the
First Sea Lord, a position
that had been held by his father,
Prince Louis of Battenberg, some
forty years earlier.
In 1979 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 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 and
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha. His paternal grandparents were
Prince Alexander of
Hesse and
Princess Julia of
Battenberg. His paternal grandparents'
marriage was
morganatic, because his
grandmother was not of royal lineage; as a result, he and his
father were styled "Serene Highness" rather than "Royal Highness,"
were not eligible to be titled Princes of Hesse and were given the
less desirable Battenberg title. His siblings were
Princess Andrew of Greece and
Denmark (mother of
Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh),
Queen Louise of
Sweden, and
George
Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven.
His father’s forty-five year career reached its pinnacle in 1912
when he was appointed as First Sea Lord in the Admiralty. However,
two years later in 1914, due to the growing anti-German sentiments
that swept across Europe during the first few months of World War I
and a series of lost battles at sea, Prince Louis felt it was his
duty to step down from the position. 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.
Early life
Mountbatten was home schooled for the first ten years of his life.
He was
then sent to Lockers Park Prep School and finally he followed his
older brother to the Naval Cadet School.In childhood he visited the
Imperial Court of Russia at St Petersburg
and became intimate with the doomed Russian 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 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. After the
marriage of
Elizabeth
II and
Prince
Philip, it was decreed that their non-royal descendants were to
bear the (maiden) surname "Mountbatten-Windsor".
Career
Early career
Lord Mountbatten served in the
Royal Navy
as a midshipman during
World War I.
After his
service, he attended Christ's College, Cambridge
for two terms where he studied engineering in a
program that was specially designed for ex-servicemen.
During his time at Cambridge, Mountbatten had to balance his
studies with the robust social life he enjoyed as a member of
Christ’s College. In 1922, Mountbatten accompanied Edward, Prince
of Wales, on a royal tour of India. It was during this trip that he
met and proposed to his wife-to-be Edwina Ashley. They wed on 18
July, 1922.Edward and Mountbatten formed a close friendship during
the trip but their bond deteriorated 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.
Pursuing his interests in technological
development and gadgetry, Mountbatten joined the Portsmouth Signal
School in 1924 and then went on to briefly study electronics at
Greenwich
before returning to military service. In
1926, Mountbatten was appointed to Assistant Fleet Wireless and
Signals Officer of the Mediterranean Fleet under the command of
Admiral Sir Roger Keyes. Lord Mountbatten returned to the Signal
School in 1929 as Senior Wireless Instructor. In 1931, he was again
called back to military service when he was appointed Fleet
Wireless Officer to the Mediterranean Fleet. It was during this
time that he founded a Signal School in Malta and became acquainted
with all the radio operators in the fleet.In 1934, Mountbatten was
appointed to his first command. His ship was a new destroyer which
he was to sail to Singapore and exchange for an older ship. He
successfully brought the older ship back to port in Malta. By 1936,
Mountbatten had been appointed to the Admiralty at Whitehall as a
member of the Fleet Air Arm.
Second World War
Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, seen during his
tour of the Arakan Front in February 1944.
When war broke out in 1939, Mountbatten was moved to active service
as commander of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla from aboard his ship the
HMS Kelly, which was famous for its 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. It was also in 1940 that he
invented the
Mountbatten Pink naval
camouflage pigment. His ship was sunk in May 1941 during the
Battle of Crete.
In August
1941 Mountbatten was appointed captain of HMS Illustrious which lay in
Norfolk,
Virginia
for repairs
following action at Malta
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 favorite of Winston Churchill (although after 1948
Churchill never spoke to him again since he was famously annoyed
with Mountbatten's later role in the independence of India and Pakistan
), and on 27 October 1941 Mountbatten replaced
Roger Keyes as Chief of Combined
Operations. His duties in this role consisted of
planning commando raids across the English Channel and inventing
new technical aids to assist with opposed landings.
Mountbatten was in
large part responsible for the planning and organization of
The Raid at
St. Nazaire
in mid 1942:
an operation resulting in the putting into disuse of one of the
most heavily defended docks in Nazi-occupied France until well
after war's end, the ramifications of which greatly contributed to
allied supremacy in the Battle of the
Atlantic. 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
. Historian Brian Loring Villa concluded that
Mountbatten conducted the raid without authority, but that his
intention to do so was known to several of his superiors, who took
no action to stop him.Three noteworthy technical achievements of
Mountbatten and his staff include: (1) the construction of an
underwater oil pipeline from the English coast to Normandy, (2) an
artificial harbor constructed of concrete caissons and sunken
ships, and (3) the development of amphibious Tank-Landing
Ships.Another project that Mountbatten proposed to Churchill was
Project Habakkuk. It was to be a
massive and impregnable 600 meter aircraft carrier made from
reinforced ice or "Pykrete." Habakkuk never was actualised due to
its enormous price tag.
