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| @India Hicks |
There was "nothing fierce" about the Lady Pamela Hicks, according to a Tatler profile of Pamela and her older sister, Patricia, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, who died at her home in Brightwell Baldwin, Oxfordshire, on June 5. She was 97 years old.
Lady Pamela lived a life of privilege, which she never took for granted. She was always interested in new places and embracing all that life has to offer. She may have been hesitant about writing her memoirs, but her younger daughter, India, coaxed her out of her comfort zone. Her books offered great insight not only into her family life but also into her childhood friend, Queen Elizabeth II, and her first cousin, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Her death was announced by her youngest child, India Hicks. According to acclaimed royal biographer Hugo Vickers, Lady Pamela had "a curious late life fame."
This was due to her two books, Daughter of Empire Life as a Mountbatten and India Remembered, and India Hicks' Lady Pamela, which was subtitled "My Mother's Extraordinary Years as Daughter ot the Viceroy of India, Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen, and the Wife of David Hicks."
https://royalbooknews.blogspot.com/2026/06/lady-pamela-hicks-books.html
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Lady Pamela Carmen Louise Mountbatten of Burma was born at the Ritz Hotel, Barcelona, Spain, on April 19, 1929, the second and youngest child of the late Louis, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and the Hon. Edwina Ashley. On her father's side, she was the granddaughter of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and Prince Louis of Battenberg, who was created Marquess of Milford Haven in 1917. Victoria's mother, Princess Alice, was the third child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Prince Louis renounced his German titles, which meant his three younger children, Princess Louise, Prince George, and Prince Louis, would now have the styles of children of a Marquess. Lady Louise, George, Earl of Medina, and Lord Louis Mountbatten.
Their elder sister, Princess Alice, was not affected by the title change as she was married to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark. She had four daughters and a son, Prince Philip. In 1923, Lady Louise became the second wife of King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden.
Lord Louis was also a close friend of the Prince of Wales (David), the eldest son of King George V and Queen Mary, although he was unable to serve as the stable influence David needed. Their relationship would be tested when the Prince of Wales fell in love with Wallis Simpson, leading David, as King Edward VIII, to abdicate to marry the woman he loved.
Louis, who rose to the highest positions in the Royal Navy, was not wealthy, however. It was his wife, Edwina, who was the heiress. She was the elder daughter of Wilfrid Ashley, 1st Baron Mount Temple, and Maud Cassel, the only child of the financier Sir Ernest Cassel. As Maud died in 1911, Edwina and her sister, Mary, were the primary beneficiaries of their grandfather's will.
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| Lady Pamela's birth registration |
Her parents were on a European road trip when Edwina went into premature labor in the Ritz Hotel in Barcelona. Lord Louis, as he was styled at the time, asked the hospital for a doctor. Unfortunately, the Ritz Hotel could only find an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Louis then called his first cousin, Queen Ena of Spain, who was away. Her husband, King Alfonso XIII, answered the telephone and was delighted to hear that Edwina was pregnant. He promised not to tell anyone. Lord Louis pleaded with him: "Tell everyone!" explaining the seriousness of the situation. Within 30 minutes, the hotel was surrounded by the Royal Guard, and a doctor was secured.
Lady Pamela "arrived safely and was wrapped in a beautifully embroidered layette that had been brought by local nuns."
Her baptism took place in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, on July 12, 1929. The Prince of Wales, the King of Spain, the Duke of Gloucester, and Prince George (later Duke of Kent) attended the service. The King, Prince George, the Marchioness of Milford Haven, Countess of Brecknock (maternal aunt), and the Duchess of Peñaranda were the godparents.
She was a first cousin of the late Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, who married the future Queen Elizabeth II in 1947. Lady Pamela noted that the young Elizabeth "clocked him" when she and her parents (and younger sister, Margaret) visited the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in July 1939. "She never from that moment thought of anybody else."
Prince Philip and the late Queen grew up in the same social circle that included his first cousins, Patricia, Pamela, and David, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, and Alex, Georgina, and Myra, the three children of Sir Harald and Lady Zia Wernher. Lady Zia was the Marchioness of Milford Haven's sister.
