Mountbatten, Louis ___ 1900-1979 ___ British ___ sailor civilservant

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Mountbatten was born in Windsor Castle, the second son of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and the Rhine. Educated at royal naval colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth, he served in the Royal Navy during the First World War. During the war, King George V changed the name of the Royal House to Windsor, and, at the same time, asked those of his relatives who were British but known by German names and titles to relinquish use of them. Thus, the head of the House of Battenberg adopted the surname of Mountbatten and was raised to the peerage. As the younger son of a marquess, the Louis was accordingly known as Lord Louis Mountbatten. Between the wars, he pursued his naval career with a variety of postings but specialised in communications. In the early 1920s, he accompanied the Prince of Wales, his second cousin, on two tours ­ to Australasia and Asia. In 1922, Lord Louis married Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley. The couple had two daughters. During the Second World War, Lord Louis commanded the 5th Destroyer Flotilla and became Chief of Combined Operations. In 1943, he was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command with the rank of acting Admiral. After the war he was ennobled as Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, appointed a Privy Councillor, and subsequently given a peerage as Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Baron Romsey. In 1947, he became Viceroy of India. After partition, he remained as Governor-General until 1948. Thereafter, he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet, the highest rank in the Royal Navy, and served as Chief of the Defence Staff between 1959 and 1965. He was murdered by the Provisional IRA in 1979 while on holiday in Ireland.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Mountbatten - young and lighthearted

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1921-1979 ___ military political travel society royalty historyeye NewZealand Australia India Japan

WEB TEXT LINKS
a bit about
a few pages

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
University of Southampton Special Collections - possibly

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Diaries of Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1920-1922: Tours with the Prince of Wales
Personal Diary of Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1943-1946
From Shore to Shore: The Final Years: The Diaries of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, 1953-1979
 

October 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.