Mountbatten claimed that the lessons learned from the Dieppe Raid
were necessary for planning the Normandy invasion on
D-Day nearly two years later. 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.
Nevertheless, as a direct result of the
failings of the Dieppe raid, The British made several innovations -
most notably Hobart's Funnies -
innovations which, in the course of the Normandy Landings, undoubtedly saved many
lives on those three beach heads upon which commonwealth soldiers
were landing (Gold
Beach
, Juno
Beach
, and Sword
Beach
).
As a
result of the Dieppe raid, Mountbatten became a controversial
figure in Canada
, with the
Royal Canadian Legion
distancing itself from him during his visits there during his later
career; his relations with Canadian veterans "remained
frosty". Nevertheless, a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet
corps (RCSCC #134 Admiral Mountbatten in Sudbury
, Ontario
) was named after him in 1946.
In October 1943, Churchill appointed Mountbatten the Supreme Allied
Commander
South East Asia
Command.
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. He would hold the post until the
South East Asia Command (SEAC) was
disbanded in 1946.
During
his time as Supreme Allied Commander of the Southeast Asia Theatre,
his command oversaw the recapture of Burma
from the
Japanese by General William
Slim. Here, he worked closely with esteemed American
general
Albert Coady
Wedemeyer. His diplomatic handling of
General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell -- his deputy
and also the officer commanding the American
China Burma India
Theatre -- 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 the reception of
the Japanese surrender in Singapore
when British troops returned to the island to
receive the formal surrender of Japanese forces in the region led
by General Itagaki Seishiro on 12
September 1945, codenamed Operation
Tiderace.
Last Viceroy
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.
It has never been made clear, and no Mountbatten biographies
mention the issue, whether Mountbatten was deliberately or
inadvertently enticing the Indian princes into acceding to their
soon-oblivion.
Mountbatten quickly realised that a unified India was an
unachievable goal and he resigned himself to accept a plan that
called for the partitioning of an independent India and
Pakistan.The general atmosphere surrounding the presence of
Mountbatten in India was one of pressing urgency. Even the British
government felt the need for the process of independence for India
had to be quickly advanced. With such feelings surrounding the
situation, the mind frame of Mountbatten being determined to
provide a rapid independence for India is understandable.
Mountbatten was steadfast and insistent on the swift and efficient
action of transferring power from the British to the Indians.
However such narrowly, focused determination did provide the
impression the British were serious about actually giving India
independence. Mountbatten was adamant about creating a set date for
the transference of power from the British to the Indians. He felt
if a date or timeline was not set, there would be a higher level of
distrust towards him and the British government because the lack of
such a plan would cause the Indians to think the British wanted to
draw out the process so they could stay and impose their authority
for longer . Such a thought process demonstrates either the British
awareness of Indian desires or lack of the capacity to sustain
colony as large and populous as India thus the urgency to give
independence.
Gandhi in his struggle for freedom for India
was emphatic in his message of gaining and maintaining a united
India. The sentiment was successful for a while to rally people
around the cause for freedom. However when the prospect of actually
having freedom and independence within reach, sentiments took a
different turn. When Mountbatten was sent to India, he was sent
with the instructions of providing independence to a united India
however if the situation changes just do what it takes to get
Britain out promptly with minimal reputational damage . Although
there was emphasis on having a united India as a result of the
transference of power, the weighted importance given to Britain
escaping with their noses clean deemed to be a higher priority
which in turn affected the way negotiations took place when
independence was discussed, especially between divided parties of
Hindus and Muslims. Mountbatten was fond of Nehru and his liberal
outlook for the country . However it was a different emotion
expressed when he dealt with
Jinnah,
“…Mountbatten used strong language in describing Jinnah"
Mountbatten did try to advocate for a united India and was almost
successful at persuading Jinnah to maintain a united India because
of the inconvenience of segregated portioned of Bengal and Punjab
amongst those specific states. But Jinnah was unyielding at the
insistence of a separate state being Pakistan even if it does have
an uneven population and geographical shape due to the partitioning
of Bengal and Punjab. Jinnah had the similar focused determination
as Mountbatten in terms of the goals they wanted to achieve both
being very different, yet Mountbatten was aware of the power which
Jinnah possessed “ “If it could be said that any single man held
the future of India in the palm of his hand in 1947,” said the
viceroy, “that man was Mohammed Ali Jinnah,” . Slowly the other
Indian party leaders were coming to accept the stance of Jinnah;
Gandhi was more or less the only one fighting for a united India
close to the official independence of India. With the submitting to
the idea of partition by other Indian leaders, this made the
process of Indian independence gather speed in the proceedings
which made life simpler for Mountbatten at the time. The levels of
simplicity provided by the Indian leaders lowered the need for
Mountbatten to fight for and gain a united 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 his
own 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, in
Bengal
.
