How A Terrorist Attack Robbed the British Royal Family Of One Of It’s Most Important Members

Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed on 27 August 1979 when members of the IRA detonated a bomb hidden underneath the boat he was on. A look into his life shows just how much he meant to the British Monarchy, both as an institution and as a family.

Earl Mountbatten (left) at the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations in 1977 Image: PA Images

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten was born Prince Louis of Battenberg, on 25 June 1900. As with most royal marriages at the time, both sides of Mountbatten’s family descended from prominent royal lineages. On his mother’s side, he was a great-grandchild of Queen Victoria while on his father’s side he hailed from the House of Battenberg which had ties to German, Greek, Russian and Spanish royalty.

Mountbatten as an infant in the arms of his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Image: Flickr

Given the nickname Dickie by his great grandmother, Louis changed his surname from Battenberg to Mountbatten on 17 July 1914 in keeping with the British Royal family’s move towards more anglicised names.