Andrew Lownie - The Mountbattens: The Lives and Loves of Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten

Andrew Lownie

The Mountbattens

The Lives and Loves of Dickie and Edwina Mountbatten

Impressively well-researched a fresh and dispassionate look

Daily Mail, Biography of the Year

Dares to go where no other Mountbatten biography has gone before

The Lady

A brilliant book heres Uncle Dickie as hes never been revealed before!

Robert Lacey, author of Majesty

A must-read A compelling book packed with fascinating new material, brilliantly told

Robert Jobson, Royal correspondent

A complex story beautifully written which never felt less like a history lesson, but I learned so much by the end. A triumph of storytelling

Anne Sebba, biographer of Wallis Simpson

Everything a top-notch biography should be

Budapest Times

An entertaining, knowledgeable account of the extraordinary lives of royal relative, Earl Mountbatten, and his wife, Lady Edwina

Sarah Bradford, Royal biographer

Praise for Stalins Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess

An abundance of vivid detail a matchless and splendidly exciting read Times

An astonishing piece of research Sunday Times

A superb biography more riveting than a spy novel Sunday Telegraph

As gripping as a thriller Daily Express

An enjoyable and convincing biography Literary Review

A remarkable and definitive portrait Frederick Forsyth

A superb biography Brilliantly told Evening Standard

Exhaustively researched and absorbing New Statesman

Shrewd, thorough, revelatory William Boyd

Scrupulous and comprehensive The Week

A masterly biography Mail on Sunday

Superb Daily Mail

Praise for John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier

Meticulous Guardian

Fascinating reading The Scotsman

Thorough and lucid New York Times

A well-researched and well-written book The Tablet

Packed with information, much of which is new Country Life

An affectionate, admirably well-researched study from an intelligent biographer. Well worth reading Daily Mail

Andrew Lownie has brought this most extraordinary man to life in a way no previous writer has Independent

THE MOUNTBATTENS

Pegasus Books, Ltd.

148 West 37th Street, 13th Floor

New York, NY 10018

Copyright 2021 by Andrew Lownie

First Pegasus Books cloth edition September 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-64313-791-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64313-792-6

Jacket design: Faceout Studio, Molly von Borstel

Author photo credit: Nina Hollington

Distributed by Simon & Schuster

www.pegasusbooks.com

No biography has any value unless it is written with warts and all.

L ORD M OUNTBATTEN

Writing to Richard Hough about how he would like to be acknow-ledged in Houghs book, Louis and Victoria, Dickie Mountbatten suggested: Naval officer who became First Sea Lord after being Supreme Allied Commander and Viceroy of India and thus the best-known figure the Navy has produced since Nelson, as well as being the President of the Society of Genealogists.

The entry reveals much Mountbattens achievements, what he valued and his pomposity. No figure has a longer entry in Whos Who, apart from Winston Churchill, partly because every minor organisation is mentioned, but also because Dickie Mountbatten had a remarkable life.

As one obituary noted, It seemed almost unbelievable that one human being could have touched the history of our century at so many points. Head of Combined Operations, a Member of the Chiefs of Staff and then Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in South East Asia during the Second World War, the last Viceroy and first Governor-General of India, First Sea Lord and Chief of the Defence Staff, member of the Royal Family and mentor of Prince Philip and Prince Charles: his life, which covered the first 80 years of the 20th century, also provides an opportunity to look at some of the most important and controversial issues of the period, from the 1942 Dieppe Raid to Indian independence. His biography cannot be told without also considering the life of his wife, Edwina, the richest heiress in the world when they married, whose reputation for her global humanitarian work endures.

Philip Zieglers magisterial official life of Dickie was published in 1985 and Janet Morgans deft authorised life of Edwina came out six years later. What is missing is a shorter, joint biography of these two remarkable figures, a book which is also a portrait of an unusual marriage one that was loving and mutually supportive, but also beset with infidelities. As Dickie would later claim, Edwina and I spent all our married lives getting into other peoples beds.

With the Mountbattens, the private life did intrude into the public life, not least in the question over the nature of the relationship between Edwina and the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and how far it affected the perception of the impartiality of the Mountbattens during Independence.

Even after countless books on the couple, the questions remain. Was Mountbatten one of the outstanding leaders of his generation, or a man over-promoted because of his royal birth, high-level connections, film-star looks and ruthless self-promotion? What is the true story behind controversies such as the Dieppe Raid and Indian Partition and the love affair between Edwina and Nehru? The authorised biographies had certain subjects they had to cover and to avoid. Now 30 years later, with many of those involved in the story dead, with new papers released and different sensitivities, there is a case for a new book.

The interesting biography will be the one that is published in 30 or 40 years time when the dust has settled, wrote Mountbattens military assistant Pat MacLellan to Brian Kimmins, a wartime member of Dickies staff, in 1980.

This book is that attempt.

TUESDAY, 18 JULY 1922

In spite of the rain, by breakfast, 600 people had gathered outside St Margarets, the 12th-century church in the shadow of Westminster Abbey and a favourite for society weddings. By lunchtime the crowd would swell to 8,000. For the Daily Telegraph, this was to be the Wedding of the Year the Star thought it the Wedding of the Century between the beautiful Edwina Ashley, the richest girl in the world, and Lord Louis Mountbatten, the handsome naval officer and member of the extended Royal Family. King George V and Queen Mary and most members of the Royal Family were attending, with the Prince of Wales as best man.

At exactly 2.15 p.m., Edwina entered the church to Wagners Lohengrin. The service was conducted by Dickies former school tutor, Frederic Lawrence Long. The Lord is my Shepherd was followed by the hymns Thine for Ever and May the Grace of God our Saviour, whilst Beethovens Hallelujah was sung during the signing of the register.