The Mountbattens

by Andrew Lownie

  675She called him ‘Dearest Dickie, Dearest One and Dearest Supremo’. Her file is MB1/J380 and MB1K248, Hartley Library.

  676More details, Barratt, p. 175. Telling Sibilla about the swimming pool, in which Mountbatten would swim nude each day, he asked Sibilla when ‘next you come over you can put on one of your brief bikinis and lie by the pool, looking more entrancing than ever.’ Mountbatten to Sibilla Tomacelli, 11 March 1970, by kind permission of Sibilla Tomacelli.

  677‘All his girlfriends are listed in the archives, with their letters to him carefully filed under their names.’ Barratt, p. 62.

  678Sally Dean to Mountbatten, 22 September 1966, MB1/K304, Hartley Library.

  679Robin’s father, Eddy, had many years earlier proposed unsuccessfully to her mother, Mary.

  680Mountbatten to Janey Lindsay, 13 January 1969, private collection.

  Chapter 25: Retirement

  681Post-war reorganisation of services, MB1/C203, Hartley Library.

  682Disarmament 1957–8, MB1/I120, Hartley Library.

  683Lord Bramall, Reel 10, 12502, Imperial War Museum.

  684Edward Ashmore, The Battle and the Breeze (Sutton, 1997), p. 125.

  685Ashmore, pp. 153–4.

  686Solly Zuckerman, Six Men Out of the Ordinary (Peter Owen, 1992), p. 147.

  687Interview Pat MacLellan, 28 February 2017.

  688Denis Healey, The Time of My Life (Michael Joseph, 1989), p. 258.

  689Healey, p. 258.

  690Ziegler, p. 617. Denis Healey claimed only one out of the top 40 people in the Ministry was in favour of his reappointment. Healey, p. 258.

  691He was pleased to also be given the Ethiopian Order of the Seal of Solomon, especially as Prince Philip only had the Order of Sheba.

  692Sunday Telegraph, 11 July 1965.

  693Private information from someone who used to shoot with him.

  694Draft letter Mountbatten to Wilson, 17 October 1965, SZ/GEN/72/Mountbatten, University of East Anglia.

  695PREM 13/553, TNA.

  696Though part of their correspondence – 17 pages were closed in 2017 until 2053 – is in the National Archives at MEPO 10/30, none of their correspondence has been released at Southampton University. One has to ask why.

  697Mountbatten to Robert Laycock, 1 February 1965, MB1/J266, Hartley Library.

  698Mountbatten to Sibilla Tomacelli, 7 February 1965, by kind permission of Sibilla Tomacelli.

  699United World Colleges consists of 17 schools and colleges on four continents and presidents have included Nelson Mandela and Queen Noor of Jordan.

  700The recordings were carried out between January 1961 and November 1966, MB1/K39. They remain closed.

  701Robin Bousfield to Mollie Travis, 11 November 1966, MB1/K38, Hartley Library. Some 30 pages were transcribed but remain unavailable. There is some correspondence in the Royal Archives. Many papers were destroyed at this stage, MB1/H17, Hartley Library.

  702Robin Bousfield to Mollie Travis, 23 January 1967 and 13 April 1967, MB1/K38, Hartley Library. Some of the transcribed letters are available but not the originals. John Barratt later claimed that whilst sorting out Murphy’s papers, he found ‘a sheaf of indiscriminate and intimate letters from the old Duke of Kent . . . after consulting Lord Mountbatten, I burned them’, Barratt, p. 54.

  703CAB 21/5987, CAB103/640, TNA. cf. also LCO 67/88, TNA.

  704Mountbatten to C.S. Forester, 5 June 1944, MB1/C101, Hartley Library. The central character of Forester’s The Ship is based on Mountbatten. Mountbatten falsely claimed the writer to be ‘a boyhood friend of mine’, Adrian Smith, Mountbatten: Apprentice War Lord (Tauris, 2000), p. 9.