John Kenneth Galbraith, the
Canadian-American Harvard University
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, as to which Mountbatten was the principal
informant, and more latterly in
Bapsi
Sidhwa's novel
Ice Candy Man (published in the USA as
Cracking India), made into
the film
Earth.
Career after India and Pakistan
After India, Mountbatten served from 1948–1950 as commander of a
cruiser squadron in the Mediterranean Fleet. He then went on to
serve as Fourth Sea Lord in the Admiralty from 1950–52 and then
returned to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1952 to serve as Naval
Commander-in-chief for three years. Mountbatten served his final
posting in the Admiralty as First Sea Lord from 1955–59, the
position which his father had held some forty years prior. This was
the first time in Royal Naval history that a father and son had
gained so high a rank .
In his biography of Mountbatten, Philip Ziegler notes on his
ambitious character:
"His vanity, though child-like, was monstrous, his
ambition unbridled. The truth, in his hands, was swiftly converted
from what it was, to what it should have been. He sought to rewrite
history with cavalier indifference to the facts to magnify his own
achievements. There was a time when I became so enraged by what I
began to feel was his determination to hoodwink me that I found it
necessary to place on my desk a notice saying: REMEMBER, IN SPITE
OF EVERYTHING, HE WAS A GREAT MAN."
While serving as First Sea Lord, his primary concerns dealt with
devising plans on how the Royal Navy would keep shipping lanes open
in the event that Britain was hit with a nuclear attack. Today this
seems of minor importance but at the time few people comprehended
the potential limitless destruction nuclear weapons possess and the
ongoing dangers posed by the fallout. Military commanders had no
need to understand the physics involved in a nuclear explosion.
This becomes evident when Mountbatten had to be reassured that the
fission reactions from the Bikini Atoll tests would not spread
through the oceans and blow up the planet. As Mountbatten became
more familiar with this new form of weaponry, he increasingly grew
opposed to their use in combat yet at the same time he realised the
potential nuclear energy had, especially with regards to
submarines. Mountbatten clearly expresses his feelings towards the
use of nukes in combat in his article "A Military Commander Surveys
The Nuclear Arms Race," which was published shortly after his death
in International Security in the winter of 1979–80. After
leaving the Admiralty, Lord Mountbatten took the position of Chief
of the Defense Staff. He served in this post for six years during
which he was able to consolidate the three service departments of
the military branch into a single Ministry of Defence.
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 (now
known as Pearson College) in Victoria, Canada
in 1974. In 1978, Lord Mountbatten of Burma
passed the Presidency to his great-nephew, HRH The Prince of
Wales.
Alleged plots against Harold Wilson
Peter Wright, in his book Spycatcher, 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 and Peter
Wright were members of a group of thirty MI5 officers who wanted to
stage a coup against the then crisis-stricken Labour Government of
Harold Wilson, and King allegedly used
the meeting to urge Mountbatten to become the leader of a
Government of national salvation. Solly Zuckerman pointed out that
it was treason, and the idea came to nothing because of
Mountbatten's reluctance to act.
In 2006 the BBC documentary The Plot Against Harold Wilson
alleged that there had been another plot involving Mountbatten to
oust Wilson during his second term in office (1974-76). The period
was characterised by high inflation, increasing unemployment and
widespread industrial unrest. The alleged plot centred around right-wing former military figures who were
supposedly building private armies to counter the perceived threat
from trade unions and the Soviet Union
. They believed that the Labour Party, which is partly funded by
affiliated trade unions, was
unable and unwilling to counter these developments and that Wilson
was either a Soviet agent or at the very least a Communist sympathiser, claims Wilson strongly
denied. The documentary alleged that a coup plot was planned to
overthrow Wilson and replace him with Mountbatten using the private
armies and sympathisers in the military and MI5. The documentary
stated that Mountbatten and other members of the British Royal
Family supported the plot and were involved in its planning.
