T
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1954.
Another China Mail Saturday Special Begins Today
SHE ELOPED
A
began
romance
with !
PRINCE!
the
Court of the Tair
It
HE Mountbatten line. They ran away together 100 years ago
11 the German Prince and the Commoner.
was the start of the amazing story of the Mountbattens. These extracts from Brian Connell's book "Manifest Destiny" trace the whole fabulous story of this remarkable family, the youngest of whose sons is now Prince Charles, heir to the Throne of Britain.
of all the Russians.
The young Prince Alexan- der of Hesse hud entered the service of the Russian Army and was appointed by Tear Nicholas 1 a colonel in
the Household Cavalry.
Thin Aashir cavalry oflleer became SL great favourite at the Russian Court,
But in 1801 be vloped with a beautiful young ward of the Empress and Wars cashiered. His bride was the Countess Julia Thereas Vou Hauke.
THE FABULOUS MOUNTBATTENS
Prince Alexander was by them in command of the Househodil Cavalry, and his elopemen; a do this young beauty, not of Rosal birth, caused a sensation. They flod ned 10
10 Breslaus, witter the ruled, and then those of Prince married,
AIKI
the Empr Alexander, who fell that if hi
Nicholas, furious, stripped ha1-
his command pred rank
of
But Prince Altxunde. 's fami- connections were there to
him, He was alsa elated to sle Empress of Austria,
white-coated DAPTRAN sprawling nunarchs eul good
used an
cavalry commatide:
' 123
th
Ho
of com-
p. a, that time recently in- the Navy and the trojanidble for its develop- men as a new trans munication between ships at sea. We perceive fur the dis. time Taste 1421 technical devices
Wi
testinguish lily
breume as navel officer should be a the Austrum Navy
However, itong Louis was set on ning the largest and mos!
ab.ch world had Jak have the
inter cancer. ever (5), ge! in the end his de Bei felations had then way
English enummer
emplos en. art Smber 25, 1868, feh
set oft for England CK October 14 for us taket
Wan Russian rank of major-gen ? d
Les he was apportand
AT THE NE
an infantry brigade of fituz, e. there, uti May 24 1873, eldest son, Loure
A
An old title
In 1055 his brother-in-law
Alexander 1 had become Tun
the
Exh
and. probably t Instigation restored Alexander Lubi 1 and rights 1 Russia.
With
ha mibitory carver the ascendant, and his repunta-
An
S
APATAN
혹시
By the time he returned to 1874, the privileges Europe an Was
and the seniority
in banquets any tlations ashore which has good hacks and title assured him, had turned him make a strapping six-hoter ahren Ins Fathaly barely re eognised.
to the holders purt and be
dur # Bratish subjen, SWOMBAJ alic game to Quen
La Vienna 260
he w
1.
EX
1 rember an after years
The normal procedure woul
tum to spend a have year in the cadet training ship
shizerrunn
Eu at this juncture his path mussed for the first tune that of Warks, whe of the Prince betone Edward VII
Edward
it kel
1
Ariadne.
Silent Queen
AIKO
Osborne,
he
tion re-established, he brother Aimsalty to appont the vin durer, he st
since 1848 Grand take hous
cadet to the frigate II of Hesse-fell
at &hich the heir to the Throne ant Egipt.
WITH
Prince Louis of Battenberg as a young man. He was to become First Sea Lord of the Admiralty....he was to be sneered at as a German and resign....he was to become the father of Lord Louis Mountbatten.
were The next three months
both the apex and the nodir of Prince Loul personal fortunes.
ment as the nerve centre of the Admiralty By the time he left It had become clear that here was an officer who must in due course occupy the very highest appointments both in pence and in war if it should come, and whose career was likely to be one of untarnished glory.
to
bru
public have said 'so many things against him being born a Gor rman, and that he ought not to be at the head of the Navy, that It was bot for him to go. I feel desply for him: there is no more loyai man in the country.
in June, 1010, came taão Rɩyul pronouncement changing his amily name, which he had been discussing with the King for
some weeks.
The title of Serene Highne:s and Prince was transformed to that of Marquess of Milford Haven, an old royal title derived from the great harbour on Britain's west coast,
Battenberg พลง
The name duly transliterated into Mount-
batten.
His younger son Loula (now Ear Mountbatten) was grantedt the courtesy title of Lord Louis
he has rente.
Mountbatten, the name by which
remained known collo-
quially ever since.
ח,
Prince Louis at least had the satisfaction of rehabilitation the naval service before he died, He was invited to take the chair a Navy Club dinner in Jiny, 1921.
When he stood up to answer the toast there was a roar cheering that lasted nearly five ninutes, which so affected him that he wat barely able to murmur his thanks
Modest life
Prince Louis' train of life was
modest
than ever.
re- contemporaries
the
now more One of his calis
sceing him outalde Unized Services Club at this time and offering to give up his tuxi to him: "Oh, no, my deur 10 buses these flow, ge days," Prince Louis replied.