  705MB1/K26a, Hartley Library. When books did come out, even if unauthorised, Mountbatten bought scores of copies to be sent to friends and family. MB1/K31 & MB1/G14, Hartley Library.

  706Ray Murphy, American author, 1946–8, MB1/E110, Hartley Library.

  707The various reminiscences can be found at MS350, Hartley Library.

  708MB1/G14, Hartley Library.

  709Sir N. Flower to L. Pollinger, 13 October 1944 and A. Campbell Johnson to L. Pollinger, 27 March 1945, MB1/C40, Hartley Library.

  710CAB 21/4302, TNA.

  711Details of the various interactions with authors can be found at MB1/I15, Hartley Library.

  712Brian Connell and Ronald Seth later offered themselves.

  713Edwina to Elizabeth Collins, undated, MB1/R144, Hartley Library.

  714Stephen Prior interview with Madeleine Masson, Clive Prince et al., War of the Windsors: A Century of Unconstitutional Monarchy (Mainstream, 2002), p. 255. I’m grateful to Clive Prince for trying to locate the original interview.

  715Ismay to M, 6 March 1962, Ismay 4/24/51, King’s College London and Mss Eur, Jenkins D 807,166–7, India Office Library. Mountbatten had discouraged Evan Jenkins from talking to Mosley.

  716Ismay to M, 6 March 1962, Ismay 4/24/51, King’s College London.

  717Ismay to M, 21 March 1962, Ismay 4/24/52c, King’s College London.

  718The correspondence can be found at MB1/K15, Hartley Library.

  719Ziegler, pp. 666–7.

  720‘Publication of official documents: Broadlands Archive Trust (Earl Mountbatten), 1965 Jun–Dec’, CAB 21/5987, TNA.

  721‘Lord Mountbatten private collection of official documents’ (The Broadlands Archive Trust), 1966 Jan 21–1969 Jun 17, CAB 103/640, TNA.

  722‘Lord Mountbatten private collection of official documents (The Broadlands Archive Trust), 1966 Jan 21–1969 Jun 17, CAB 203/640, TNA.

  723Papers related to his time as Viceroy were cleared by the Royal Archives and Foreign Office in 1970. FCO 37/643, TNA. However there were culls in the 1980s and then in 2010.

  724Ludovic Kennedy was offered but turned down the job.

  725See Rebecca Coll, ‘Autobiography and History on Screen: The Life and Times of Lord Mountbatten’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, December 2017, vol. 27, Issue 4, pp. 665–82.

  726The success of the series persuaded the Royal Family to agree to a BBC programme on them in 1969.

  Chapter 26: Fixer

  72712 August 1967, Cecil King, The Cecil King Diary: 1965–70 (Cape, 1972), pp. 138–9.

  728Hugh Cudlipp to Cecil King, 29 April 1968, 432/2/4 Cudlipp Archive, Cardiff University.

  729Ibid.

  730Ibid.

  731Ibid.

  732Cudlipp, pp. 325–7. cf. Solly Zuckerman, Monkeys, Men and Missiles: An Autobiography 1946–88 (Collins, 1988), pp. 463–6.

  7336 November 1975, Mountbatten to Brabourne, SZ/GEN92/Mountbatten, University of East Anglia.

  734King expected a hereditary peerage from Wilson in return for the paper’s support for Labour and was upset to be offered only a life peerage. In the end he got nothing.

  735Cecil King to Mountbatten, 13 July 1970, SZ/GEN92/Mountbatten 1970–1, University of East Anglia, UEA.

  736Mountbatten to Cecil King, 15 July 1970, SZ/GEN92/Mountbatten 1970–1, UEA.

  737Mountbatten to Zuckerman, 15 July 1970, SZ/GEN92/Mountbatten 1970–1, UEA.

  738Hugh Cudlipp to Mountbatten, 4 November 1975, King–Cudlipp file 1975–8, SZ/GEN and Cardiff 462/2/6, UEA.

