The Mountbattens

by Andrew Lownie

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  Villa, Brian Loring, Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid 1942 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989).

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  Winton, John, Cunningham: The Greatest Admiral Since Nelson (John Murray, London, 1998).

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  Young, Kenneth (ed.), The Diaries of Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, vol. 2, 1939–1965 (Macmillan, London, 1980).

  Zec, Donald, The Queen Mother: with unique recollections by the late Earl Mountbatten of Burma (Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1990).

  Ziegler, Philip, Mountbatten: The Official Biography (Collins, London, 1985).

  Ziegler, Philip (ed.), The Diaries of Lord Louis Mountbatten 1920–1922 (Collins, London, 1987).

  Ziegler, Philip (ed.), Personal Diary of Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten 1943–1946 (Collins, London, 1988).

  Ziegler, Philip (ed.), From Shore to Shore: The Final Years, The Diaries of Earl Mountbatten of Burma 1953 –1979 (Collins, London, 1989).

  Ziegler, Philip, ‘Mountbatten Revisited’ in Wm Roger Louis, More Adventures with Britannia (University of Texas Press, Austin, 1998).

  Ziegler, Philip, King Edward VIII: The Official Biography (Collins, London, 1999).

  Zuckerman, Solly, From Apes to Warlords: An Autobiography 1904–45 (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1978).

  Zuckerman, Solly, Monkeys, Men and Missiles: An Autobiography 1946–88 (Collins, London, 1988).

  Zuckerman, Solly, Six Men Out of the Ordinary, (Peter Owen, London, 1992).

  ARTICLES

  Abid, Massarrat, ‘Quaid-I-Azam and Mountbatten: Nature of Relationship’, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, vol. 36, issue 2, 1999, pp. 1–19.

  Adamthwaite, Anthony, ‘Suez Revisited’, International Affairs 64 (Summer 1988), pp. 449–64.

  Akbar, Ahmed, ‘The Hero in History: Myth, Media and Realities’, HISTOD, March 1996, pp. 7–10.

  Akbar, Ahmed, ‘Edwina & Nehru’, History Today, March 1996.

  Ali, Rabia Umar, ‘Mountbatten and the Partition of British India: A Role Analysis’, Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. 21, issue 2, June 2000, pp. 89–98.

  Ankit, Rakesh, ‘Mountbatten and India, 1948–64’, The International History Review, vol. 37, no. 2, 2015.

  Ashton, S.R., ‘Mountbatten, the Royal Family, and British influence in Post-Independence India and Burma, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol. 33, no. 1, 2007, pp. 73–92.

  Aster, Sydney, ‘Mountbatten’, American Historical Review, vol. 91, February 1986, p. 115.

  Brown, David, ‘Mountbatten as First Sea Lord’, Journal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, vol. 131, issue 2, 1986, pp. 63–8.

  Chawla, Muhammad Iqbal, ‘Mountbatten and Balochistan: An Appraisal’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, no. 75, 2014, pp. 928–57.

  Chawla, Muhammad Iqbal, ‘Mountbatten’s Response to the Communal Riots in the Punjab, 20 March to 15 August 1947: An Overview’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 26, issue 4, October 2016, pp. 683–706.

  Chester, Lucy, ‘Drawing the Indo-Pakistani Boundary’, American Diplomacy, 15 February 2002.

  Coll, Rebecca, ‘Autobiography and Screen: The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. 37, issue 4, December 2017, pp. 665–82.

  Copland, Ian, ‘Lord Mountbatten and the Integration of the Indian States: A Reappraisal’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol. 21, no. 2, pp 385–408.

  Crawley, William and Hitchcock, Eric, ‘Making Waves: Admiral Mountbatten’s SEAC 1945–49’, Asian Affairs, vol. 46, issue 3, November 2015, pp. 534–5.

  Cuneo, Ernest, ‘Mountbatten: A Life Struggle for Vindication’, The American Legion, vol. 107, December 1979, pp. 8–9.

  Dar, Farooq Ahmad, ‘British Policy and the Transfer of Power’, Journal of Political Studies, vol. 21, issue 1, 2014, pp. 199–213.

