QUEEN’S TRIBUTE
The Queen arrives at the funeral of Countess Mountbatten of Burma at St Paul’s Church, London. Prince Charles gave a private address at the service for Lord Mountbatten’s daughter, a woman he has described as a “very special godmother”.
THE LIFE of Countess Mountbatten of Burma was remembered at her funeral attended by the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and her godson, the Prince of Wales.
Charles gave a private address at the funeral service of Lord Mountbatten’s daughter, a woman he has described in the past as his “very special godmother”.
Born Patricia Mountbatten, the Countess was the Duke of Edinburgh’s first cousin and was the daughter of Charles’s beloved great-uncle Earl Mountbatten. The then-Princess Elizabeth, her third cousin, was one of her bridesmaids at her wedding in 1946.
She died peacefully at her home in Mersham, Kent, on June 13, surrounded by her children who attended the service with their families. The mourners arrived under heavy downpours with around 500 filling the pews of St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, where the vicar the Reverend Alan Gyle conducted the service. Among the group were the Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal and her husband Vice Admiral Tim Laurence and the Duke of York.
Members of the royal party also include the Duchess of Gloucester, Duke of Kent and Prince Michael of Kent.
Charles arrived at the church ahead of the Queen and Duke and when the royal couple approached the west door the prince kissed his mother’s cheek and hand, then kissed his father on both cheeks before laying a hand affectionately on his back.
Philip’s public appearance was only his second since a brief spell in hospital last week for treatment for an unspecified infection.
The Countess, inset, had been the Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, known as “The Patricias”, and soldiers from the unit acted as pall bearers. The Prince of Wales said in a statement at the time her death was announced: “I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of my very special godmother, Lady Mountbatten, whom I have known and loved ever since I can first remember. She played an extremely important part in my life and I shall miss her presence most dreadfully.”
The Countess’s father Lord Mountbatten, her 14-year-old son Nicholas Knatchbull and her mother-in-law the Dowager Lady Brabourne were all murdered by the IRA in 1979 when their boat was blown up off the coast of Sligo.
The Countess, then known as Lady Brabourne, suffered serious injuries, but survived the blast, as did her husband Lord Brabourne and Nicholas’s twin brother Timothy.
A local boat boy, 15-yearold Paul Maxwell, also died. The Countess’s husband Lord Brabourne was the producer of films such as A Passage To India and Death On The Nile. They had six surviving children.