Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas (Battenberg) Mountbatten KG (1900 - 1979)

Born 25 Jun 1900 in Frogmore House, Home Park, Windsor, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Edwina Cynthia Annette (Ashley) Mountbatten DCVO — married 18 Jul 1922 in St Margaret's Church, Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 27 Aug 1979 at age 79 in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland

Prince Louis Battenberg was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Louis (Battenberg) Mountbatten KG is Notable.

Biography

Admiral of the Fleet, British statesman and naval officer who in 1979, with his grandson Nicholas and two others, were assassinated by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who had placed a bomb in his fishing boat, the Shadow V, at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, in Ireland.

Background

He was the second son and youngest child of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS, was born Prince Louis of Battenberg and became known informally as Lord Mountbatten. He was an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.

During the Second World War, he was Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command (1943–46), and he was the last Viceroy of India (1947) and the first Governor-General of the independent Dominion of India (1947–48).

Marriage and family

On 18 July 1922 he married Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley, daughter of Wilfrid William Ashley, later 1st Baron Mount Temple, himself a grandson of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. She was the granddaughter of the Edwardian magnate Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel and the principal heir to his fortune. There followed a honeymoon tour of European royal courts and America which included a visit to Niagara Falls.

Daughter as heir

Lord and Lady Mountbatten had two daughters: Lady Patricia Mountbatten, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, sometime lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II, and Lady Pamela Carmen Louise Hicks, who accompanied them to India in 1947–48 and was also sometime lady-in-waiting to the Queen. Since Mountbatten had no sons, when he was created Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, of Romsey in the County of Southampton on 27 August 1946 and then Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Baron Romsey, in the County of Southampton on 28 October 1947, the Letters Patent were drafted such that in the event he left no sons or issue in the male line, the titles could pass to his daughters, in order of seniority of birth, and to their heirs respectively.

Assassination

Mountbatten usually holidayed at his summer home, Classiebawn Castle, in Mullaghmore, a small seaside village in County Sligo, Ireland. The village was only 12 miles (19 km) from the border with Northern Ireland and near an area known to be used as a cross-border refuge by IRA members. In 1978, the IRA had allegedly attempted to shoot Mountbatten as he was aboard his boat, but "choppy seas had prevented the sniper lining up his target".

On 27 August 1979, Mountbatten went lobster-potting and tuna fishing in his 30-foot (9.1 m) wooden boat, Shadow V, which had been moored in the harbour at Mullaghmore. IRA member Thomas McMahon had slipped onto the unguarded boat that night and attached a radio-controlled bomb weighing 50 pounds (23 kg). When Mountbatten was aboard, just a few hundred yards from the shore, the bomb was detonated. The boat was destroyed by the force of the blast, and Mountbatten's legs were almost blown off. Mountbatten, then aged 79, was pulled alive from the water by nearby fishermen, but died from his injuries before being brought to shore. Also aboard the boat were his elder daughter Patricia (Lady Brabourne), her husband John (Lord Brabourne), their twin sons the Hon. Nicholas and the Hon. Timothy Knatchbull, John's mother Doreen, Dowager Lady Brabourne, and Paul Maxwell, a young crew member from County Fermanagh. Nicholas (aged 14) and Paul (aged 15) were killed by the blast and the others were seriously injured. Doreen, Lady Brabourne (aged 83) died from her injuries the next day.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Mountbatten,_1st_Earl_Mountbatten_of_Burma

• Oxford dictionary of National Biography: Mountbatten, Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas, first Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900–1979) Philip Ziegler

• Wikidata: Item Q157068, en:Wikipedia