  Davies, Philip, ‘Defence Intelligence in the UK after the Mountbatten Reforms: Organisational and Inter-Organisational Dilemmas of Joint Military Intelligence’, Public Policy and Administration, vol. 28, issue 2, April 2013, pp. 196–213.

  Doherty, Frank and Byrne, John, ‘Mountbatten was Part of Gay Ring which was Linked with Kincora’, NOW, April 1990, pp. 13–17.

  Forbes, Alastair, ‘Edwina Mountbatten: A Life of Her’, Times Literary Supplement, issue 4605, 5 July 1991, p. 28.

  Grigg, John, ‘Myths About the Approach to Indian Independence’, University of Texas at Austin, 1995.

  Grove, Eric and Rohan, Sally, ‘The Limits of Opposition: Admiral Earl Mountbatten of Burma, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff’, Contemporary British History, vol.13, issue 2, June 1999, pp. 98–116.

  Gupta, Shyamratna, ‘The Mountbatten Saga: Myths, Images, and Facts of Current History’, International Studies, vol. 23, no. 3, 1986.

  Hassan, Syed Minhajul, ‘The Impact of Mountbat
ten–Nehru Relationship on the Partition of India’, Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society, vol. 44, issue 3, July 1996, pp. 229–42.

  Henshaw, Peter, ‘The British Chiefs of Staff and the Preparation of the Dieppe Raid’, March–August 1942: Did Mountbatten Really Evade the Committee’s Authority?’, War and History, vol. 1, no. 2, 1994, pp. 197–214.

  Henshaw, Peter, ‘The Dieppe Raid: A Product of Misplaced Canadian Nationalism?: Notes and Comments’, CANHISREV, vol. 77, June 1996, pp. 250–66.

  Ilahi, Shereen, ‘The Radcliffe Boundary Commission and the Fate of Kashmir’, India Review, vol. 2, issue 1, January 2003, pp. 77–102.

  Jeffrey, Robin, ‘The Punjab Boundary Force and the Problem of Order, August 1947’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 8, no. 4, 1974, pp. 491–520.

  Johnson, Paul, ‘Mountbatten’, The Wall Street Journal, vol. 205, 10 May 1985, p. 22.

  Kaul, Chandrika, ‘At the Stroke of the Midnight Hour: Lord Mountbatten and the British Media at Indian Independence’, The Round Table, 2008.

  Kedourie, Elie, ‘Scuttling an Empire’, Quadrant, vol. 30, no. 3, March 1986, pp. 60–6.

  Kennedy, Thomas C., ‘Mountbatten: A Biography’, The Historian, vol. 49, no. 3, 1987, pp. 401–3.

  Khan, Mahboobul Rahman, ‘Mountbatten and the Hurried Scuttle’, Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, vol. 19, issue 1, January 1998, pp. 17–25.

  King, Cecil, ‘The So-Called Military Coup of 1968: What Really Happened’, Encounter, August 1981.

  Klare, Hugh J., ‘The Mountbatten Report’, The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 8, no. 1, 1968, pp. 80–2.

  Krishan, Y., ‘Mountbatten and the Partition of India’, History, vol. 68, February 1983, pp. 22–37.

  Kumarasingham, Harshan, ‘The “Tropical Dominions”: The Appeal of Dominion Status in the Decolonisation of India, Pakistan and Ceylon’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 23, December 2013, pp. 223–45.

  Lodhi, M. Zahid Khan, ‘Mountbatten Changed the Original Boundary Award’, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, vol. 32, issue 1, 1995, pp. 55–61.

  McClung, Stuart, ‘Stilwell and Mountbatten in Burma: Allies at War, 1943–1944’, Journal of America’s Military Past, vol. 42, issue 2, Spring/Summer 2017, pp. 102–4.

  McDonald, Henry, ‘Royal blown up by IRA “backed united Ireland”’, Guardian, 29 December 2007.

  Moore, R.J., ‘Mountbatten, India, and the Commonwealth’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, vol. 19, no. 1, 1981, pp. 5–43.

  Moore, R.J., ‘The Mountbatten Viceroyalty: A Review Article’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, vol. 22, issue 2, 1984, pp. 204–15.

