Edwina Ashley
Dame Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley CI , GBE , DCVO (born November 28, 1901 in Broadlands Castle near Romsey , † February 21, 1960 in Jesselton , British North Borneo ) was a British nobleman and wife of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma , the last viceroy of India .
Life
Edwina was the eldest daughter of Sir Wilfred William Ashley, later 1st Baron Mount Temple (1865-1938), and his wife Amalia Mary Maud Cassel, daughter of the banker Sir Ernest Cassel and his first wife Annette Maxwell.
On July 18, 1922, Lady Edwina married Lord Louis Mountbatten , later Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900–1979) in London . This was the youngest child of Prince Ludwig Alexander von Battenberg, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (1854-1921) and his wife Princess Viktoria von Hessen-Darmstadt (1863-1950). Their marriage resulted in two daughters, Lady Patricia Edwina Victoria (1924-2017) and Lady Pamela Carmen Louise (* 1929).
The couple had an open relationship , especially in the 1930s . Both had relationships with people of both sexes. The affair of Lady Mountbatten with the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), father of the future Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , during her stay in India and the singer and pianist Leslie Hutchinson is well known .
She died surprisingly at the age of 58 on a trip to North Borneo during which she was supposed to inspect health facilities for an aid organization. She was then buried at sea in the English Channel at her own request .
literature
- Janet Morgan: Edwina Mountbatten. A Life of Her Own. Scribner et al. a, New York NY et al. 1991, ISBN 0-684-19346-9 .
- Philip Ziegler: Mountbatten. The Official Biography. Collins, London 1985, ISBN 0-00-216543-0 .
Web links
- Newspaper article about Edwina Ashley in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ^ Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 350
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ashley, Edwina |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ashley, Edwina Cynthia Annette (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British wife of the last British Viceroy of India |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 28, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Broadlands Castle near Romsey |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 21, 1960 |
| Place of death | Jesselton , British North Borneo |