Louis Mountbatten

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS was a British statesman and naval officer, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (the husband of Elizabeth II). He was the last Viceroy of India (1947) and the first Governor-General of the independent Union of India (1947–48), from which the modern Republic of India would emerge in 1950. From 1954 until 1959, he was the First Sea Lord, a position that had been held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, some forty years earlier. Thereafter, he served as Chief of the Defence Staff until 1965, making him the longest serving professional head of the British Armed Forces to date. During this period, Mountbatten also served as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee for a year.

In 1979, Mountbatten was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who planted a bomb in his fishing boat, the Shadow V. This was the fourth vessel sunk underneath him. His first, the HMS Kelly, was sunk on 23 May 1941 during the Battle of Crete.