Wilson had long believed that there had been an MI5 sponsored plan
to overthrow him. This suspicion was heightened in 1974 when the
Army occupied Heathrow Airport on the grounds that it was training
for a possible IRA terrorist action there. Marcia Falkender, a
senior aide and intimate friend of Wilson, asserted that the Prime
Minister hadn't been informed of the exercise and that it was
ordered as a practice-run for a military takeover. Wilson was also
convinced that a small group of right-wing MI5 officers were
conducting a smear campaign against him. Such allegations had
previously been attributed to Wilson's paranoia, not least because
in 1988, Peter Wright admitted that the allegations in his book
were "unreliable" and greatly exaggerated. However the BBC
documentary interviewed several new witnesses who gave new
credibility to the allegations.
Crucially, the first official history of MI5, Defence of the
Realm published in 2009, tacitly confirmed that there was a
plot against Wilson and that MI5 did have a file on him. Yet it
also made clear that the plot was in no way official and that any
activity centred around a small group of discontented officers.
This much had already been confirmed by former cabinet secretary Lord Hunt, who concluded
in a secret inquiry conducted in 1996 that, "There is absolutely no
doubt at all that a few, a very few, malcontents in MI5 . . . a lot
of them like Peter Wright who were rightwing, malicious and had
serious personal grudges – gave vent to these and spread damaging
malicious stories about that Labour government."
Mountbatten's role in the plotting remains unclear. At the very
least he appears to have associated with people who were greatly
concerned about the country in the 1970s and were prepared to
consider acting against the Government. It also seems certain that
he shared their concerns. However, even though the BBC documentary
alleged that he had offered his services to the coup plotters, it
cannot be confirmed that he actually would have led a coup had it
come about. It is notable that any plots that were discussed never
actually took place, perhaps because the number of people involved
was so small that any chances of success were slim.
Personal life
Marriage
Mountbatten's nickname among family and friends was "Dickie,"
notable in that "Richard" was not among his given names. This was
because his great-grandmother, Queen
Victoria, suggested the nickname of "Nicky", however it got
mixed up with the many Nickys of the Russian Imperial Family
("Nicky" was particularly used to refer to Nicholas II, the last Tsar) so they
changed it to Dickie. Mountbatten was married on 18 July 1922 to
Edwina
Cynthia Annette Ashley, daughter of Wilfred William
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 14
February 1924), and Lady Pamela Carmen
Louise (born on 19 April 1929).
The couple, in some ways, seemed incompatible from the beginning.
Lord Mountbatten's obsession with being organised led him to keep a
very close watch on Edwina and he demanded her constant attention.
Having no real hobby or passions and living the lifestyle of
royalty, Edwina spent most of her time partying with the British
and Indian elite, going on cruises and secluding herself at the
couple's country house on weekends. Even with growing unhappiness
on both their parts, Louis refused to get a divorce fearing that it
would hinder his climb up the military command chain. There were
charges of infidelity against both. Edwina's numerous affairs led
Louis to pursue a relationship with a French woman named Yola
Letellier. From this point forward their marriage disintegrated
into constant accusations and suspicions. Throughout the 1930s both
readily admitted to numerous affairs. World War II gave Edwina the
opportunity to focus on something other than Louis' infidelity. She
joined the St. John's Ambulance Brigade as an administrator. This
role gave Edwina the legacy of being a heroine of the Partition
Period because of her efforts to ease the pain and suffering of the
people in the Punjab.
It has been well documented that Edwina and India's first PM
Jawaharlal Nehru became intimate friends after Indian Independence.
During the summers, she would frequent the PM's house so she could
lounge about on his veranda during the hot Delhi days. Personal
correspondence between the two reveals a satisfying yet frustrating
relationship. Edwina states in one of her letters "Nothing that we
did or felt would ever be allowed to come between you and your work
or me and mine -- because that would spoil everything." Despite
this, it is still debated whether or not their relationship became
physical. 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. Lady Mountbatten
died on 21 February 1960 at the age of 58 while in North Borneo
inspecting medical facilities. Her death is thought to have been
caused by a heart condition.
Until his assassination in 1979, Mountbatten kept a photograph of
his cousin Grand
Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, beside his bed in memory of
the crush he once had upon her.