  739Mountbatten to Hugh Cudlipp, 6 November 1975, King–Cudlipp file, 1975–8, SZ/GEN & Cardiff 462/2/6, UEA.

  740Cecil King to Hugh Cudlipp, 13 October 1976, King–Cudlipp file, 1975–8, SZ/GEN, UEA.

  741Ruth Dudley Edwards, Newspaperman Hugh Cudlipp, Cecil Harmsworth King and the Glory Days of Fleet Street (Secker & Warburg, 2003), pp. 370–1, quoting ‘The So-Called “Military Coup” of 1968’ by Hugh Cudlipp, Encounter, September 1981.

  742The Times, 3 April 1981. In September, Cudlipp returned to the fray with an article in Encounter.

  74314 November 1975, SZ/GEN, Cecil King–Cudlipp file, UEA.

  744The list can be found in Hugh Cudlipp to Cecil King, 30 April 1968, 432/2/4 Cudlipp Archive, Cardiff University. Troughton later became chairman of the British Council and a trust
ee of the Broadlands Archive Trust.

  745Ibid.

  746Ibid.

  747Six Men, p. 142.

  7487 December 1947, Robert Bruce Lockhart diary, Loc 60, Beaverbrook Papers, House of Lords.

  749Six Men, p. 143.

  750Peter Wright in Spycatcher claims Cecil King was a long-term MI5 agent. He certainly had been used on specific occasions by the intelligence services, as had his son Michael, the foreign editor of the Daily Mirror.

  7513 August 1977, Zuckerman memo, SZ/GEN Cudlipp–King film, University of East Anglia.

  7523 August 1977, SZ/GEN Cudlipp–King film, University of East Anglia.

  753He describes it in a 1974 interview, part of which is featured in Adam Curtis’ documentary, The Mayfair Set.

  754Charles Higham, Elizabeth and Philip: The Untold Story (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1991), p. 86.

  755Mountbatten’s otherwise voluminous correspondence with Zuckerman in the Southampton and UEA archives is missing between 29 January and 18 October 1968.

  756Private Eye, no. 362, 31 October 1975, p. 5, copy at MB1/K162a, Hartley Library.

  757Von Tunzelmann, p. 362.

  758Ben Pimlott, The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II (Collins, 1996), pp. 470–1.

  75922 February 1970, From Shore to Shore, p. 190.

  760A reminder was that the Royal Archives and Government had insisted in 1970 on reviewing his archives to ensure there was nothing embarrassing in them on his time in India. FCO 37/643, TNA.

  761Mountbatten diary, 2 June 1972, quoted Ziegler, p. 680.

  7623 June 1972, MB1/K45, Hartley Library.

  763Charles Higham, Mrs Simpson: Secret Lives of the Duchess of Windsor (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2004), pp. 484–5.

  764Linda Mortimer interview, quoted Greg King, The Duchess of Windsor: The Uncommon Life of Wallis Simpson (Aurum, 1999), p. 48.

  765More details can be found in Hugo Vickers, Behind Closed Doors: The Tragic, Untold Story of the Duchess of Windsor (Hutchinson, 2011), p. 130.

  7668 August 1978, Richard Thorpe (ed.), Who’s In, Who’s Out: The Journals of Kenneth Rose, vol. 1 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2018), p. 563.

  767When no member of the family planned to attend Charles’ Dartmouth graduation, Mountbatten went himself. Hoey, p. 255.

  768Mountbatten Diary, 31 January 1972, quoted Ziegler, p. 685.

  769Mountbatten to Prince Charles, 13 November 1972, quoted Jonathan Dimbleby, The Prince of Wales (Little Brown, 1994), p. 176.

  770Prince Charles to Mountbatten, 19 March 1973, BA S 33, quoted Ziegler, p. 685.

  771Mountbatten to Prince Charles, 28 February 1973, BA S33, quoted Ziegler, p. 685.

  772Barratt, p. 70.

