In February 1963, on a month’s goodwill tour of Central and South America, Dickie stayed with the O’Donnells. Sibilla hired a speedboat and the two went to Rose Island, a short hop from Nassau harbour. ‘She proved herself to be as reckless in a speedboat as in a motor car and presently succeeded in running us on to a coral reef,’ he wrote in his diary. ‘After that we had a lovely sunbathe on a completely deserted stretch of beach and embarked again in good time for lunch.’641
That evening they dined at the Casino and then danced until 1.00 a.m. in the Bahama Club. Sibilla remained on Mountbatten’s mind and he wrote to her constantly on his trip. A postcard from Buenos Aires said it all: ‘I miss you and all our fun in Nassau.’642 Three weeks later, he wrote again:
Sibilla darling, Bless you for your very sweet letter which I found at Broadlands when I got back on 22nd – all alone and rather depressed and it cheered me up immediately. I loved my short stay at Galaxy very, very much – more than did I believe. I hated leaving. I miss you more than I should – I’ve not met anyone as lovely, loveable & sweet for very many years. Write to me again, Sibilla dearest & destroy this letter. All my love, Dickie.643
She returned his affections. Thanking him for a dress he had given for her birthday, in return for her having knitted a sweater for him, she wrote, ‘My Darling Dickie. It’s always fascinating to see what a man thinks a woman looks “smashing” in. The only thing I am sure of is that the length won’t go much below the knee.’ She continued discussing Patricia’s refusal of some of her father’s invitations:
I wish I was your daughter. I would never leave your side, not ever for a second. I was so sorry to hear about your gastric troubles and of the forthcoming hernia operation. I know of a wonderful nurse that would love to take care of you, highly qualified, her name Miss Sibilla. I miss you and I am looking forward to seeing you in April. All my love, Sibilla.644
Bill Evans remembered how ‘he loved beautiful girls. He was especially close to Sacha Abercorn.’ It was a view confirmed by John Barratt. ‘But the only one he really deeply loved, apart from Edwina, was his goddaughter Sacha, the Duchess of Abercorn. He told me that if he ever married again, it would have to be Sacha.’645 According to Brian Hoey, whose book was sanctioned by the Mountbatten family, Sacha Abercorn was, with Yola, the most important female relationship (besides Edwina) of his life and ‘eventually became Mountbatten’s closest companion’.646
Sacha Phillips was the daughter of Bunny and Gina Phillips, and one of Mountbatten’s godchildren. Tall, slim and highly attractive, in 1966 aged 20 she had married James, Marquess of Hamilton, heir to the Duke of Abercorn, who had an estate a few miles over the border from Classiebawn. Hoey was to write:
Mountbatten and Sacha had become close in the years leading up to her marriage but it was after she became Marchioness of Hamilton (before her husband inherited the dukedom) that the relationship blossomed into the deep and lasting love that caused Mountbatten to reflect to his secretary, John Barratt, that she was the only woman he could ever have contemplated marrying after Edwina. He had professed love for many women but said he had never considered marriage to any of them – except Sacha.647
Sacha Abercorn would later claim that if Mountbatten had ever proposed when she was single, she would have accepted. ‘It was a huge physical and spiritual attraction on both sides,’ she remembered, ‘and the forty-five-year gap in our ages just melted away.’648 They spoke each day on the phone and she would often visit Broadlands, where the two would walk in the grounds or ride. He took her to functions at Buckingham Palace, for a weekend to see Yola in Paris, or she would accompany him to social events. The artist Derek Hill remembered them at one of his openings as ‘easily the most attractive couple in the room – though apparently, at first, few would have guessed that they were anything but what they appeared to be, an uncle with his favourite niece.’649
For her, ‘It wasn’t the great passion one reads about, but a mutual affection and respect.’650 It lasted ten years from the mid-sixties, and she credits the relationship with giving her greater self-confidence. ‘I know I became a much stronger person through knowing him.’651 As with Sibilla, when her marriage ran into difficulties, Mountbatten took it upon himself to intercede and try and save the marriage, drawing on his own experience with Edwina. He saw nothing unusual in doing so. For him, a relationship with a married woman was safe. As Sacha Abercorn later reflected, ‘He knew it could go only so far and that’s what he wanted. No permanent commitment.’652