Daughter as heir
Since Mountbatten had no sons, when he was created Viscount on 23
August 1946, then Earl and Baron on 28 October 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.
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. Yet 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.
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.
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.
In 1974 Mountbatten began corresponding with Charles about a
potential marriage to his granddaughter, Hon. Amanda Knatchbull. It was about this
time he also recommended that the 25-year-old prince get on with
sowing some wild oats.Charles dutifully wrote to 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.
Four years later Mountbatten secured an invitation for himself and
Amanda to accompany Charles on his planned 1980 tour of India.
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
counselled that the intense scrutiny of the press would be more
likely to drive Mountbatten's godson and granddaughter apart than
together.
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, later in 1979, the circumstances were
tragically changed, and she refused him.
Death
Mountbatten usually holidayed at his summer
home in Mullaghmore, County
Sligo
, a small seaside village between Bundoran
, County
Donegal
and Sligo
, County
Sligo 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 Síochána, on 27 August 1979,
Mountbatten went lobster potting in a thirty-foot (10 m)
wooden boat, the Shadow V, which had been moored in the harbour at
Mullaghmore. An IRA member named Thomas
McMahon had slipped onto the unguarded boat that night and
attached a radio-controlled fifty-pound (23 kg) bomb.
When
Mountbatten was on the boat en route to Donegal Bay
, an unknown person detonated the bomb from
shore. McMahon was arrested earlier at a Garda
checkpoint between Longford
and Granard
. Mountbatten, then aged 79, was seriously
wounded and died soon after the blast by drowning while unconscious
in the bay. Others killed in the blast were Nicholas Knatchbull, his elder
daughter's 14-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.
McMahon was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder on 23 November 1979.
Sinn Féin vice-president Gerry Adams said of Mountbatten's death:
The IRA 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 IRA 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 IRA achieved its objective: people
started paying attention to what was happening in
Ireland.
On the
same day Mountbatten was assassinated, the IRA also ambushed and
killed eighteen British Army soldiers,
sixteen of them from the Parachute Regiment at
Warrenpoint
, County Down in what
became known as the Warrenpoint ambush
. After this action, graffiti proclaiming
"Bloody Sunday's Not Forgotten, We Got Eighteen And Mountbatten"
was seen in some Republican areas in Ireland.
Prince Charles took Mountbatten's death particularly hard,
remarking to friends that things were never the same after losing
his mentor.It has recently been revealed that Mountbatten had been
favourable towards the eventual reunification of Ireland.
Funeral
Mountbatten's grave at Romsey
Abbey
The
President of Ireland, Patrick Hillery, and the Taoiseach, 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.
On 23 November 1979, Thomas McMahon
was convicted of murder for his part in the bombing. He was
released in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
On hearing of Mountbatten's death, the then Master of the Queen's Music,
Malcolm Williamson, was moved to
write the Lament in Memory
of Lord Mountbatten of Burma for violin and string
orchestra. One of the most poignant of tributes paid to
Mountbatten, the 11-minute work was given its first performance on
5 May 1980 by the Scottish Baroque Ensemble, conducted by Leonard
Friedman.
Styles from birth to death
- His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg
(1900–1917)
- German: Durchlaucht Prinz Ludwig Franz Albrecht Viktor
Nicholas Georg von Battenberg
- 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)
Popular culture
Lord Mountbatten (played by Christopher
Owen) appears in the 2008 film The
Bank Job, telling the story of a government-approved bank robbery in the
1970s. In
a covert rendezvous at Paddington station
, Mountbatten is portrayed as the representative of
the British government and gives the robbers documents guaranteeing
immunity from prosecution, in exchange for naked photographs of
Princess Margaret, potentially embarrassing to the Royal
Family. Mountbatten quips "I haven't had this much
excitement since the war".
In 1986, Masterpiece Theatre put on The Mountbatten: The Last
Viceroy, starring Nichol Williamson and Janet Suzman as Lord and
Lady Mountbatten. It focused on the India years and hinted at Lady
Mountbatten's relationship with Nehru.
In his song Post World War Two
Blues, published on the LP Past, Present and Future from 1973,
singer and songwriter Al Stewart has a
reference to Mountbatten's controversy with Winston Churchill about
India.
Mountbatten was due to feature in the recently canceled film
Indian Summer which was to cover his time as Viceroy of
India, and potentially the affair between his wife and Nehru. It
was to be loosely based on the book Indian
Summer: The Secret history of the end of an empire by
Alex von Tunzelmann.
