Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma
St John Ambulance Brigade | |
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Viceregal-Consort of India | |
In office 21 February 1947 – 21 June 1948 | |
Monarch | George VI |
Governor- General | The Viscount Mountbatten of Burma |
Personal details | |
Born | Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley 28 November 1901 London[1] |
Died | 21 February 1960 Jesselton, Crown Colony of North Borneo | (aged 58)
Resting place | Off the coast of Portsmouth |
Spouse | |
Children | |
Parents |
|
Edwina Cynthia Annette Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma,
Family background and early life
Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley was born in 1901, the elder daughter of
After Wilfred Ashley's remarriage in 1914 to
Marriage and children
By the time she first met Louis Mountbatten, a relative of the
Ashley and Mountbatten married on 18 July 1922 at
The Mountbattens had two daughters, Patricia (14 February 1924 – 13 June 2017) and Pamela (born 19 April 1929).[9]
Her affair with Jawaharlal Nehru, prime minister of India, both during and after their post-war service has been widely documented.[13]
Edwina and her sister-in-law, the Marchioness of Milford Haven (wife of Lord Milford Haven), were extremely close friends and the two frequently went together on rather daring adventures, travelling rough in difficult and often dangerous parts of the world.[14]
Second World War
At the outbreak of the
Vicereine of India
Edwina Mountbatten was the last
- was to endure until Edwina Mountbatten's death: intensely loving, romantic, trusting, generous, idealistic, even spiritual. If there was any physical element it can only have been of minor importance to either party. Mountbatten's reaction was one of pleasure...He liked and admired Nehru, it was useful to him that the Prime Minister should find such attractions in the Governor-General's home, it was agreeable to find Edwina almost permanently in good temper: the advantages of the alliance were obvious.[20]
From 28 October 1947 onwards, Edwina Mountbatten was styled as the Countess Mountbatten of Burma, after her husband was elevated to an
Death
Lady Mountbatten died in her sleep aged 58 of unknown causes on 21 February 1960 in
Honours
- Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) – 1 January 1946[29]
- Dame Grand Cross of the Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (GCStJ: 1 January 1946;[30] CStJ: 19 December 1928[31])
- Lady of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India (CI) -21 February 1947
- Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE: 1 January 1948;[32] CBE: 1 January 1943[33])
- Service Medal of the Order of St John
- King George V Silver Jubilee Medal[34]
- King George VI Coronation Medal[34]
- Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal[35]
In popular culture
Lady Mountbatten of Burma has been portrayed by:
- Janet Suzman in the 1986 television drama Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy
- Maria Aitken in the 1998 biographical film Jinnah[36]
- Gillian Anderson in Gurinder Chadha's drama film Viceroy's House (2017)[37]
- Lucy Russell in series 2 of The Crown (2017)[38]
References
- ^ Encyclopedia. "Mountbatten, Edwina Ashley (1901-1960". Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- ^ GRO Register of Births: MAR 1902 1a 434 ST GEO HAN SQ = London
- ^ Janet Morgan, Edwina Mountbatten: A Life of Her Own (1991).
- ISBN 9781471166440.
- ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- ^ Von Tunzelmann, p. 71.
- ^ "Lord Louis Mountbatten". Life. 17 August 1942. p. 63. Retrieved 20 September 2012 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Nice and Friendly". Charlie Chaplin Official Website. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
- ^ Von Tunzelmann, p. 73.
- ^ Pearson, Drew (16 September 1944). "Ford May Convert Willow Run into Huge Tractor Plant". St. Peterburg Times. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
- Pamela Hicks, Daughter of Empire: My Life as a Mountbatten - Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2012
- ISBN 978-0297864820.
- The Tribune. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
- ISBN 0-688-03766-6.
- ^ Edwina, Countess Mountbatten of Burma
- ^ James, Lawrence (1997). Raj: the Making and Unmaking of British India. Saint Martin's Griffin. p. 611.
- ^ See Alex von Tunzelmann. Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2007.
- ^ "मां से प्यार करते थे नेहरू, शारीरिक संबंध नहीं थे: माउंटबेटन की बेटी" (in Hindi).
- ^ "Pamela Mountbatten on the Jawaharlal-Edwina relationship". The Hindu. 18 July 2007. Archived from the original on 11 September 2007.
- ^ Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten (1985) p. 473.
- ^ "The Bulletin of the Pioneer Centre". Peckham. 1 (5). September 1949. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ "Lady Mountbatten dies in sleep on visit to Borneo". The Sydney Morning Herald. London. Australian Associated Press. 21 February 1960. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
- ^ "Her Grave The Sea 1960". British Pathe.
- ^ As quoted in The Straits Times [Singapore] (7 August 2000).
- ^ "A TASTE OF OTHER SUMMERS - Love may not be the only theme of the Nehru-Edwina letters". Archived from the original on 5 November 2009.
- ISBN 0006377874.
- ISBN 0297782843.
- ^ "Countess Mountbatten of Burma, The Right Honourable Edwina Cynthia Annette C.I. G. B. E. D. C. V. O." probatesearchservice.gov. UK Government. 1960. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
- ^ "The London Gazette, 1 January 1946".
- ^ "No. 37417". The London Gazette. 1 January 1946. p. 203.
- ^ "No. 33453". The London Gazette. 19 December 1928. p. 49.
- ^ "No. 38161". The London Gazette (25th supplement). 1 January 1948.
- ^ "The London Gazette, 1 January 1943".
- ^ a b "Louis Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma; Edwina Cynthia Annette (née Ashley), Countess Mountbatten of Burma - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
- ^ John, Museum of the Order of St (12 April 2017). "Edwina Mountbatten; Before Viceroy's House". Museum of the Order of St John. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
- IMDb
- ^ Wiseman, Andreas (30 April 2015). "Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson topline partition drama 'Viceroy's House'". Screen Daily. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
- ^ "The Crown" Misadventure (TV Episode 2017), retrieved 11 December 2017
Notes
- Alex von Tunzelmann. Indian Summer The Secret History of the End of an Empire. Pocket Books.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0684193465
- ISBN 978-0006370475
- ISBN 978-0297786221