There were to be many girlfriends after Edwina’s death. According to his daughter, Patricia, they tended to be:
youngish, very pretty with long legs and a small waist – rather Victorian figures really. Girls didn’t have to be intelligent either. He could be quite attracted to someone who wasn’t that bright, if it was going to be just a minor flirtation, but all his real, serious girlfriends were intelligent.653
Many of the girlfriends were the wives of men who had served with him. The couple would be invited down to Broadlands for the weekend and the men then distracted by the offer of a day’s fishing or shooting – or would have to return to work on the Sunday night and the wife would stay on until the following day. Sometimes the wife came down on the Friday to be joined later by her husband. On one occasion, the husband:
Arrived a few hours earlier than we had anticipated, while his wife and Lord Mountbatten were upstairs together in one of the spare bedrooms. I could see the husband coming, so I dashed upstairs and tried all the rooms until I found one that was locked. I called to Lord Mountbatten and explained the urgency of the situation, arranging to meet the lady at the side entrance. I found Lord Mountbatten’s Labrador, Juno, and took her with me, so that the lady could slip outside with her and go round to the main entrance as though she had been for a walk with the dog.654
‘All girls had their set dates,’ recollected Bill Evans. ‘We all knew where to be or not to be. He would go out riding then return to bath and change. He would put them in dressing rooms next to him. They were generally women in their thirties, young wives, very beautiful and always slim, the thinner the thighs the better. We knew to stay away. He had a settee bed in the guest room which linked through to his room. He liked his women small-breasted like Edwina. I could tell when he was in nookie mode.’655
John Barratt remembered, ‘he liked slim-hipped women with flat chests, very like Edwina. His ideal woman was the young Jane Fonda: an all-time favourite film of his was Cat Ballou’ and ‘he loved riding with a woman, which was almost an obsession, a kink.’656 ‘His big turn-on was riding boots and jodhpurs, but only when they were worn by young women with long, slim legs,’ according to Bill Evans.657
Part of Mountbatten’s interest was voyeuristic. Barratt noticed that he kept a viewer and slides in his bedroom:
My curiosity was aroused – as soon as I had the chance, I looked at the slides. Every single one was of a young woman in riding gear, wearing high boots and spurs. There was nothing pornographic about them – the girls were fully dressed – but he obviously got a thrill out of seeing young women in boots spurring the horses. He also kept one or two magazines under lock and key: they were mildly pornographic, but nothing dreadful. He told me he was particularly fascinated by the story of a riding mistress who made her pupils sit astride a wooden horse and whipped them. Anything to do with riding turned him on.658
Another young woman to whom he became close was Mary Lou Emery. Aged 17, she had come to Broadlands as a groom in 1964 and would ride with Mountbatten several times a week – he had heart trouble and it was felt someone should always be with him – and take care of his dogs when he was away. He enjoyed her company – she was less deferential than other members of staff – and a similar age to his eldest grandchildren, and they remained close even after she married in 1969.
She and her husband accompanied Mountbatten to see Yola in France and he became like an honorary grandfather to her children, sending them postcards, arranging
tickets for the Garter Ceremony, the Opening of Parliament and Trooping the Colour. Their closeness, and his generosity to her, aroused jealousy amongst the staff and even rumours that her son was Mountbatten’s.659
The suggestion that he might be having an affair with Mary Lou was fed by:
the fact that, whenever he went out riding with Mary Lou or one of his girlfriends, he wore a French letter, and all his close staff knew this. He tried to be secretive, but he was hopeless at it. He kept his supply of washable condoms in a little wooden box by his bed, which always amused the servants and caused much speculation among them. He also always wore spurs when riding with a woman, and if he was going riding immediately after working with me in his bedroom on the mail, he would slip the spurs surreptitiously out of the drawer where he kept them – as though they were something to be ashamed of, and as though I didn’t know about them.660
Another regular riding companion and visitor to Broadlands was Philippa de Pass, whose husband Robert had served on Mountbatten’s staff.
