Pr ince Lou is is named in honour of Mountbatten
THE royal baby has been named in honour of Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979 at Mullaghmore, Co Sligo.
Prince William and his wife Kate named their newborn son Louis Arthur Charles, Kensington Palace confirmed yesterday.
The name Louis is a nod to both his grandfather and heir to the British throne and one of Prince Charles’s most beloved mentors.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was known as ‘Dickie’ by close friends, was the uncle of Prince Philip (96), Queen Elizabeth’s husband.
Charles once said Mountbatten was “the grandfather I never had”. The pair called each other “honorary grandfather” and “honorary grandson”.
Mountbatten (78) was assassinated by the IRA, who detonated a bomb on his leisure boat on August 27, 1979.
He was killed along with one of his twin grandsons, Nicholas (14) and Paul Maxwell (15), a local employed as a boat boy.
Another passenger, Baroness Brabourne (82), died the day after the attack. The bombing was followed only hours later by the massacre of 17 British soldiers near Warrenpoint, Co Down.
Kensington Palace declined to speculate on the significance of the name but Louis is also William’s fourth name.
The infant, fifth in line to the British throne, was born at 10.01am on Monday, April 23, weighing 8 lbs 7oz.
William told photographers on the day the couple were “very delighted” with the new addition to the family.
“Thrice the worry now,” William told reporters, holding up three fingers with a smile.
The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge. His second name, Arthur, is steeped in historical meaning and is also Prince William’s middle name. But Princess Diana wasn’t too fond it, telling Andrew Morton in his book ‘Diana’: “I chose the names William and Harry because the alternative was Arthur and Albert. No, thank you.”
His third name Charles, of course, is the given name of the baby’s grandfather, Prince Charles of Wales, who would be the third Charles to take the throne and is second in line.
Louis joins siblings Charlotte (2) and George (4) in the growing family. The queen, Philip, Charles and his wife Camilla have all expressed delighted with the birth of the sixth great-grandchild.
“It is a great joy to have another grandchild, the only trouble is I don’t know how I am going to keep up with them,” Charles said.
Such was the excitement at the arrival of a new royal baby that Blackpool Zoo named a newly born double-humped camel calf in honour of the new prince. A zoo spokeswoman said the camel was simply Louis, though some were already calling the camel “Prince Louis”.