The Mountbattens by Andrew Lownie

Author:Andrew Lownie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blink Publishing
Published: 2019-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

We saw eye to eye on most important matters. I found him an endless source of entertainment with his peacock Mountebankery which kept popping up at unexpected moments in sharp contrast to his normal sane and statesmanlike person . . . By the end of my time with Mountbatten I had reached the conclusion that, in spite of several failings, he was a great man and a statesman. He was dynamic, easy to deal with and always open to argument, with a tremendous gift of charm and inspired leadership.523

Their old house, Casa Medina, had survived the war, but was now converted into flats, so they first stayed at the newly opened Phoenicia Hotel before moving, shortly after Christmas, across the road from the Case Medina to the Villa Guardamangia. Royal Marine Ron Perks was assigned as Mountbatten’s driver and lived at the Villa Guardamangia whilst it was being decorated.524

Perks would often drive Mountbatten to his scuba diving or to polo practice, ‘where he spent hours practising on a stationary horse in an enclosed area with the ball ricocheting round. You could be very relaxed with him. He never stood on ceremony.’525 He recollected how once driving through a 40-mph area, Mountbatten, who loved to drive fast, told him to ‘Step on it’:

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