‘He also invited us to Classiebawn Castle, where our children had wonderful holidays with his grandchildren,’ she remembered:
He was very good with the young and we all had such happy times together. Robert and myself took him to a Magic Circle evening and he caused quite a stir by producing an unusual pencil, which was in fact a pistol that I think was presented to him by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He fired it into the floorboards on the stage and the poor lady at the piano had quite a fright! . . . We both have so many happy memories of Dickie. He was a remarkable man having had so many extraordinary careers – such good company and so interesting to talk to and be with. He always entertained us with great style.661
Mountbatten had a very old-fashioned, aristocratic view of marriage, partly shaped by his own marital experience, of it being separate from love. As long as one was discreet, anything was permitted. One of his girlfriends, at his request, even initiated a young member of his family into sex.662
Mountbatten was also a client of the celebrated Madame Claude. According to William Stadiem, who worked for her and later wrote her biography, Mountbatten:
was so discreet that the only place he would see her girls was in Baron Elie de Rothschild’s private jet, circling the skies above Paris as the two old friends enjoyed a ménage à quatre. While Mountbatten (whose military nickname was ‘Mountbottom’) had long been rumoured to have unconventional interests, Claude had no interest in ‘outing’ him.663
In the early 1960s, whilst visiting Los Angeles, Dickie had met the 30-year-old actress Shirley MacLaine through the producer Mike Frankovitch. She had been his escort to a dinner at Jack Warner’s home and then they had seen the film of John Fowles’ The Collector together. That evening Dickie wrote in his diary, ‘I drove Shirley back in my car – she certainly is a very sweet girl.’664 MacLaine, in an open relationship with her businessman husband Steve Parker, was then at the height of her fame after The Apartment and Irma la Douce, in which she played the part of a prostitute.
Another guest, Christopher Plummer, remembered, ‘After dinner we were all marched into the screening room to watch a sneak preview of Irma la Douce. Mountbatten and Shirley were two rows in front of me. His arm was around her and tsk! tsk! Was it the boozy haze clouding my heavy eyes or did I not catch sight of them spooning in the dark?’665
Shortly afterwards at another dinner, which involved a party game of couples being tied up and then freeing themselves, MacLaine had been his partner and he confided to his diary, ‘I must say Shirley is a very sweet and amusing girl and we got on like a house on fire.’666 In July, she was one of his guests for a party at Broadlands alongside Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Rex Harrison, and was thrilled to meet Indira Gandhi.
According to William Evans, ‘She was a very bright cookie. She often stayed at Broadlands or they would meet in New York and she became a good friend. She often acted as Dickie’s hostess and could hold court with anyone from heads of state down . . . the affair went on for many years. They hit it off immediately and she was number 1 for a long time.’667
There were several beautiful and rich women to whom he was attracted. They included Cristina Ford, an Italian-born socialite, over 25 years younger than Mountbatten, who had married Henry Ford II, chairman of the Ford Motor Company, in 1965.668 After he received a picture of her on her 1969 Christmas card, he wrote to Sibilla, ‘She was wearing long slim black boots over the knees in the photo! She should join my Life Guards!’669 Another was Lydia Melhado, a General Motors heiress married to Francis Farr, one of Wall Street’s richest salesmen, over 30 years younger than Mountbatten, whom Dickie would see whenever he was in New York.
