Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma

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Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1976)

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma , KG , GCB , OM , GCSI , GCIE , GCVO , DSO , PC (born June 25, 1900 in Windsor Castle ; † August 27, 1979 in Sligo Bay , Ireland ) was a British Admiral of the Fleet , last Viceroy of India and first Governor General of India after the partition and Chief of Staff of the United Kingdom from the Battenberg family . Mountbatten was the uncle of Prince Philip , the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1979 he and three other people were victim of a bomb attack by a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA).

youth

The later Earl Mountbatten of Burma was in 1900 as His Serene Highness (His Serene Highness) Prince Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas of Battenberg in Frogmore House in the Great Park of Windsor Castle was born. His parents were the British admiral of Hessian origin, Prince Ludwig Alexander von Battenberg (1854–1921) and Princess Victoria Alberta of Hesse and near Rhine (1863–1950) , a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and sister of the last Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt . Because of these relationships, the Battenbergs were part of the British Royal Family. When King George V renounced all German titles for himself and his family in July 1917 and called on his relatives to do the same, Admiral Prince Ludwig Alexander von Battenberg also gave up his Hessian titles. He took the surname Mountbatten and a little later received the dignity of a British Marquess of Milford Haven and a seat in the House of Lords . Because of this renunciation, his children also lost their previous titles: while his eldest son George (1892–1938) apparently had the courtesy title of Earl of Medina as heir , his second son was only addressed as Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Early career

Philip Alexius de László : Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1925

During the First World War , Mountbatten served from 1916 with the rank of midshipman on the battle cruiser HMS Lion and on the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth . At the end of the war he was executive officer on the patrol boat P31 . From 1919 he studied for two semesters at Christ's College of Cambridge University in a specially equipped for veterans course engineering.

In March 1920 he was transferred to the battle cruiser HMS Renown and accompanied with this Edward , the Prince of Wales , on a trip to Australia . In 1921 he came to the sister ship HMS Repulse and again took part in a voyage of the Prince of Wales to India and Japan . A close friendship developed between the two. In 1922 Mountbatten was knighted as Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on the occasion of his wedding . He survived the wave of layoffs of officers of the Royal Navy that began in 1922 due to budget cuts and was transferred to the battleship HMS Revenge in the Mediterranean fleet in early 1923 . From 1924 he studied at the Signals School in Portsmouth and briefly electrical engineering at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich . He also became a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers , which later named an annually awarded medal after him. In 1926 he came to the battleship HMS Centurion and in early 1927 was appointed Assistant Head of Fleet Communications for the Mediterranean Fleet under Admiral Roger Keyes . With the rank of Lieutenant Commander since 1928 , he returned to Portsmouth in 1929 to work as an instructor at Signals School . In 1931 he went back to the Mediterranean Fleet , where he served as chief signal officer and on board the HMS Resolution .

In 1934 Mountbatten received his first independent command of the destroyer HMS Daring , with which he took a trip to Singapore to replace an older ship. In January 1936 he participated in the funeral of King George V in part. He was then appointed personal aide-de-camp of the new King Edward VIII and served from July 1936 in the Admiralty in the Naval Air Division . In May 1937 he took part in the coronation ceremony of the new King George VI. part. In June 1937 Captain transported, he was on the eve of World War II in command of the flotilla HMS Kelly of K class .

Career during and after World War II

Coat of arms of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Lord Mountbatten and wife with Mahatma Gandhi, 1947

Mountbatten's role during the Second World War and especially in the transition of India and Pakistan to independence was judged very differently in the public and in his immediate vicinity. His spectacular career, accompanied by modern PR measures, had a great impact on his contemporaries.

During the Second World War he commanded a destroyer flotilla on board the Kelly ; he was famous for his brave and daring missions, which were also filmed in the propaganda film In Which We Serve by director Noël Coward . In January 1942, as Chief of Combined Operations, he was commissioned to carry out an attack on the northern French coastal town of Dieppe , which was occupied by the German 302nd Infantry Division . This attack, called Operation Jubilee, took place on August 19, 1942, resulted in great losses and is generally considered a failure, but lessons from its mistakes were learned for Operation Overlord . The reasons for the failure were insufficient planning, inadequate reconnaissance and numerous misjudgments by the British commander. Mountbatten was then from 1943 to 1946 Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces in Southeast Asia ( South East Asia Command ), where he distinguished himself in the Burma campaign . In recognition of his services, especially as Commander in Chief in Southeast Asia, Mountbatten was promoted to Viscount Mountbatten of Burma , of Romsey in the County of Southampton, in 1946 and was now given a seat in the House of Lords. Since he had no sons, he was given the title of nobility with the special addition that, in the absence of male descendants, he could be inherited by his daughters and their male descendants in the order of their age. In the same year he was also accepted into the Order of the Garter as the only British admiral of World War II .

After a stopover as the commander of a cruiser squadron in the Mediterranean, Lord Mountbatten was appointed Viceroy of India . As the last holder of this office, he was given the difficult role of giving the British colony independence in a very short time in 1947. According to the Mountbatten plan (created together with Cyril Radcliffe ) on August 15, 1947, the crown colony was divided into the two Dominions - Indian Union and Pakistan , with Mountbatten initially becoming Governor General of India for a short time. Upon his return to the United Kingdom, King George VI awarded him . the titles of Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Baron Romsey , of Romsey in the County of Southampton. These titles of nobility, like the Viscount title, were also awarded with a special rule in favor of his daughters.

