India Hicks was "very aware" of her grandfather, Lord Mountbatten, and her father, David Hick's fame. Lord Mountbatten was a "huge, dashing character," while her interior designer father was always in the magazines.
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Her mother, Lady Pamela, was always "simply Mum." She was never fully a part of David's "fast-paced, exotic life," preferring horses and the "company of Daphne du Maurier."
In 2023, Lady Pamela's third book, My Life with the Queen and Other Stories, was scheduled for publication. Her first two books, India Remembered and Daughter of Empire My Life as a Mountbatten were published in 2007 and 2013, respectively.
The third book was scratched and replaced with a stunning, richly illustrated Lady Pamela, recently published by Rizzoli. The price of the book is $60/£46.
India Hicks, the youngest of Lady Pamela and David Hicks's three children, persuaded her mom to "dig deep into her muniment room", where she kept letters, invitations, family photographs, and other testaments to what has been an extraordinarily privileged life.
Yes, it is true, family connections made this privilege possible. Pamela Carmen Louise Mountbatten was born in Barcelona on April 19, 1929, the second and youngest child of Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wealthy wife, Hon. Edwina Ashley. Her older sister, Patricia, was born in 1924.
She was styled as Lady Pamela Mountbatten when her father was created Earl Mountbatten of Burma in 1947.
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Family connections brought Lady Pamela to a life of responsibility and service. Her godparents included King Alfonso XIII of Spain (whose wife, Ena, was her father's first cousin) and the Duke of Kent. Her childhood playmates included Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret of York.
Her paternal grandmother, Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, lived in Kensington Palace, where her grandson, Prince Philip of Greece was a frequent visitor.
Her parents were larger-than-life figures, who spent more time away from home, leaving Pamela and Patricia in the care of nannies and governesses. At one point, Edwina forgot that she had left her daughters in a Hungarian hotel.
Pamela's parents embraced lives of "purpose, service and duty," that would be in full view during the Second World War and India's independence. Her parents' private lives, which included numerous lovers, were frequent fodder for the tabloids. Louis and Edwina maintained an open marriage that was in one sense, normal for their two daughters. Edwina's long-time lover, Harold "Bunny" Phillips brought the family "great joy," according to Pamela.
During the early years of the war, Pamela and Patricia were sent to New York to stay with Mrs.Cornelius Vanderbilt. Their parents visited briefly in August 1941, and Pamela was miserable and homesick after they left. She returned to England at the end of the year.
The end of the war brought great changes to Pamela and her parents. In 1946, Patricia married the future Lord Brabourne.
The following year, Lady Pamela accompanied her parents to India, where Louis and Edwina, served as the last Viceroy and Vicereine, preparing to partition British India into two countries, India and Pakistan.
Only 18 years old, Lady Pamela had a front-row seat in the two countries' independence, which led to political and religious turmoil that followed the official partition. During the "midst of all the devastation," Pamela received a "sweet letter" from Princess Elizabeth who asked her to be a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Philip.
One of the letters photographed for the book is from Princess Elizabeth, who wrote she was "delighted that you are going to be my bridesmaid." The princess' letter included a request for Pamela's measurements for the dressmaker. Not long after the wedding, Pamela and her parents returned to India, remaining there until June 1948
The family settled in Broadlands. Lady Pamela, only 19, had been "useful in India, and now she needed something to occupy her time." They returned to Malta where Lord Mountbatten was appointed commander of the First Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean.
In Malta, Lady Pamela spent some time with Princess Elizabeth where Prince Philip was based as a naval officer. In 1952, Elizabeth and Philip undertook a "long-planned Commonwealth Tour," representing King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Although it was not publicly known, the King was very ill, suffering from lung cancer. Lady Pamela was asked to accompany the Princess as her lady-waiting.
She had qualms about accepting the Princess's request. Lady Pamela had looked forward to settling down at home, but as India wrote: "She had no choice, really, as duty called."
At a reception before the tour, Queen Mary took Lady Pamela and told her firmly: "As you will from now be in waiting, you are to stop calling her Lilibet and only refer to her as Princess Elisabeth or ma'am."
The King. Queen and Princess Margaret waved them off at the airport on January 31, 1952. The first stop was in Kenya. After several "frenzied" days in Nairobi, Elizabeth and Philip traveled to Sagana Lodge, near Mount Kenya, The Lodge was a wedding present from the government of Kenya. During the night of February 5-6, Elizabeth and Philip, accompanied by Lady Pamela and Mike Parker, Philip's private secretary, stayed at Treetops, a small house built into the trees by Major Eric Sherbrooke Walker for his wife. They were the guests of Sherbrooke Walker and his wife, Lady Bettie, daughter of the 9th Earl of Denbigh.