In an interview earlier this year with The English Home, Lady Pamela talked about her childhood friends, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, after they moved to Buckingham Palace
"It was a big change but great fun for us children when the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret moved to Buckingham Palace. I remember running along endless corridors and out into the beautiful gardens with their perfect lawns.
We played pretend gymkhanas with the red-jacketed footmen looking on."
Lady Pamela "adored" her father, but her relationship with her mother was more difficult. In her memoir, Daughter of Empire, she wrote about her mother: "I never liked her. She had no idea how to play with children, unlike my father. She was a woman who could never have a personal conversation with you, and who needed constant flattery." She added, "As a child, I admired her for her glamour. Then, when we were in India, and I saw the work she did there, especially with the Japanese prisoners of war, that admiration grew."
In October 1946, Pamela was the "head bridesmaid" at her sister's wedding to John, 7th Brabourne, who had served as her father's ADC. The other three bridesmaids were Princesses Elizabeth, Margaret, and Alexandra. Prince Philip also attended the wedding:
The following year, Lord Mountbatten was appointed Viceroy of India, where his primary role was to assist with the partition of India into two countries: India and Pakistan. Lady Pamela wrote about her time in India with her parents in India Remembered, which was published in 2007.
It was in India when Lady Pamela received a letter from Princess Elizabeth, asking her to be one of her bridesmaids. She and her parents flew home ten days before the wedding. The other bridesmaids had "several fittings" for their dresses, but Lady Pamela acknowledged she had only two. The "expertise of the designer, Norman Hartnell, and his team, meant that the dress fitted perfectly."
Lady Pamela described the wedding as "like being part of a fairy tale."
She discussed the frustrations that her cousin Philip faced. "He's so active and inventive, with such an inquiring mind, and yet at that stage, he was allowed to do nothing, absolutely nothing. Lilibet was a lovely girl, very pretty, and they were in love, but the horror for him was that she would ultimately be Queen of England. That put paid to his promising naval career. What would he do for the rest of his life, always two steps behind?"
In February 1952, she joined Prince Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh on a Commonwealth Tour as a lady-in-waiting. She was with them in the remote Treetops Hotel in the Aberdare National Park in Kenya when Elizabeth learned that her father had died and that Elizabeth was now the Queen. "Because of where we were, we were almost the last people in the world to know."
The hotel was accessible only by ladder. Lady Pamela wrote: "She goes up as a princess. The King dies that night. She comes down the ladder as a Queen."
In an interview with El País, she said she hugged the Queen, but then realized, "My God, she's the Queen now." Lady Pamela "sank into a deep curtsey."
She also served as a lady-in-waiting during the 1953-1954 Commonwealth tour.
It was a party in 1959 where she was introduced to the "perfectionist" designer David Hicks. "I fell madly in love with him," despite "the differences in their social stations and temperament." Some years later, she described her life with David as "eye-opening." It was, "she said, "like living with a volcano. But my goodness, it was interesting. We did exciting things and met so many amazing people."
Their wedding took place at Romsey Abbey on January 13, 1960. The Duke of Edinburgh was accompanied by the Prince of Wales and Princess Anne, a bridesmaid for the first time. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the Duchess of Gloucester, the Duchess of Kent, and Princess Alexandra, Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse and by Rhine, Prince and Princess Georg Wilhelm of Hanover, and Prince Andrej were among the guests.
Queen Elizabeth was in the final trimester of her third pregnancy and did not attend.
Lord Brabourne was his brother-in-law's best man.
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Lady Pamela's bridesmaids were Princess Frederica of Hanover, the Hon. Joanna Knatchull (the bride's niece), Princess Anne, Victoria Marten (Lady Pamela's goddaughter), and Princess Clarissa of Hesse. Princess Frederica and Princess Clarissa were the children of Princess Georg Wilhelm of Hanover (nee Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark.
The reception was held at Broadlands, and a honeymoon in the West Indies.
It was after they returned from their honeymoon that Edwina learned her mother had died during her sleep on February 21, 1960, in Jesselton, North Borneo. They arrived at the airport only to find Lord Brabourne at the bottom of the airplane's steps with the news that Lady Mountbatten had died.