In the 1950s and 1960s he held senior positions in the Royal Navy and NATO . 1955 to 1959 Mountbatten was Chief of Staff of the Navy ( First Sea Lord ) , then until 1965 Chief of the Defense Staff of the United Kingdom ( Chief of the Defense Staff ) . His last rank in the Navy was that of a Grand Admiral ( Admiral of the Fleet ) .

After retiring from active service, Mountbatten became involved in the United World Colleges (UWC), a group of schools based on the concept of the German educator Kurt Hahn . From 1967 to 1978 Mountbatten took over the presidency of the UWC movement. He was also a member of the renowned Savage Club .

Private life

In 1922, Mountbatten married Edwina Ashley , the paternal granddaughter of Evelyn Ashley, a Privy Council member, and the maternal granddaughter and chief heir of Sir Ernest Cassel . The now shared country estate of Broadlands near Southampton, which Edwina brought into the marriage , soon became a center of social life in Great Britain.

The couple had two daughters:

The couple had an open relationship , especially in the 1930s . Both had relationships with people of both sexes . Among other things, it is believed that Lady Mountbatten had an affair with Nehru while her husband was Viceroy of India. Lady Mountbatten died in February 1960 at the age of 58.

Lord Louis Mountbatten had a particularly close relationship with both his nephew Prince Philip and his son, Prince Charles . He was instrumental in initiating the marriage of the former with the heir to the throne Elisabeth and made his country home Broadlands available to the couple for their honeymoon. Mountbatten was his great-nephew Charles' mentor, friend and surrogate father (called "Uncle Dickie") for many years. After Edward's death, he lived in Broadlands alone for 19 years.

death

Mountbatten was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on August 27, 1979 . While vacationing at his summer home in Mullaghmore , County Sligo , Republic of Ireland, he was killed by a bomb placed on his Shadow V boat . The Provisional IRA took responsibility for the attack. The attack killed three other people, including his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas Knatchbull. Furthermore, several family members who were also on the boat were injured, some seriously. On November 28, 1979, Thomas McMahon was sentenced to life in prison for the attack. In 1998, McMahon received an amnesty under the Good Friday Agreement .

The great funeral service, which Mountbatten himself planned in detail and which was also televised worldwide, took place in Westminster Abbey . Mountbatten was buried in Romsey Abbey in Hampshire , which is near the Broadlands family home .

Orders and decorations

Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1976)

British medals

Foreign medals

literature

  • Philip Ziegler: Mountbatten. The Official Biography. Collins, London 1985, ISBN 0-00-216543-0 .
  • Ian McGeoch: The Princely Sailor. Mountbatten of Burma. Brassey's, London et al. 1996, ISBN 1-85753-161-2 .
  • Cay Rademacher : Price of Freedom. In: India. 1450-1948. Maharajas, Mughals, colonial rulers. Gruner and Jahr, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-570-19906-0 , pp. 131-146 ( Geo epoch 41).
  • Andrew Roberts : Churchill and his time. 2nd Edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-24132-2 ( dtv 24132 dtv premium ).

Web links

Commons : Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the more recent literature, a devastating characterization of Mountbatten is made. See Roberts 1999: 79ff: "Lord Mountbatten and the dangers of adrenaline".
  2. ↑ A smile for the dead , review from January 28, 1999 by Karsten Polke-Majewski on FAZ.NET
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 32086, HMSO, London, October 15, 1920, p. 9987 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 32730, HMSO, London, July 18, 1922, p. 5353 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 33453, HMSO, London, January 1, 1929, p. 49 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  6. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 34365, HMSO, London, January 29, 1937, p. 693 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  7. ↑ London Gazette . No. 34878, HMSO, London, June 21, 1940, p. 3777 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  8. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 35029, HMSO, London, December 31, 1940, p. 25 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  9. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 37023, HMSO, London, April 6, 1945, p. 1893 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  10. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 37807, HMSO, London, December 3, 1946, p. 5945 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  11. ↑ London Gazette . No. 43713, HMSO, London, July 16, 1965, p. 6729 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  12. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 37023, HMSO, London, April 6, 1945, p. 1895 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  13. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 37299, HMSO, London, October 5, 1945, p. 4954 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  14. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 37777, HMSO, London, November 1, 1946, p. 5418 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  15. ↑ London Gazette . No. 38176, HMSO, London, January 13, 1948, p. 274 ( PDF , accessed August 9, 2010, English).
  16. ↑ Nordenvall, Per. Kungl. Serafimer Order 1748-1998
  17. ^ Mountbatten's coat of arms as a Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim . Retrieved June 22, 2010.
predecessor Office successor
New position created
(Sir Roger Keyes as Director of Combined Operations ) 		Advisor for / Chief of Combined Operations
1941 / 42–1943 		Robert Laycock
Item newly created Commander in Chief of the South East Asia Command
1943–1946 		Sir Montagu Stopford
Sir John Edelsten Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet
1952–1954 		Sir Guy Grantham
Sir Rhoderick McGrigor First sea lord
1955–1959 		Sir Charles Lambe
Sir William Dickson Chief of the Defense Staff
1959-1965 		Sir Richard Hull
New title created Viscount Mountbatten of Burma
1946–1979 		Patricia Mountbatten
New title created Earl Mountbatten of Burma
1947-1979 		Patricia Mountbatten
personal data
SURNAME Mountbatten, Louis, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mountbatten, Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma; Mountbatten, Louis, 1st Viscount Mountbatten of Burma; Mountbatten, Lord Louis; from Battenberg, Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British nobleman, naval admiral and statesman
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Windsor
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1979
Place of death Sligo Bay , Ireland