King George VI died on the night of February 6. Elizabeth and Philip were at Treetops when she became queen. The royal party returned to Sagana Lodge, where Mike Parker broke the news of the King's death to Philip, who, in turn, took his wife for a walk in the garden, and told her about her father's death.
The tour would not continue, and Lady Pamela and Parker helped prepare the new queen and her consort for their return to London. After the Coronation, the Commonwealth tour resumed with Lady Pamela and Lady Alice Egerton as ladies in waiting. After the tour was over, Lady Pamela returned to a private life. It was a cocktail party in 1959 where she met her future husband, designer David Hicks.
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The couple married in 1960. They bought a house, Britwell, in Oxfordshire, where David "set about creating the most enchanting, comfortable and exquisite home" for Lady Pamela. The couple had three children, Edwina (1961), Ashley (1963) and India (1967).
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Although Lady Pamela preferred her life in the country, she and David traveled worldwide. She supported numerous charities and remained close to her sister and brother-in-law. There would be countless royal invitations including the annual Trooping the Colour. Holidays were often spent in France, where David had purchased a home, and Classiebawn castle in County Sligo, which Edwina had inherited from her father, Wilfrid Ashley. It was at Classiebawn where Lady Pamela's father, Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA. On August 27, 1979, the IRA placed a bomb on Mountbatten fishing boat at Mullaghmore. Lord Mountbatten, his grandson, the Hon. Nicholas Knatchbull, and Paul Maxwell, a local boy. who worked on the boat, were killed instantly. Lady Patricia and her husband were critically injured and her mother-in-law died the following day.
Lady Pamela and her children had remained behind at the castle, where they learned Dickie was dead.
India devotes one chapter to this tragedy, writing about how the family found the strength to cope. Lady Pamela took her children aside as she broke the news, telling them they "needed to be brave and strong. It was difficult for her to process that her older sister was "buried under a myriad of tubes and wires." Having to tell Patricia and John that their 14-year-old son, Nicky, was dead was one of the most difficult things she ever did. "It was the worst moment of my life," Lady Pamela wrote in her diary after she told Patricia Nicky's death.
In 1979, Lady Pamela and her husband faced financial problems that led to the selling of Britwell, and moving to a new home, The Grove, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. When David Hicks died in 1998, his wife "thought he might like something good to read, so she slipped into his pockets his obituaries from The Times, both London and New York," and other press clippings, "one with the headline "Designer Plans Own Funeral" because, of course, even when dead, he was still news."
This book is breathtakingly beautiful. India has dug deep into her mother's muniment room, offering her readers a stunning array that celebrates Lady Pamela's life. Her prose is excellent as she writes about her mother and her family, sharing details from her mother's diaries.
I corresponded with the late Lord Mountbatten and his two daughters when I wrote my books on Queen Victoria's Descendants. The family shared a selection of photos that I could use. India offered multitudinous photographs from the family albums. I found myself reading a few pages, and then going back to look again at the photos I just looked at.
This is not merely a book about Lady Pamela's life. It is a celebration of a family history tied to the Royal Family—thanks to Queen Victoria and a few others. There are also the political and social connections acquired through Lord Mountbatten's career and his wife's wealth.
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Thanks to India Hicks's devotion to her Mum, we learn Lady Pamela "chose a softer life of horses and dogs and the countryside," preferring the comfort of the Grove to David's "dazzling, fast-paced, exotic world" and Lord Mountbatten's "public obligations."
Lady Pamela remained close to the late Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. She was present for Queen Elizabeth's funeral and committal service but was not invited to King Charles' Coronation.
India offers a filtered lens of her mother's life. This filter is Lady Pamela's life of duty and responsibility to her family, to her country, and to her Sovereign. She served her queen as a lady-in-waiting and was with Elizabeth learned her father died and she was Queen. Lady Pamela carried out her duties with respect and perhaps aplomb. After Elizabeth's Coronation tour ended, India's mom realized "with immediate effect, she could lead a more normal life again."
Lady Pamela was published by Rizzoli, a publisher with a superb reputation for producing classy (and classic) art and coffee table books. Rizzoli and India Hicks do not disappoint. The book dazzles and sparkles. Every page - text and photos - is a delight.
India Hicks has allowed all of us to share in the celebration of Lady Pamela's 95 years. There is no doubt that Lady Pamela is a "cherished institution.
This book is a must-have for all royal book collections, especially with the collections that focus on royal history, biographies, and reflections on life,
Treat yourself. You will not regret it.
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