Lord
Mountbatten was played by David
Warner in the 2008 television film In Love with Barbara, a biopic of the
romantic novelist Barbara Cartland
which was shown on BBC Four in the United Kingdom.
The
Mountbatten School
was opened in his name in 1969 on land that
originally used to be part of the Broadlands Estate in Whitenap,
Romsey
.
The
School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences at Heriot-Watt
University
, Edinburgh is named after him.
Benny Hill told a famous joke which went,
"What's white and flies?" "Lord Mountbatten's Plimsol"
In The Simpsons Dead Putting Society episode, when Bart
and Todd decide to call the final round a draw and split the prize,
one of the tournament announcers says "This is the most stirring
display of gallantry and sportsmanship since Mountbatten gave India
back to the Punjabs."
Honours
A road in South-Eastern Singapore was named Mountbatten Road, in
honour of Louis Mountbatten.
Arms
See also
Notes
- Burke's Guide to the Royal Family: edited by Hugh
Montgomery-Massingberd, p. 303.
- Lord Zuckerman,Earl Mountbatten of Burma, K.G., O.M. 25
June 1900-27 August 1979, in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows
of the Royal Society, Vol. 27 (Nov., 1981), pp 355-364. Accessed
13/05/2009 at www.jstor.org/stable/769876
- Zuckerman,Earl Mountbatten of Burma, K.G., O.M. 25 June
1900-27 August 1979
- "Who Was Responsible For Dieppe?" CBC Archives,
broadcast 9 September 1962. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
- The Hot Seat", James Allason, Blackthorn, London
2006.
- Ziegler, Philip, MOUNTBATTEN: INCLUDING HIS YEARS AS THE LAST
VICEROY OF INDIA, (New York: Knopf, 1985)
- Ziegler, MOUNTBATTEN: INCLUDING HIS YEARS AS THE LAST VICEROY
OF INDIA, 355
- Ziegler, MOUNTBATTEN: INCLUDING HIS YEARS AS THE LAST VICEROY
OF INDIA, 359
- SarDesai, D.R, INDIA: THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY (Boulder: Westview
Press, 2008), 309-313
- SarDesai, INDIA: THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY , 309
- Greenberg, Jonathan D. “Generations of Memory: Remembering
Partition in India/Pakistan and Israel/Palestine.” Comparative
Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 25, no.1 (2005):
89. Project MUSE
- SarDesai,, INDIA: THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY , 309
- Ziegler, MOUNTBATTEN: INCLUDING HIS YEARS AS THE LAST VICEROY
OF INDIA, 373
- See, e.g., Wolpert, Stanley (2006). Shameful
Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India.
- Patton, Allyson, Broadlands: Lord Mountbatten's Country
Home in British Heritage, Vol. 26, Issue 1,March 2005, pp.
14-17. Accessed from Academic Search Complete on 13/05/2009.
- Ziegler, Philip Mountbatten New York, 1985. pp 17
- Zuckerman, 363.
- Mountbatten, Louis, "A Military Commander Surveys The Nuclear
Arms Race," International Security, Vol. 4 No. 3 Winter
1979-1980, MIT Press. pp. 3-5
- http://www.mountbatten.org
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4789060.stm
-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/10/defence-of-the-realm-mi5
- Bailey, Katherine, "India's Last Vicereine," British
Heritage, Vol. 21, Issue 3, Apr/May 2000, pp. 16
- King and Wilson (2003), p. 49
- Patton, Allyson, "Broadlands: Lord Mountbatten's Country Home,"
British Heritage March 2005, Vol. 26 Issue 1, pp.
14-17.
- Royal by Robert Lacey, 2002.
- [1]
- [2]
- IRA bomb kills Lord Mountbatten — BBC News On This Day
- A Secret History of the IRA, Ed Moloney, 2002. (PB) ISBN
0-393-32502-4 (HB) ISBN 0-71-399665-X p.176
- Malcolm Williamson Obituary The
Independent, 4 March 2003
- The Bank Job is Sweaty and Suspenseful -
TIME
- Indian Summer: story of the Mountbattens - Times
Online
Further references
- 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).
- Robert Lacey Royal
(2002)
- 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
- Timothy Knatchbull From a Clear Blue Sky: Surviving the
Mountbatten Bomb, (Hutchinson 2009).
A personal account by Mountbatten's surviving twin grandson.
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