Andrew Lownie on the Dark Truth about Mountbatten

Buy 'The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves' here https://amzn.to/4mPbAgn & Join Andrew on Substack here! https://substack.com/@andrewlownie I am delighted to share this special edition of the Lownie Report, in which I revisit my book The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves. The conversation covers the full arc of Dickie and Edwina’s story, beginning with two very different childhoods. Dickie grew up haunted by his father’s forced resignation as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1914, dismissed by Churchill under the pressure of anti-German feeling, and he spent his entire career determined to avenge that humiliation. Edwina inherited vast wealth but little warmth, her mother dead young, her father distant, her stepmother cruel, and she emerged from that upbringing as a free spirit who would prove almost impossible to contain. The marriage they made was an open one, with lovers of both sexes and different backgrounds taken by both parties, which was remarkable for their time and their circles. We trace their lives through the Second World War, Mountbatten’s Supreme Allied Command in Southeast Asia, Edwina’s transformation into a significant humanitarian, and his central role in the partition of India in 1947, a chapter of his career that remains deeply contested. We also look at his dynastic ambitions, his role in engineering the Mountbatten surname for the House of Windsor, and his long self-mythologising in the years that followed. I discuss the allegations of child abuse that have gathered around Mountbatten's name and throughout his life. The book examines the evidence for these claims, including accounts of boys being abused, and explores the suggestion that his behaviour in this regard was more widely known than has ever been officially acknowledged, and that it may even have been a factor in the IRA's decision to target him. The conversation also looks at the unusual circumstances surrounding his assassination in August 1979. The book tells the story of Graham Yuill, a security officer who submitted a formal report just one month before Mountbatten’s death warning of the vulnerability of his boat at Mullaghmore to an attack under cover of darkness. Rather than acting on that report, the authorities posted Yuill to Hong Kong and made him sign a non-disclosure agreement that held for forty years. The relevant files remain closed, officially designated as an active murder investigation despite convictions having been served. I was thrilled by the reception the book got, but the vastly expensive, and ultimately successful, legal battle against the UK government to open the Mountbatten diaries was slightly less enjoyable! 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:28 Why Andrew wrote the book 00:01:25 An open marriage: the fairy tale with a sting 00:01:47 Dickie's childhood: German heritage and a father's disgrace 00:03:22 Edwina's childhood: wealth, loss, and emotional poverty 00:04:58 The wedding of the century 00:06:03 How privilege buried their scandals 00:07:29 Research discoveries: the Red House in Malta 00:08:38 Outsiders within the establishment 00:11:30 Edwina's affairs with Paul Robeson and Hutch 00:12:48 Edwina's left-wing sympathies 00:16:55 How they met: bonded by grief 00:19:14 Early marriage and the open arrangement 00:23:07 Did marital humiliation drive Dickie's military ambition? 00:35:59 Edwina's wartime transformation 00:38:06 Viceroy of India: a poisoned chalice 00:40:11 Partition of India 1947: dividing a nation in months 00:43:47 Assessing Mountbatten's record in India 00:46:14 The Nehru–Edwina relationship 00:49:08 Gandhi's assassination: Mountbatten's defining moment 00:50:32 Back to the Navy: Malta and the Royal Family 00:53:15 Mentor to Charles: royal fixer and honorary grandfather 00:55:35 After Edwina: a darker decade begins 00:57:17 The abuse allegations 01:03:38 Intelligence, kompromat, and MI5 01:05:08 The IRA assassination: ignored warnings 01:08:00 The killing and the day of Warrenpoint 01:09:34 Conspiracy theories and unanswered questions 01:10:04 Syrian involvement and what we still don't know