  Morris-Jones, W.H., ‘The Transfer of Power, 1947: A View from the Sidelines’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 16, 1982.

  Morris-Jones, W.H., ‘Thirty-Six Years Later: The Mixed Legacies of Mountbatten’s Transfer of Power’, International Affairs, vol. 59, no. 4, 1983, pp. 621–8.

  Mountbatten, Louis, ‘Reflections on the Transfer of Power and Jawaharlal Nehru’, The Second Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture, London, 1968.

  Murphy, Philip, ‘By invitation only: Lord Mountbatten, Prince Philip and the attempt to create a Commonwealth Bilderberg Group, 1964–1966’, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol. 33, no. 2, May 2005, pp. 245–65.

  Ninian, Alex, ‘India and Mountbatten’s Legacy’, Contemporary Review, vol. 289, issue 1686, Autumn 2007, p. 382.

  Pachauri, S.K., ‘Mountbatten in India and 15th August 1947’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 68, 1 January 2007, pp. 889–94.

  Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, ‘Lord Louis’, NIPROC, vol. 106, February 1980, pp. 26–35.

  Roberts, Andrew, ‘Why Mountbatten should have been Impeached’, Sunday Times, 24 July 1994.

  Romanes, Aline, ‘The Dear Romance’, Vanity Fair, June 1986, p. 68.

  Roskill, Stephen, ‘The Dieppe raid and the question of German foreknowledge’, RUSI Journal, vol. CIX, no. 633, 1964, pp. 27–31.

  Sbrega, John J., ‘Anglo-American Relations and the Selection of Mountbatten as Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia’, Military Affairs, vol. 46, issue 3, October 1982, pp. 139–45.

  Scott Plummer, Simon, ‘How Mountbatten Bent the Rules and the Indian Border’, Daily Telegraph, 24 February 1992, p. 10.

  Singh, Khushwant, ‘The Edwina–Nehru Affair’, The Hindustan Times, 20 April 1996.

  Sinha, S.K., ‘Mountbatten as I Saw Him’, USI Journal, vol. 140, issue 579, January–March 2010, pp. 110–18.

  Skow, John, ‘Great Britain’s Uncle Dickie’, Time, vol. 125, issue 19, 13 May 1985, p. 73.

  Smith, Adrian, ‘Rewriting History? Admiral Lord Mountbatten’s Efforts to Distance Himself from the Suez Crisis’, Contemporary British History, vol. 26, issue 4, December 2012, pp. 489–508.

  Smith, Adrian, ‘Resignation of a First Sea Lord: Mountbatten and the 1956 Suez Crisis’, History, vol. 98, no. 329, January 2013, pp. 105–34.

  Smith, Adrian, ‘Admiral Lord Mountbatten: Man of Science and Royal Role Model’, The Historian, issue 131, Autumn 2016, pp. 20–23.

  Smith, Adrian, ‘Mountbatten goes to the movies: the cinema as a vehicle for promoting the heroic myth’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, vol. 26, no. 3, August 2006, pp. 395–416.

  Springhall, John, ‘Mountbatten versus the Generals: British Military Rule of Singapore1945–46, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 36, no. 4, 2001, pp. 635–52.

  Stout, Mark and Kadar Lynn, Katalin, ‘Every Hungarian of any Value to Intelligence: Tibor Eckhardt, John Grombach and the Pond’, Intelligence and National Security, vol. 31, issue 5, August 2016, pp. 699–714.

  Talbot, Ian, ‘Mountbatten and the Partition of India: A Rejoinder’, History, vol. 69, no. 225, 1984, pp. 29–34.

  Tarling, Nicholas, ‘Lord Mountbatten and the Return of Civil Government to Burma’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol. 11, issue 2, January 1983, pp. 197–226.

  Tinker, Hugh, ‘Jawaharlal Nehru at Simla, May 1947: A Moment of Truth?’, Modern Asian Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, 1970, pp. 349–58.

  Tinker, Hugh, ‘Incident at Simla, May 1947 – what the documents reveal: A moment of truth for the historians?’ Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, July 1982.

  Villa, Brian Loring, ‘Mountbatten, the British Chiefs of Staff and Approval of the Dieppe Raid’, The Journal of Military History, vol. 54, no. 2, 1990, pp. 201–26.

