Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Right Honourable
 The 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma 
CBE, MSC, CD, JP, DL
Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma
Born 14 February 1924 (1924-02-14) (age 84)
Spouse John Brabourne (1946-2005)
Relations Louis Mountbatten (1900-1979)
Edwina Ashley (1901-1960)
Children Norton Brabourne (b.1947)
Michael-John Knatchbull (b.1950)
Joanna Knatchbull (b.1955)
Amanda Knatchbull (b.1957)
Philip Knatchbull (b.1961)
Timothy Knatchbull (b.1964)
Nicholas Knatchbull (1964-1979)

Patricia Edwina Victoria Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, CBE, MSC, CD, JP, DL (born 14 February 1924) is a British peeress and daughter of the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and his wife, the former Edwina Ashley. She is the elder sister of Lady Pamela Hicks, and first cousin to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Known before 1946 as Patricia Mountbatten, in 1946 as the Hon. Patricia Mountbatten, and between 1946 and 1979 as Baroness Brabourne, Lady Mountbatten succeeded her father when he was assassinated in 1979, as his peerages had been created with special remainder to his daughters and their heirs male. This inheritance put her in the House of Lords, where she remained until 1999, when the House of Lords Act 1999 removed most hereditary peers from the House.

Contents

[edit] Marriage and children

On 26 October 1946 she married John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne (9 November 1924–23 September 2005), at the time an aide to her father in the Far East. They had seven children:

[edit] Activities

Lady Mountbatten was educated in Malta, England and New York. In 1943, at age 19, she entered the Women's Royal Naval Service as a Signal Rating and served in Combined Operations bases in the UK until being commissioned as a third officer in 1945 and serving in the Supreme Allied Headquarters, South East Asia. This is where she met Lord Brabourne, who was an aide to her father. In 1973 was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Kent; she is also a serving magistrate and is involved with numerous service organisations including SOS Children's Villages UK, of which she is Patron; the Order of St John, of which she is a Dame; and the Countess Mountbatten's Own Legion of Frontiersmen of the Commonwealth, of which she is Patron.

On 15 June 1974 she succeeded her cousin Lady Patricia Ramsay, formerly HRH Princess Patricia of Connaught, as Colonel-in-Chief of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, for whom the regiment was named when Princess Patricia's father, the Duke of Connaught, was Governor General of Canada during the First World War. Despite her succeeding to an earldom in her own right as Countess Mountbatten of Burma on the death of her father in 1979, she preferred that the officers and men of her regiment address her as Lady Patricia. She was succeeded by The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson on 17 March 2007. On August 28, 2007, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada, presented her with the Canadian Meritorious Service Cross for her services as Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry.

Lady Brabourne was in the boat which was blown up by the IRA off the shores of Sligo in 1979, killing her fourteen-year-old son Nicholas; her father; her mother-in-law, the Dowager Baroness Brabourne; and fifteen-year-old Paul Maxwell, a boat-boy from County Fermanagh. She, her husband, and their son Timothy were injured but survived the attack.

[edit] Titles and honours

[edit] Shorthand titles

  • Miss Patricia Mountbatten (1924 - 1946)
  • The Hon. Patricia Mountbatten (1946 - 1946)
  • The Rt Hon. The Lady Brabourne (1946 - 1979)
  • The Rt Hon. The Countess Mountbatten of Burma (1979 - present)
  • with regards to blood right - Her Serene Highness Princess Patricia Edwina Victoria of Battenberg

A peer's daughter drops in rank and precedence when she marries a peer of significantly lower rank, with rare exceptions (such as inheritance of a title in her own right, or Letters Patent entitling her to a higher rank). Lady Mountbatten was born the daughter of a younger son of a Marquess and thus had no courtesy title. She became the daughter of a Viscount (when her father was so created), and was thus known as The Hon. Patricia Mountbatten. When she married a Baron, she assumed the style, rank, and precedence of a Baron's wife (Baroness) which was higher than that of a Viscount's daughter. However, when her father was raised to an Earldom, this had no effect on her rank and precedence until he died and she succeeded him by special remainder. By contrast, her younger sister rose to the style, rank, and precedence of an Earl's daughter and this was not affected by her marriage to a commoner.

  • If George V had not repealed German royal titles for his immediate family and relatives, the Countess Mountbatten would be entitled to a legal royal title. Despite the discarding of German titles under the King as well Germany since becoming a republic the Countess as a legitimate child of a minor German royal and ‘Princess of the blood’ as the daughter of the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who himself was the son of Prince Louis of Battenberg she is of royal blood and can be styled Her Serene Highness Princess Patricia Edwina Victoria of Battenberg, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, respectively.

[edit] British Honours

[edit] Commonwealth Realms Honours

[edit] Colonelcies-in-chief

[edit] References

  1. ^ Canadian Press; Globe and Mail: Clarkson named colonel-in-chief of PPCLI; February 7, 2007

[edit] External links

British royalty
Preceded by
Louise Mountbatten		 Line of succession to the British throne Succeeded by
The Lord Brabourne
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Louis Mountbatten		 Countess Mountbatten of Burma
1979 – present		 Incumbent
Designated heir:
Norton Knatchbull