Profile of Paul Maxwell on Famous Like Me

Admiral of the Fleet The Right Honourable Sir Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, PC, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, FRS, (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.

Ancestry

Mountbatten was born in Windsor Castle, in England, as His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg, although his German styles and titles were dropped in 1917. He was 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, daughter of Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

His siblings were Princess Alice, (mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), Queen Louise of Sweden, and George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven.

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.

Career

Mountbatten served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, and 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 Expedition (see Namsos in April 1940). His ship was sunk during the Crete Campaign. In 1940 he invented the Mountbatten Pink naval camouflage pigment.

Mountbatten was a favourite of Winston Churchill and in 1941 he replaced Roger Keyes as Chief of Combined Operations. He personally pushed through the disastrous Dieppe Raid (19 August 1942) which led to the deaths of thousands of Canadian troops; a defeat Mountbatten tried to blame squarely on their commanding officer but which was largely the result of his botched planning. Field Marshal Montgomery felt the campaign misconceived from the start.

In late 1942, Mountbatten proposed Project Habbakuk to Churchill; the ice supercarrier project was never completed. In October 1943, Churchill appointed Mountbatten the Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Theatre, a post he held 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.

His experience in the region led to his being appointed Viceroy of India after the war. In his position as Viceroy, Mountbatten oversaw the granting of independence to both India and Pakistan. He was familiarly known to British people as "Lord Louis", and was created Earl Mountbatten of Burma in recognition of his service in the Far East.

After India, he 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 was forced to resign as First Sea Lord in 1914 after being falsely accused of pro-German sympathy.

Marriage and descendants

Mountbatten - known to friends and family as "Dickie" - was a strong influence in the upbringing of his great-nephew, The Prince of Wales. He was married on July 18, 1922 to the Hon. Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley, daughter of Wilfred Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple. She was the favorite grandaughter of the Edwardian magnate, Sir Ernest Cassel. Mountbatten and Edwina remained devoted to each other until her death at age 58 on February 21, 1960, in Jesselton, North Borneo of unknown causes. 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).

Since Lord 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. This was to recognise his wartime service, and the regard with which he was held in by the British Royal Family, as well as to atone for the disservice done to his father. Thus, on his death (in 1979), the titles passed to Patricia.

Death

On 27 August 1979, while holidaying as usual in his summer home in Mullaghmore, County Sligo in the Republic of Ireland, he was killed by a bomb planted in his boat in Donegal Bay. The Provisional IRA admitted responsibility for the bomb. Others killed at the site were:

• The Dowager Lady Brabourne: his elder daughter's mother-in-law (aged 82).
• The Hon. Nicholas Knatchbull, his elder daughter's fourth son (aged 14).
• Paul Maxwell: a local boy working as a crew member (aged 15).

The killing of Mountbatten was accompanied by the deaths of eighteen soldiers, belonging to the Parachute Regiment, the same day in a bombing at Warrenpoint, County Down. This act was carried out by the IRA's South Armagh Brigade and was seen as an act of revenge for Bloody Sunday. However, Mountbatten's assassination was carried out by members of the IRA from the locality, many of whom frequented Bundoran, County Donegal, a holiday town not far from Mullaghmore. The murders were strongly attacked in Ireland. The President of Ireland, Patrick Hillery, and the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Jack Lynch, attended a memorial service for Lord Mountbatten of Burma in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. On 23 November 1979, Thomas McMahon was sentenced to life in prison for the assassination. Local people condemn the murder.

Titles

• His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg
• Lord Louis Mountbatten
• The Right Honourable The Viscount Mountbatten of Burma
• The Right Honourable The Earl Mountbatten of Burma

Further reading

• Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten: the official biography, by (Collins, 1985)
• Andrew Roberts Eminent Churchillians, (Phoenix Press, 1994).
• Dominique Lapierre Freedom at Midnight, (1975).

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