Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Author reveals battle for Mountbatten diaries with university

By Amit Roy

AUTHOR Andrew Lownie has spoken to Eastern Eye about his so far unsuccessful four-year battle with Southampton University to secure access to the letters and diaries of Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India at the time of Partition in 1947, and his wife, Lady Edwina Mountbatten.


Southampton University, which bought the papers a decade ago using public funds to the value of £4.5m, should not, in theory, quibble about making them available to researchers and scholars, Lownie says. But the university claims it has been ordered by the Cabinet Office to keep some documents secret.

Lownie argues the government has no business getting involved in what should or shouldn’t be made public by an educational institution dedicated to learning and scholarship.

Lownie told Eastern Eye he detects the influence ultimately of the royal family behind Southampton’s decision to make it as difficult as possible for him to get access to all the documents. After all, Mountbatten was an uncle to the late Prince Philip and great uncle to Prince Charles.

In his biography, The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves published last year, Lownie painted a portrait of an unusual, but intimate marriage, in which “Dickie” and Edwina took lovers outside marriage. Unlike other Mountbatten biographers, Lownie also took the view that Edwina’s relationship with Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first prime minister, was rather more than platonic.

It is possible that the Cabinet Office fears publishing the most sensitive documents might harm Britain’s relationship with India or Pakistan. The true nature of Nehru’s relationship with Edwina also remains a delicate subject. “There are claims that there are references to India and Pakistan,” said Lownie. “That is one of the objections.”

Andrew Lownie author Mountbatten 15 May 2021 Andrew Lownie

He added: “I’m only speculating here, but there may be stories about pressure being put on him (Mountbatten) perhaps by the princes or by Nehru. Who knows (but there were) the debates about Kashmir and all the other issues of the boundary. There’s a lot of important political information, I suspect, in these diaries, the relationship they (the Mountbattens) had with Indian leaders, what they really thought of (founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali) Jinnah.

“I suspect there’s some disparaging comments made perhaps by Edwina in the 1950s.”

Asked why the Cabinet Office got involved, Lownie said: “This is what’s so weird because these are private diaries. The Cabinet Office have muscled in and claimed that these are documents of a public figure and therefore they have a say in it.

“It’s a great mystery. I think what is beginning to emerge (is this) – we had a letter last week from the Cabinet Office saying they’re under pressure from the royal family. So the royal family are behind this.”

Lownie’s solicitors, Bates Wells, have posed a barbed question to government lawyers: “It is not clear why the fact that a private diary contains a reference to the royal family makes it necessary to seek approval of the royal household prior to publication.”

A University of Southampton spokesperson said: “As part of the allocation of the archives in August 2011, the university was directed to keep a small number of the papers closed until we were otherwise advised. The university has always aimed to make public as much of the collection as is possible while balancing all its legal obligations.’’

It may be one thing for the university to deny full access to Lownie, who has spent £250,000 of his own money in his legal battle with the university and is trying to raise further resources through crowd justice. But it would be quite another if Indian or Pakistani historians were to request sight of the withheld letters and diaries. Refusal would raise the tricky question: “Whose history is it anyway?”

Mountbatten book by Andrew Lownie cover 6 Jan 2020

The Mountbatten letters and diaries were initially loaned to the university in 1989, but were bought in 2011 with the help of grants of almost £2 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and £100,000 from Hampshire county council. It was also subject to the “acceptance in lieu” scheme under which art works and archives are accepted by the nation in lieu of inheritance tax, taking the total cost to about £4.5m, according to Lownie.

Chris Woolger, professor of history and archival studies at the university, said at the time: “It is impossible to underestimate the archives’ historical and national impact; in particular, without them we would find it difficult to understand fully the foundations of the independent states of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.”

Lownie has used the Freedom of Information Act to try to get access. Southampton University and the Cabinet Office have lodged an appeal against a ruling from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that all the documents should be made public. The university has released 10,000 pages of documents but these go only up to 1934 – and have been edited.

Lownie said: “The diaries run to 47 volumes for him and 36 for her, plus 59 files of correspondence so this is a tiny percentage (of the archives).”

In a witness statement to the courts in December last year, Lownie stated: “On 28 April 2017, I wrote to Karen Robson, archivist at the university, requesting access to ‘the retained papers of Lord and Lady Mountbatten which include …. the diaries of Lord Mountbatten (47 volumes, 1920-68), the diaries of Lady Mountbatten (36 volumes, 1921-1960), the correspondence between them (59 files), the letters from Lady Mountbatten to Jawaharlal Nehru (33 files, 1948- 1960), former prime minister of India, along with copies of his letters to her (15 files, 1947-1960)”.

The statement went on: “Initially in May 2017, the university simply told me that the diaries of Lord Mountbatten, the diaries of Lady Mountbatten, and the 59 files of correspondence between them ….were ‘closed to public access’ under a 2011 ministerial direction policed by the Cabinet Office.”

There is more than a suggestion the university’s academics wanted to do a book themselves ahead of Lownie: “Then, to my surprise, I discovered that in January 2018 the university had sent a proposal to the Cabinet Office seeking to allow it to publish an edition of the 1947-48 diaries of Lord and Lady Mountbatten along with accompanying commentary by university staff, rather than allowing me to access this under FOIA for the purpose of my book.”

More For You

ve-day-getty

VE Day 80 street parties, picnics and community get togethers are being encouraged to take place across the country as part of the Great British Food Festival. (Photo: Getty Images)

Public invited to attend VE Day 80 procession and flypast

THE 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day will be marked with a military procession in London on May 5.

The event will include over 1,300 members of the Armed Forces, youth groups, and uniformed services marching from Parliament Square to Buckingham Palace.

Keep ReadingShow less
Knife crimes

Knife-enabled crimes include cases where a blade or sharp instrument was used to injure or threaten, including where the weapon was not actually seen.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Knife crime in London accounts for a third of national total: ONS

KNIFE-RELATED crime in London made up almost a third of all such offences recorded in England and Wales in 2024, with the Metropolitan Police logging 16,789 incidents, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday.

This amounts to one offence every 30 minutes in the capital and represents 31 per cent of the 54,587 knife-enabled crimes reported across England and Wales last year. The total number marks a two per cent rise from 53,413 offences in 2023.

Keep ReadingShow less
Starmer and Modi

Starmer and Modi shake hands during a bilateral meeting in the sidelines of the G20 summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Brazil, on November 18, 2024.

Getty Images

Starmer calls Modi over Kashmir attack; expresses condolences

PRIME MINISER Keir Starmer spoke to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning following the deadly attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam region that killed 26 people on Tuesday.

According to a readout from 10 Downing Street, Starmer said he was horrified by the devastating terrorist attack and expressed deep condolences on behalf of the British people to those affected, their loved ones, and the people of India. The two leaders agreed to stay in touch.

Keep ReadingShow less
 Post Office Horizon

A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London, England. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Post Office spent £600m to keep Horizon despite plans to replace it: Report

THE POST OFFICE has spent more than £600 million of public funds to continue using the Horizon IT system, according to a news report.

Despite deciding over a decade ago to move away from the software, the original 1999 contract with Fujitsu prevented the Post Office from doing so, as it did not own the core software code, a BBC investigation shows.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pahalgam attack: Prayer meet held at Indian mission in London

The prayer meet was led by Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami

Pahalgam attack: Prayer meet held at Indian mission in London

Mahesh Liloriya

A PRAYER meet was held at the Gandhi Hall in the High Commission of India in London on Thursday (24) to pay respects to the victims of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

Chants of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ rang out at the event which was led by Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami.

Keep ReadingShow less