The family settled into a new home, Britwell Manor, in Oxfordshire. They also owned a flat at the Albany on Piccadilly.
Vacations were often spent at Lord Mountbatten's Irish estate, Classiebawn Castle.
It was on August 27, 1979, when Lady Pamela's father was assassinated by the IRA, which had placed a bomb on Lord Mountbatten's fishing boat, Shadow V. The explosion killed Lord Mountbatten, his grandson, Hon. Nicholas Knatchbull, Doreen, Dowager Lady Brabourne, and Paul Maxwell, a local boy who often helped out on the boat. Lord and Lady Brabourne and their son Timothy (Nicholas's twin) were seriously injured but survived.
Lady Pamela was asked to identify her father's body, but found herself unable to do so. She remained "forever indebted" to the Duke of Abercorn, a "dear friend," who identified Louis' remains. The Duke was married to Lady Zia's eldest daughter, Sascha.
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Some years later, Lady Pamela forgave the IRA, something her youngest child, India, found "inspirational."
Due to financial troubles, David Hicks was forced to sell Britwell, and the family moved to another home, the Grove in Brightwell Baldwin, Oxfordshire, where Lady Pamela lived for more than five decades.
"I’ve stayed here because I knew I would never be able to find anywhere nicer. My favourite room I think is the pink drawing room that he created for me - it is big enough to contain all the things I value most, collected throughout my life, and enjoy having around me," she told English Home magazine.
In 2002, Lady Pamela sold her mother's diamond tiara at Sotheby's. At the time, she noted:" We’re not pop stars, so we need the money. I am sad to have to sell it as it belonged to my mother and it’s very precious to me. It has, however, come to the point where I have to sell something.”
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| India Hicks |
David Hicks died on March 29, 1998, at the age of 69.
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In September 2022, Lady Pamela attended Queen Elizabeth's funeral. She was not invited, however, to King Charles III's Coronation. According to India, "My mother was not offended at all."
In October 2026, she was "too frail" to attend her granddaughter Maddison's wedding to Canadian Bret Kapernov, although she invited the bride and her wedding party to get ready at her home.
She understood and accepted that her life "of undeniable privilege" came with "responsibility." Lady Pamela said, "You got such satisfaction out of completing your duty and doing service. These are two words you just don't hear anymore. We've lost our sense of duty and service."
Her style at birth was Miss Pamela Mountbatten, as her father's status was the younger son of a Marquess. In April 1946, she became the Hon. Pamela Mountbatten when her father was created Viscount Mountbatten by George VI for his distinguished service as the Supreme Allied Commander in South East Asia during the Second World War. The following year, Louis was created Earl Mountbatten of Burma, which meant that Pamela was now styled as Lady Pamela Mountbatten. The Mountbatten earldom has a special remainder which allowed for the succession of his two daughters and their male heirs.
Lady Pamela is survived by her three children, Edwina, Ashley, and India, eleven grandchildren, Maddison, Jordan, and Rowan Brudenell, Angelica, Ambrosia, Caspian, and Horatio Hicks, Felix, Amory, Conrad, and Domino Flint Wood, and four great-grandchildren: Daphne, Phebe, and Moses Modupe-Ojo and Michael Kapetanov.
After her 97th birthday celebrations in April, her daughter, India Hicks, wrote: " I have been asked what my mother’s secret is to now being 97. It seems to involve chocolate biscuits at elevenses, the occasional day in bed with a hot dog, endless Charbonnel et Walker chocolates, making sure there is always Toblerone in the house, and being properly dressed — even for the pub.
Of course, it is quite a challenge finding a birthday present for someone turning ninety-seven. By that point, one has not only received everything one might want, but has also very likely improved upon it, edited it, or sent it back.
In my mother’s case, she has tasted almost everything, seen almost everything, met almost everyone worth meeting, and travelled just about everywhere worth going. There is very little left to wrap"
Lady Pamela was the eldest surviving great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria.
Victoria - Alice - Victoria - Louis - Pamela
Victoria - Alice - Victoria - Alice - Philip
Victora - Edward - George - George - Elizabeth
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