Mountbatten killed

Press, 28 August 1979, Page 1

Mountbatten killed

NZPA-Reuter Dublin Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of India, was killed yesterday in an explosion in his boat off the County Sligo coast in the Irish Republic, the police have said. Admiral of the Fleet Lord Mountbatten, a favourite uncle of Prince Philip, was 79. The police said that the explosion had happened five minutes after he and his party set off from Mullaghmore Harbour in a small boat. A spokesman said that another man, a local boatman named Paul Maxell, had also died in the blast. The police said that Lord Mountbatten’s son-in-law and daughter, Lord and Lady Brabourne, were with him as well as their sons Timothy and Nicholas. An early unconfirmed report said that Nicholas was missing after the explosion. The police said they were working on a theory that there was «i time-bomb on the boat, Associated Press

reports. A police spokesman added: “But everything is very confused. A lot of vessels are out there searching for wreckage.” They said that two bodies had been recovered. Lord Mountbatten has

for some years owned a house in the area. Bom at Windsor in 1900, Lord Mountbatten was the great-grandson of Queen Victoria. Like his father, who was Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Mountbatten joined the Royal Navy. In World War II he commanded a destroyer flotilla. His flagship H.M.S. Kelly, was sunk under him by Stukas during the Battle for Crete. Later he helped to plan the invasions of North Africa and France before becoming the Supreme Allied Commander of South-East Asian Command.

The command brought him the rank of acting admiral, making him the youngest admiral in the history of the Royal Navy. In 1955 he became First Sea Lord, and in 1959 Chief of the United Kingdom Defence Staff.