Article about: Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900 - 1979) I recently visited Romsey Abbey and took a couple of pictures of his grave. Below is an edited version of his life history. Lord Louis Mountbatten Mountb
I recently visited Romsey Abbey and took a couple of pictures of his grave. Below is an edited version of his life history.
Lord Louis Mountbatten Mountbatten served as a British naval officer overseeing the defeat of the Japanese offensive towards India during World War Two. He was appointed the last viceroy of British India and first governor general of independent India.
Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten was born in Windsor on 25 June 1900. A German aristocrat, as the son of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse, he also shared close links with the British royal family (his great grandmother was Queen Victoria and he himself was uncle to Prince Philip).
Mountbatten's father was first sea lord at the outbreak of World War One, but anti-German feeling forced his resignation. In 1917, the family changed their name from Battenberg to the less-Germanic sounding Mountbatten.
Mountbatten, known as 'Dickie' to family and close friends, was educated mainly at home until 1914 when he went to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. He joined the Royal Navy in 1916 and saw action in World War One, then briefly attended Cambridge University for a year after the war.
Mountbatten spent the inter-war period pursuing his naval career, where he specialised in communications. In 1934, he received his first command on the destroyer, HMS 'Daring'. In June 1939, shortly before the outbreak of war, Mountbatten gained command of a flotilla of destroyers which saw considerable action in the Mediterranean. In May 1941, his ship HMS 'Kelly' was sunk by German dive bombers off the coast of Crete with the loss of more than half the crew. 'Kelly' and her captain were later immortalised in Noel Coward's film 'In Which We Serve'.
In April 1942, Mountbatten was appointed chief of combined operations, with responsibility for the preparation of the eventual invasion of occupied Europe. In the meantime, he organised raids against Europe's coastline, overseeing the disastrous Dieppe raid of August 1942. In October 1943, he became the supreme allied commander, South East Asia Command (SEAC), a position he held until 1946. Working with General William Slim, Mountbatten achieved the defeat of the Japanese offensive towards India and the reconquest of Burma. In September 1945, he received the Japanese surrender at Singapore.
In March 1947, Mountbatten became viceroy of India to oversee the British withdrawal. He established good relations with leading politicians, particularly with Jawaharlal Nehru, but was unable to persuade the Muslim leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah of the benefits of a united, independent India.
Mountbatten soon gave up hope of uniting India and on 14-15 August 1947, British India was partitioned into the new states of India and Pakistan. Resulting in widespread inter-communal violence, particularly in the Punjab, which now sat in East India, and West Pakistan. There were huge population movements as 3.5 million Hindus and Sikhs fled from the areas that had become Pakistan and around five million Muslims migrated to Pakistan.
Mountbatten remained as interim governor-general of India until June 1948. For his services during the war and in India he was created viscount in 1946 and Earl Mountbatten of Burma the following year.
In 1953, Mountbatten returned to the Royal Navy, becoming commander of a new NATO Mediterranean command. Then in 1954 he was appointed first sea lord, a position which had been held by his father more than 40 years before. Finally, in 1959, he became chief of the defence staff, then in 1965 he retired from the navy.
On 27 August 1979, Mountbatten was murdered when IRA terrorists blew up his boat off the coast of County Sligo, Ireland, near his family holiday home at Classiebawn Castle. Two of Mountbatten's relations and a 15-year old local boy were also killed.
Mountbatten's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey and he was buried at Romsey Abbey, near Broadlands. He had no sons, which meant that Mountbatten's eldest daughter, Patricia, inherited his title.
His funeral.
Louis of Battenberg, the great grandson of Queen Victoria, and second cousin of George V, was born in Windsor, England, on 25th June, 1900. His father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, had been born in Austria. As a result of the anti-German feelings in Britain during the First World War the family changed its name from Battenberg to Mountbatten.
Mountbatten was educated at Osborne and Dartmouth Royal Naval College (1913-16). He joined the Royal Navy and during the war he served on board Lion and Elizabeth.
Mountbatten remained in the Royal Navy and on the outbreak of the Second World War was captain of the destroyer Kelly. He saw action during the Norwegian campaign and the ship was sunk off Crete on 23rd May 1940 with the loss of 130 men.
Winston Churchill appointed Mountbatten head of Combined Operations Command on 27th October 1941. He launched a series of commando raids including the disastrous Dieppe Raid in August 1942. The decision by Churchill to promote Mountbatten to vice admiral, lieutenant general and air marshall ahead of older and more experienced men upset senior officers in the military establishment.
In October 1943 Churchill appointed Mountbatten as head of the Southeast Asia Command (SEAC). Working closely with General William Slim Mountbatten directed the liberation of Burma and Singapore.
In 1947 Clement Attlee selected Mountbatten as Viceroy of India and he oversaw the creation of the independent states of India and Pakistan.
Mountbatten returned to service at sea and as Fourth sea Lord was commander of the Mediterranean Fleet (1952-55). He was also First Sea Lord (1955-59) and Chief of Defence Staff (1959-65). Louis Mountbatten was murdered by an IRA bomb while sailing near his holiday home in County Sligo, Ireland, on 27th August, 1979.
Re: Grave of First Sea Lord. Lord Louis Mountbatten
Sadly I remember this act of murder very well.
Quite often I take my dog down to Mullaghmore walk the beach and in the background Lord Mountbatten's house can easily be seen on the skyline , a beautiful place with a terrible history.
Four people murdered , an utter waste.
Shame , nothing but shame.
Re: Grave of First Sea Lord. Lord Louis Mountbatten
I,ve been to Mullaghmore a fair few times as well and any time I go there I always think of what happened that Terrible day. It fills me with shame. Lord Mountbatten was a good man and after all he picked Ireland for his Holidays regardless of the dangers.
Admiral of the Fleet, Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, was throughout his long and distinguished life no stranger to Orders, Decorations and Medals. Indeed he was very familiar with medals from his earliest years, until the time of his death, not least as his father, Admiral of the Fleet, Louis Alexander Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, GCB, GCVO, KCMG, PC, had earlier amassed - and later sold - the greatest collection of Naval Medals then known, or since, at a time when medal collecting was only its infancy - the collection was published in a three volume work by 'Milford Haven' from 1919 titled 'British naval medals commemorative medals, naval rewards, war medals, naval tokens, portrait medallions, life-saving medals, engraved pieces, &c.,' - while in later years Lord Mountbatten of Burma was the Patron of the Orders and Medals Research Society.
Grave of First Sea Lord. Lord Louis Mountbatten
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"In all my years as a soldier, I have never seen men fight so hard." - SS Obergruppenfuhrer Wilhelm Bittrich - Arnhem
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