  Villa, Brian Loring and Henshaw, Peter J., ‘The Dieppe Raid Debate’, Canadian Historical Review, vol. 79, 1998, pp. 304–15.

  Willey, Scott A., ‘Stilwell and Mountbatten in Burma: Allies at War 1943–1944’, Air Power History, vol. 64, issue 2, Summer 2017, p. 62.

  Ziegler, Philip, ‘Unauthorised Action Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid 1942’, Spectator, 10 March 1990.

  Source Notes

  Preface

  1Mountbatten to Richard Hough, 14 January 1974, Hough Papers.

  2‘The Man and his Murders’, Spectator, 1 September 1979, p. 7.

  3Interview with Sir Robert Scott, Ziegler. p. 53.

  4Pat MacLellan to Brian Kimmons, 3 March 1980, by kind permission of Pat MacLellan.

  Prologue

  5Mountbatten lent Prince Philip the sword for his wedding in 1947.

  6Numbers vary according to newspaper accounts. Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten: The Official Biography (Collins, 1985), p. 70, says 1,400 guests.

  7It can be found at https://www.britishpathe.com/video/lord-louis-mountbatten-and-edwina-cynthia-annette.

  Chapter 1: Beginnings

  8Belt 4, p. 4 MB1/K319, Hartley Library.

  9Prince Alexander was actually the son of the court chamberlain, Baron von Senarclens de Grancy, rather than Grand Duke Louis II of Hesse, a further embarrassment to Mountbatten, who prided himself on his noble heritage.

  10Mountbatten acknowledged his half-sister at a charity event in October 1978 whilst a TV series on Langtry was being sh
own, but there is some evidence the child’s father was actually Arthur Jones. Jeanne Marie married Sir Ian Malcom and their daughter, Mary Malcolm, became a well-known BBC television announcer. It has been alleged Prince Louis also fathered a daughter, Mary, in November 1911 with Katherine Burton, the daughter of a Lincolnshire solicitor. Interview with Mary’s daughter, Jade Neergaard, 11 September 2017.

  11Mountbatten’s interview on his father can be found at MB1/K319, Hartley Library.

  12Richard Hough, Mountbatten: Hero of Our Time (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980), p. 10.

  13The Grand Duke was assassinated shortly afterwards.

  14Mountbatten claimed he later became friendly with the other conspirator, Prince Felix Youssoupoff. Louis Mountbatten, Eighty Years in Pictures (Macmillan, 1979), p. 27.

  15At five Dickie lived in Gibraltar and at seven in Malta, when his father became Second-in-Command of the Mediterranean Fleet.

  16Maurice Battenberg was killed in October 1914 on the Ypres Salient just after his twenty-third birthday.

  17Mountbatten to his mother, 8 May 1910, MB6/M/164, Hartley Library.

  18MB1/A4, Hartley Library.

  19MB1/A4 folder 3, Hartley Library.

  20MB1/A4, Hartley Library.

  21Scott, the son of Admiral Sir Percy Scott, often described as the ‘father of modern gunnery’, was killed in action three years later.

  22MB1/A5, Hartley Library.

  23Ibid.

  24Hough, Mountbatten, p. 23.

  25Mountbatten, 80 Years, p. 42.

  26MB6/M/57, Hartley Library.

  27Mountbatten confirmed the story was true to Richard Hough. Hough, Mountbatten, p. 31.

  28Janet Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten: A Life of Her Own (Collins, 1991), p. 48.

  29Richard Hough, Edwina: Countess Mountbatten of Burma (Weidenfeld, 1983), p. 41.

  Chapter 2: Students

  30Mountbatten to his mother, 15 June 1915, MB6/M/58 and Mountbatten to his mother, 13 June 1915, MB6/M/164, Hartley Library.

  31Ziegler, p. 39.

  32Mountbatten to his mother, 12 March 1916, MB6/M/59, Hartley Library.

  33Mountbatten to his mother, 27 June 1916, MB6/M/164, Hartley Library.

  34Mountbatten to his mother, 28 July 1916, MB6/M/59, Hartley Library.