PRINCELY SAILOR MOUNTBATTEN

The name Moutbatten resonates through the history of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. Born in 1900 as Prince Louis of Battenburg, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, Louis Mountbatten's life was at first shaped by World War I and its aftermath. In mid-career he was a victorious commander in World War II, and when peace came he brought independence to India and Pakistan. It was an epoch of rapid, often dramatic and accelerating change - political, social, economic, scientific and technological. Having a father dedicated to service in the Royal Navy (rising to First Sea Lord) and a royal mother of egalitarian sentiments, enquiring mind and powerful personality; to what extent were "Dickie" Mountbatten's outstanding capacity and influence attributable to naval nature and to regal nature respectively? Mountbatten took for granted the unique social status accorded to members of the British Royal family, even in the century of the common man. But as an officer in the Royal Navy, from naval cadet to Admiral of the Fleet, he was above all a professional.
In his final days of active service, Mountbatten brought into being the Central Organization for Defence which, despite imperfection, has functioned well, and the wisdom of his advice - admittedly given freely - on cardinal issues of peace and security has been widely recognized. Mountbatten remains a controversial figure, even though his faults, when considered in the light of the world-shaking events in which he was involved, are overwhelmingly outweighed by his achievements. His murder, and those of members of his family and a friend, on 27 August 1979, by assassins of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, shocked the world. Ian McGeoch is a contributor (with General Sir John Hackett et al) of "The Third World War: August 1985", "The Third World War: The Untold Story", and author of "An Affair of Chances".