  773Sarah Bradford, Elizabeth: A Biography of Her Majesty the Queen (Heinemann, 1996), p. 397.

  774MB1/K303, Hartley Library. Though widely tipped as a future bride, in spite of relationships with Melvyn Bragg and Lloyd Grossman, she has never married.

  775Nigel Dempster and Peter Evans, Behind Palace Doors (Orion, 1993), p. 80.

  776Mountbatten to Prince Charles, 14 February 1972, BA S33, Ziegler, p. 687.

  777Bradford, p. 426.

  778Sally Bedell Smith, Princes Charles (Random House, 2017), p. 115.

  779Dimbleby, p. 263.

  780Bedell Smith, p. 116. She subsequently married the novelist and property developer Charles Ellingworth in 1987.

  781Prince Charles to Mountbatten, 15 December 1977, BA S35, quoted Ziegler, p. 694.

  782M to Charles, 21 April 1979, BA S35, quoted Ziegler, p. 687.

  Chapter 27: Ireland

  783TAOIS/2005/151/508, National Archives, Dublin.

  784Declan Foley email to the author, 17 January 2017.

  785Interview India Hicks, 28 April 2017.

  786Hoey, p. 247.

  787Ibid., p. 248.

  788Interview girlfriend, 7 June 2017.

  789Hoey, p. 251.

  790Timothy Knatchbull, From a Clear Blue Sky (Hutchinson, 2009), p. 19.

  791Ibid., p. 20.

  792Interview Emma Temple, 15 March 2019.

  7936 September 1960, ‘Residence in Ireland’, DFA/90/2/360, National Archives, Dublin.

  794Belfast Telegraph, 17 August 2009, and RTE ‘Return to Mullaghmore’, broadcast 17 August 2009.

  79512 September 1960, ‘Residence in Ireland’, DFA/90/2/360, Dublin Archives.

  7961 September 1971, From Shore to Shore, p. 221 and BA S19, Ziegler, p. 697.

  79717 July 1972, Brabourne Papers, quoted Ziegler, p. 697.

  798‘Holiday visit by Lord Mountbatten and Lord and Lady Brabourne to Republic of Ireland’, August 1974, FCO 87/331, TNA.

  799Interview, 16 August 2018.

  80012 June 1974, Brabourne papers, quoted Ziegler, p. 698.

  801Graham Yuill to author, 28 October 2018.

  802Ludovic Kennedy, On My Way to the Club (Collins pb edition, 1990), p. 371.

  803Kennedy, p. 37.

  804David Roberts email to the author, 2 January 2019.

  805David Bicknell email to the author, 10 September 2018.

  806Amongst the protective measures was a transmitter in the house linked to the police. Interview Graham Yuill, 15 March 2019.

  807Sunday Express, 22 October 2017 and interviews Graham Yuill, 23 October 2017 and 30 November 2018.

  808Graham Yuill to the author, 28 October 2018.

  809‘Sections of the Garda . . . were dubbed by military intelligence as “nests of vipers”.’ Graham Yuill to the author, 30 October 2018.

  810Robin Haydon to Lord Carrington, 26 September 1979, FCO 87/841, TNA.

  811Those who also died immediately or as a result of their wounds were Doreen Knatchbull, Nicholas Knatchbull and Paul Maxwell. A second attack at Warren Point that afternoon killed 18 soldiers and a civilian.

  812Details can be found at MB1/K381, including his ‘Philosophy of Life’ with his views on his career, family, the monarchy and religion, CAB 130/718 and DEFE 68/350, TNA.

  813DEFE 49/22, TNA.

  814There were more volunteers than slots and a number of petty officers asked to take part as ordinary sailors.

  815ROSK 10/47, Churchill College Archives, Cambridge.

  816It can be found at MB1/K381(7), Hartley Library.