He also remained loyal to Barbara Cartland, who was completely in love with him, though her affections were not reciprocated. Dick Hough remembers how ‘they met at least once a week and often spent the weekend together at Camfield Place or Broadlands. Barbara told me later, bubbling away, “We are terribly fond of one another – almost lovers.” Then a shrill laugh. “But not bed, my dear. Oh no, no, no. We’re both long past that.”’670
William Evans remembered:
she would call in for lunch or tea, in a mass of pink chiffon, then vanish, leaving behind her a pile of books on health and homeopathy and a quantity of new vitamin pills and elixirs to try. Down the years she recommended to him the remarkable proprieties of a great variety of elixirs, herbs, vitamin capsules and royal bee jellies. One of the elixirs, a brown syrupy honey, he took quite regularly.671
Mountbatten would respond diplomatically to her various gifts. ‘I must say I am very touched at the expensive Christmas present you gave me of seven vitamin E pills. I gather they were Vita-E Gels with strength of 800 i.v.,’ he wrote in 1961. ‘I am in the midst of taking them and look forward to feeling terrific at the end of the week.’672 At Christmas the next year he wrote to thank her for a book on acupuncture. ‘I must say it is marvellous the way you find all these interesting medical theories.’673
Her biographer, Tim Heald, wrote, ‘Barbara Cartland talks with huge affection and admiration of Mountbatten and claims that in later life they were much in love, spoke every day on the telephone, and that each morning to enable him to face the rigours of the day he used to play her the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recording of Love Songs, Sung Especially For You.’674
Another platonic friend in love with him was Carola Rothschild, a wealthy Jewish widow – she was part of the Warburg family who had been business partners of Felix Cassell – with whom Mountbatten often stayed in New York. She was involved with United World Colleges, a charity in which Mountbatten played a prominent role as a member of the American committee and benefactor.675 Pammy and Patricia had stayed with her at her home in South Carolina during the Second World War. Mountbatten had no compunction about taking advantage of her generosity, allowing her to pay for a swimming pool at Broadlands, costing $17,000, for his seventieth birthday and paying for his trips to America.
‘Carola was very fond of him, and they would sit for hours holding hands, but he never felt for her the way she felt for him,’ remembered John Barratt. ‘In fact, while he was spending time with his girlfriend Sibilla Clarke, life in New York would be rather awkward because Carola was wildly jealous and would listen in to his phone calls – and even mine, because sometimes he got me to ring and make arrangements for him.’676
Mountbatten also kept in touch with his former girlfriends.677 Sally Dean, now married to John Connell, Chief of Staff of the American Air Force whom she had met at SEAC, visited Broadlands with him in 1966. She wrote thanking Mountbatten, ‘Dearest Dickie . . . I hope to retain my shape until we meet again and trust that you will continue to be as handsome and fatally attractive as ever. Love to you as always, Sally.’678
Janey Lindsay had divorced Peter in 1946 and in August that year married Beaverbrook’s son, Max Aitken. That marriage had not lasted and they had divorced four years later. The following year she married Robin Compton and she and her husb
and often saw Mountbatten.679
Looking back on their times together, Mountbatten wrote in January 1969:
Darling Janey, 25 years ago was the first time we celebrated your birthday together – so Wednesday is a sort of Silver Jubilee and I send you all very best wishes for your dear birthday. No other girl I know has retained her slim figure and youthful look so much as you and I think back to our two lovely years with undying gratitude for this memory. Bless you Janey darling and all my love, Dickie.680
CHAPTER 25
Retirement
Mountbatten had been determined to be a reforming Chief of the Defence Staff. His priority was to impose greater centralisation and standardisation across the three armed services, partly to achieve economies of scale and partly because he felt the armed forces would thereby operate more efficiently. He brought back Solly Zuckerman, with whom he had worked at Combined Operations, as Chief Scientific Adviser, who proved to be both a brake on some of Mountbatten’s wilder ideas and a stimulating and forward-thinking confidant. And as part of the centralisation of power, he introduced a Director of Plans to run the Joint Planning Staff – reporting directly to him. But there were some concerns that this centralisation was as much to do with Mountbatten’s own ambitions as the needs of the services. A campaign for the CDS to hold five-star rank in all three services, long an ambition of Mountbatten, was unsuccessful.
The new CDS had long been in favour of amalgamating the three armed services after his time in Combined Operations. He had been responsible for a paper in 1945, which had argued for a common entry and education, with some specialist training, for all officers with a year each at Dartmouth, Cranwell and Sandhurst and with all courses on an inter-service basis.681 Now he began the amalgamation by creating unified commands in the Near East (1960), Middle East (1961) and Far East (1962). In April 1964, the three separate Service Ministries were abolished and their staffs moved into a single building.
The Mountbattens Page 26