He had taken a room in the anexe of the Navat und Mill- tary Club in Halt Moon Street,
wife while his
and daughter stayed at a nearby hotel.
inc
On Saturday, September 10, Prince Louis feft anwell, und ask the family to delay their
A next tiny de, arture.
tad her daughter anes Lady Lause went out to fetch
They medicine,
were some the The normal procedure al
The the greeted on their return by end of maneuvres was for
told housekeeper, who
them to ships manned by regulars tom fully that it would no longer disperse to their home parts for leave, while the nucleus Yet during this very perli ships would have discharged the io Prince Louls' room to collect
reservist, to their civilian home, thus reducing their complement
to the maintenance parties.
crew
is
On July 23, the Saturday be fore the Monday on wheh movement was due to take place, Prince Louis derided to remain
the Admiralty.
Mr Chur- chill, the First Lord, had gane
L
Cromer, where unwell.
ย
Welcomed with open arms at the gentle Bristol before passing for it- Sandringham by the Prince and the old spectre of resentment at Louis re- his foreign birth and connections Princess of Wales, turned with them to London, and rapid rise was mentarily
newly to raise is ugly head again. the
A fellow senior officer, He
who married Edmburgh couple.
down invited
to to this day must remain name- where,
ot family less, went to the extraorditury a letter to be between Queen length of sending a
in Vætorin
anonymously hee And
youngest publishest
several daughter Beatrice, who, to his
London
bo- papers Huling Prince Louls' achieve- discomfiture, never addressed a
his ments and sugge ting that word to him.
Her interet in
him was not foreign birth incapacitated h.m to be quickened until nearly ten from further service.
ars later.
had he then
married of
grand who favourite
Queen Louis.
gesture was due from his DWB family.
inferat
R
By his torgatahe mariage
of to a lay Prince Alexander's children, be the rules of the Hene dinets
were debarred
ony Royal title.
from
bearing
b.s wife
WT
to Viot
4
He did well
The
cruise coupisted.
The of Wales
years By Victoria, daughter of the great whose name she bore.
It was to be an ideally happy marriage, and his wife-later to
the แร
Dowager
However, ilte Grand Duke Piner and Places resuscitated for his sister-in-law left the Arudne, and daring the old falle fees N the Inter part of the voyage Hallenberg
with his Heval benetan de- the
Not a single cditor made 430 this document, except one,
forwarded
*Tat
he
down wife
Was
be required. She had gone up
a truy and found him dead.
endcu
де
Prince Louis died a compara-
chapter in the five y poor man, and with bim Listory of the fabulous Mount- the Almost al batten family.
very his same time there died
rich man, Bir Ernest Cannel
and of also of German birth,
E
of
All through that long lonely
teff day, with special editions of the humble origin.
Some of his millions he newspapers trumpeting disaster
Edwina. lo his grand-daughter, und dismay, Prince Loui, sat in
She was to become Lady Louis the Admiralty.
Lord and Prince his office in tu
One thing was certain: if this Mountbatten. And
Lady Louis were to have a great was the last recurrent crisis be-
life of their By 1907 Prince Lanis Was A
fore an outbreak of general influence in the Vice Admiral
Lie Duke second-in- and einmand of the Mediterranean hostilitica, Braun's first line of nephew — now
defence had to be ready, und Edinburgh. your 214
Next
instalment Saturday's Her children and descendants parted, the hill weight of be known
Station.
that would involve keeping the
tells the remarkable story of Sir became Prine and Prince **
Hartships of 11 224) N carver Marchioness of Milford Have become Commander-in-Chief of
flect mobiilsed.
Ernest Cassel, of the Ho of Battenberg descended upon him,
ated as a very uk lady in 1950, the Atlantic Fleet, and for four exeremed fleet command The eldest s therefore, be-
The Admiralty evinced Ittle une of the But meet living years came Prince Louis of Batten-
hum links artween Queen Victoria until in 1911 he was flying his tourth flug with the third and berg.
further:
and Queen Elizabeth 11, However, eventually Louis was Prince Lous has tour children, divi ions of the Home Fleet. appointed to the Royal Alfred, a daughter, Aller, horn in 1885, Dogship of the North American a second daughter, Louise, born and West Indies station.
four years later, a son George, born in 1392, and
In 1910 at the height of the war against Germany the family name was changed to Mount
batten.
Now British
By the time Prince Louis was
ha de fourteen-in 1888-he veloped a desire to go to scu.
The decisive influence seems Queen Victoria's to have been son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, # handsome post-captain
of
twenty-four, who was attending
д
int
in
jay.H
u{}
the
then. after eight years, a second sun, Louis, known to us us Earl Mountbatten to fully of Burma. into the
has life now was made up of the hard, spartan training of the midshipmen of those days, with anything
Princess Alice married Prince youngsters crammed
umoom In
perpetual Andrew of theece and they, in their turn had us their youngest twilight of the lower deck.