  817One of them had given a false name, which turned out by chance to be the name of a known IRA member. There were rumours that Russian intelligence or, according to Enoch Powell, the CIA were involved – https://wais.stanford.edu/Russia/KGBDeathMountbatten.htm, POLL 3/2/1/89, Churchill College Archives and Sunday Telegraph, 19 August 1984.

  818Graham Yuill to author, 25 October 2018, based on information from Major General David Miller, commander of the UDR, interview with Garda Special Branch officer, 22 May 2018 and Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston, Martin McGuinness (Mainstream, 2001), p. 116.

  819McMahon served 19 years before being let out under the Good Friday Agreement. McGirl died in 1995 in a mysterious accident when his tractor overturned. There were rumours the SAS had been involved. ‘Of the 400 odd IRA Maze prisoners released under the Good Friday Agreement, something like 90 returned to the town or its environs, which says something (each was given a grant towards setting himself up as a taxi driver).’ Private information.

  820Courtney later published his autobiography, It Was Murder. Murders and Kidnappings in Ireland: The Inside Story (Blackwater Press, 1996), which remains unavailable on Amazon or even at the British Library.

  821An Irish career criminal Patrick Holland stated Mountbatten had been killed by the British Security Services ‘because of a deep-rooted secret Mountbatten knew that if revealed would have been so damaging to the Royal Family that it may have damaged their reputation for ever’. ‘Secrets from the Grave Reveal Provisional IRA did not Murder Lord Mountbatten’, OPC Global News and Media, 21 June 2012.

  822Martin Dillon to the author, 4 April 2018.

  82329 August 1979, ‘Murder of Lord Mountbatten and others’, PREM 19/13, TNA. Some parts of the file r
emain closed.

  824Ibid.

  825Interview Garda intelligence officer, 22 May 2018 and conversation Donal O’Sullivan, Irish Ambassador in London, 11 April 1972. ‘Return to Mullaghmore’.

  Chapter 28: Rumours

  826Driberg and Mountbatten certainly talked openly about sex. ‘Have you seen Dr Kinsey’s fascinating book on the sex-life of the American male?’ Driberg to Mountbatten, 11 May 1948, MB1/E49, Hartley Library. Attempts in 1968 to prosecute Driberg, an associate of the Kray Brothers who had already been arrested several times for importuning, for offences against young men were dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions. It emerged in 1990 that Driberg had been a Soviet agent codenamed Lepage.

  827Ziegler, pp. 52–3.

  828Barratt, p. 53. Barratt also told Hoey the same thing, Hoey, p. 91. A source close to Barratt told the author that it was assumed that Barratt and Mountbatten had been lovers though Barratt denied this. Hoey, p. 92.

  829Hoey, p. 96.

  830Ibid., p. 95.

  831Private Eye, 12 October 1979, issue 465, p. 6.

  832Michael Thornton to the author, 19 December 2018.

  833Jeremy Norman to the author, 3 June 2017.

  834Interview Derrick Meakins, 3 May 2017.

  835Hugh Massingberd, Daydream Believer: Confessions of a Hero-Worshipper (Macmillan, 2001), p. 147.

  836Interview Jackie Crier, 23 June 2018.

  837Nicholas Davies, Queen Elizabeth II (Carol Publishing Group, 1996), p. 202. According to one of the journalists on the story, three MPs were also discovered to be involved in the vice ring. Edward Laxton to the author, 11 December 2018.

  838Francis Wheen to the author, 17 January 2017.

  839Ibid., 24 April 2018.

  840Breese, p. 306.

  841Philip Hindin interview 1990, by kind permission of Charlotte Breese.

  842Elisa Segrave, The Girl from Station X (Aurum, 2014), p. 188.

  843Interview private source, 18 April 2017.

  844Private information, 8 January 2019.

  845Interview Special Branch Garda officer, 22 May 2018.

  846Michael Bloch (ed.), James Lees-Milne Diaries 1942–1954 (John Murray, 2006), pp. 58–9. The editor Michael Bloch speculates MB was Mountbatten though Mountbatten never lived in Eaton Square.