Lord Mountbatten

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (born Prince Louis of Battenberg; commonly known as Lord Mountbatten; 25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979), was a British statesman, naval officer, and member of the British royal family. A maternal uncle of Prince Philip and second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II, he served in the Royal Navy during both world wars and rose to become Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command, in the later stages of the Second World War. He subsequently oversaw the transition of British India to independence as the last Viceroy and the first Governor‑General of independent India. As the last viceroy of India, Mountbatten also oversaw its partition into the Dominions of India and Pakistan and the integration of the princely states.

Mountbatten later held senior posts in the post‑war armed forces, serving as First Sea Lord and then as Chief of the Defence Staff. He remained closely associated with the royal family throughout his life and acted as a mentor to his great‑nephew, the future King Charles III. Beyond his official duties, he was active in international education, naval and sporting organisations, and a range of charitable and cultural initiatives.

His career and reputation have been the subject of considerable debate. Admirers highlighted his energy, charm, and administrative ability, while critics accused him of vanity, self‑promotion, and flawed judgement, particularly in relation to the partition of India and his wartime assessments in South East Asia. His private life attracted scrutiny, and after his death allegations of sexual abuse were made, some of which were dismissed by official inquiries.

In August 1979, Mountbatten was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army when a bomb exploded aboard his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo. His death prompted widespread condemnation and international mourning, and he received a ceremonial funeral at Westminster Abbey.

Early life

Mountbatten, then styled Prince Louis of Battenberg, was born on 25 June 1900 at Frogmore House in the Home Park, Windsor, Berkshire. He was the youngest child and second son of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. Mountbatten's maternal grandparents were Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, a daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His paternal grandparents were Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julia, Princess of Battenberg. Their marriage was morganatic, as Julia was not of royal lineage; consequently, Mountbatten and his father bore the style Serene Highness rather than Royal Highness, were ineligible for the title Princes of Hesse, and held the lesser Battenberg designation. His elder siblings were Princess Alice of Battenberg (mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), Princess Louise of Battenberg (later Queen Louise of Sweden), and Prince George of Battenberg (later George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven).

Mountbatten was baptised in the large drawing room of Frogmore House on 17 July by the Dean of Windsor, Philip Eliot. His godparents were Queen Victoria (his maternal great-grandmother), Nicholas II of Russia (his maternal uncle through marriage and paternal second cousin, represented by the child's father) and Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg (his paternal uncle, represented by Lord Edward Clinton). He wore the original 1841 royal christening gown at the ceremony.

Mountbatten's nickname among family and friends was "Dickie"; although "Richard" was not among his given names. His great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, had originally suggested "Nicky", but as the name was already widely used within the Russian imperial family (particularly for Nicholas II), it was altered to "Dickie" to avoid confusion.

Mountbatten was educated at home for the first ten years of his life; he was then sent to Lockers Park School in Hertfordshire and later to the Royal Naval College, Osborne, in May 1913.

Mountbatten's mother's younger sister was the Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. As a child he visited the imperial court at St Petersburg and became close to the Russian imperial family, harbouring romantic feelings for his maternal first cousin Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, whose photograph he kept at his bedside for the rest of his life.

Mountbatten adopted his surname as a result of World War I. From 1914 to 1918, Britain and its allies were at war with the Central Powers, led by the German Empire. To appease British nationalist sentiment, in 1917 King George V issued a royal proclamation changing the name of the British royal house from the German House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor. The King's British relatives with German names and titles followed suit, with Mountbatten's father adopting the surname Mountbatten, an anglicisation of Battenberg. His father was subsequently created Marquess of Milford Haven.

First World War

At the age of 16, Mountbatten was posted as midshipman to the battlecruiser HMS Lion in July 1916 and, after seeing action in August, transferred to the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth during the closing phases of the First World War. In June 1917, when the royal family abandoned their German names and titles and adopted the more British-sounding "Windsor", Mountbatten acquired the courtesy title appropriate to a younger son of a marquess, becoming known as Lord Louis Mountbatten (Lord Louis for short) until he was created a peer in his own right in 1946. He paid a ten-day visit to the Western Front in July 1918.

While still an acting-sub-lieutenant, Mountbatten was appointed first lieutenant (second-in-command) of the P-class sloop HMS P. 31 on 13 October 1918 and was confirmed as a substantive sub-lieutenant on 15 January 1919. HMS P. 31 took part in the Peace River Pageant on 4 April 1919. Mountbatten attended Christ's College, Cambridge, for two terms from October 1919, studying English literature (including John Milton and Lord Byron) in a programme designed to augment the education of junior officers whose studies had been curtailed by the war. He was elected for a term to the Standing Committee of the Cambridge Union Society and was suspected of sympathy for the Labour Party, then emerging as a potential party of government for the first time.

Interwar period

Mountbatten was posted to the battlecruiser HMS Renown in March 1920 and accompanied Edward, Prince of Wales, on a royal tour of Australia. He was promoted lieutenant on 15 April 1920. HMS Renown returned to Portsmouth on 11 October 1920. Early in 1921, Royal Navy personnel were deployed for civil defence duties as serious industrial unrest appeared imminent, and Mountbatten was required to command a platoon of stokers in Northern England, many of whom had never handled a rifle before. He transferred to the battlecruiser HMS Repulse in March 1921 and again accompanied the Prince of Wales, this time on a royal tour of India and Japan. Edward and Mountbatten formed a close friendship during the trip. Mountbatten survived the deep defence cuts known as the Geddes Axe; fifty-two percent of the officers of his year had left the Royal Navy by the end of 1923. Although he was highly regarded by his superiors, it was rumoured that wealthy and well-connected officers were more likely to be retained. He was posted to the battleship HMS Revenge in the Mediterranean Fleet in January 1923.

Pursuing his interests in technological development and gadgetry, Mountbatten joined the Portsmouth Signals School in August 1924 and then briefly studied electronics at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He became a Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), now the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). He was posted to the battleship HMS Centurion in the Reserve Fleet in 1926 and became Assistant Fleet Wireless and Signals Officer of the Mediterranean Fleet under Admiral Sir Roger Keyes in January 1927. Promoted lieutenant commander on 15 April 1928, Mountbatten returned to the Signals School in July 1929 as Senior Wireless Instructor. He was appointed Fleet Wireless Officer to the Mediterranean Fleet in August 1931 and, having been promoted commander on 31 December 1932, was posted to the battleship HMS Resolution.

In 1934, Mountbatten received his first command, the destroyer HMS Daring. He was tasked with sailing the new ship to Singapore and exchanging her for the older destroyer HMS Wishart. He successfully brought Wishart back to Malta and then attended the funeral of George V in January 1936. Mountbatten was appointed a personal naval aide-de-camp to King Edward VIII on 23 June 1936, and, having joined the Naval Air Division of the Admiralty in July 1936, he attended the coronation of George VI and Elizabeth in May 1937. He was promoted captain on 30 June 1937 and was given command of the destroyer HMS Kelly in June 1939.

Within the Admiralty, Mountbatten was known as "The Master of Disaster" for his penchant for getting into difficult situations.