C & T Auctioneers and Valuers Ltd
Lot 592
Historically Important Royal Navy Peaked Cap of Admiral of the Fleet The Right Honourable Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the cap is a ribbed white top WW2 period peaked cap with fine quality bullion embroidered kings crown cap badge to the black mohair cap band. Bullion embroidered double row of oakleaves to the peak. Patent chinstrap and plain side buttons. Interior of the cap has brown leather sweatband and blue cloth lining with a Gieves tailors label which has an embroidered name tape, “MOUNTBATTEN OF BURMA”. The cap shows service wear but is generally still a good example. Accompanying the peaked cap is the original submission slip for entry into Wallis & Wallis auctioneers on 28th April 1987 and a typed document detailing the entry from a Mr Philip Baker. The document states that this said cap had been purchased some 10 years earlier from the same auction house. Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British naval officer, colonial administrator and close relative of the British royal family. Mountbatten, who was of German descent, was born in England to the prominent Battenberg family and was a maternal uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a second cousin of King George VI. He joined the Royal Navy during the WW1 and was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command, in WW2. He later served as the last imperial Viceroy of India and briefly as the first Governor-General of the Dominion of India.Mountbatten attended the Royal Naval College, Osborne, before entering the Royal Navy in 1916. He saw action during the closing phase of WW1 and after the war briefly attended Christ's College, Cambridge. During the interwar period, Mountbatten continued to pursue his naval career, specialising in naval communications.Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Mountbatten commanded the destroyer HMS Kelly and the 5th Destroyer Flotilla. He saw considerable action in Norway, in the English Channel, and in the Mediterranean. In August 1941, he received command of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. He was appointed chief of Combined Operations and a member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee in early 1942, and organised the raids on St Nazaire and Dieppe. In August 1943, Mountbatten became Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command and oversaw the recapture of Burma and Singapore from the Japanese by the end of 1945. For his service during the war, Mountbatten was created viscount in 1946 and earl the following year.In March 1947, Mountbatten was appointed Viceroy of India and oversaw the Partition of India into India and Pakistan. He then served as the first Governor-General of India until June 1948. In 1952, Mountbatten was appointed commander-in-chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet and NATO Commander Allied Forces Mediterranean. From 1955 to 1959, he was 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 August 1979, Mountbatten was assassinated by a bomb planted aboard his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland, by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He received a ceremonial funeral at Westminster Abbey and was buried in Romsey Abbey in Hampshire.