Duke now Child At least his
Philip, training in sou- manship was longer neg- Edinburgh,
Louis dit well in his fected. examinations and became Signal Mate as senior midshipman. He
course at Bonn University. displayed marked ingenuity in First the objections of Prince the management of an archaic Louis mother had to be over- and complicated morne signalling
Prince Lovis with fellow officers of the Navy in 1898-Fourteen years before he became First Sea. Lovd
Tragedy, too
of
Naval race
Hysteria
decision
It was an awesome to have to lake. No one, either then or thereafter, obtained any picture of the thoughts in Prince Louis' mind as the lension mounted.
The naval race with Germany was in Tuli Bood, and while the
All we know that by lunch- Kaiser's captains were toasting "Der Tag," which was to give time he had made up his mind.
By the early hours of August their country its place in the
of the their Brit h counterparts 3 the full mobilisation sun, were preparing grimly for the feet on a war footing was com- Louts had confilet which each political plete. Only Prince
crisis seemed to render more prevented the delay and disorder the involved in tracking down certain.
of reservists
who To many Prince Louis posi- thousands
returned tion must have looked anomal- would otherwise have
their homes, thoroughly ous, but
close his
of to Lies
Yet, this, his last and greatest match, marriage with the German royal
to save him withough Prince Louis always family caused him no second service, was not
from
which the obloquy
des- was
thoughts in the sulfiment of his her part duties.
conded in the first hysterical
Queen Victorin
at approved
the
thought
there that measure of relief en
that his choice had not fallen on His friends in the Navy were weeks of the war on all those of her youngest daughter, Princess to recount later that Prince German birth.
Beatrice.
The great Queen made some thing of protege of the hand- sume Battenberg prince.
his career.
to
him
pssisted
Louis' main ambition was to lead
Forty-six years of devoted
in war the fleet of the country service to the Royal Navy was of his adoption.
not going to save him when the
I
There
Bat
In the meantime changes in general atmosphere drove people hound pastry cooks with But after * certain point, the political scene had brought to is an open question how much Mr Winston Churchill for the
German
names as spice.
were toveral minor his Royal connections
first time to the head of affairs
reverses at sea. Three orchaic at the Admirally. Honour and recognition came
were torpedoed on He wrote to Prince Louls and cruisers
Sca and In full measure, yet
Admiral Cradock's small fleet there was to be tragedy in his invited him to dinner, at which patrol in the North
the le and more in that of his he offered him the position of wife. He, who had made him Second Sea Lord. Prince Louis went down to disaster at
1e of Coronel, The self the epitome
of the officer was delighted.
public was in no mood to whose
tolerato such set-backs, and he had chosen, service was hounded from high estate
Prince Louis was accused of at the summit of his career by
faulty dispositions, if not down- those who were Jealous of his
right treachery. eminence and saw, in his birth.
Club gossip hardened into ous letters of villication. an outlet for their hysterical
anonymous a first-clu:s sen olleer, was of a nationalism.
He made up his mind that if Rank by rank he rose in the somewhat lazy disposition and Navy, obviously a man of high seemed perfectly happy to con- rublle confidence in the Board affirmatives in- of Admiralty was to be restored on merit ne himself to
of dit he must resign, and on October Jected into the flood
etter that put an end to his
ability and clearly marked for high office.
By
War came
The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman, although
1901 he was in command cussion between Prince Louls 28 he sat down to pen the short
of the Implacable, one of a
που class of battleship, and
and Mr Churchli}.
when
Royal master
career. In the winter of 1912, came under the close notice of Sir Francis was obliged to resign the great admiral who was the through illness, Prince Louis appointed to succeed him most outstanding and most con- was Jroverall figure in the Navy be- and held that momentous office tween the turn of the century when war broke out:
As the fateful months of 1914 and the initial singes of the First World Wart-Sir John pasted, the trend of international Fisher.
events marched implacably to outstanding wards war.
Of all his contemporaries, only | his royal master and relation was over to record the true state of Prince Louis' feelings. On October 29 King George V noted in his diary:
Bpent a most worrying and Prince Louis' trying day.
At 11.30
Prince Louis' successes in the Mediterranean During July the Royal Navy tactical axeTRİSCH towards the held its annual manœuvres, but end of 1902 led Fisher to call this time, on
saw him to London us Director of orders, the nucleus crows of the Winston Churchill, who inform Naval Intelligence,
Reserve Float were called up to ed me that Louis of Batlenberg His three years as D,N,I. laid man their ships for the first had reigned his appointment as and First Gen Lord," The Press and the foundation of that deperi- ume for many-yours.
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