Lady Pamela Hicks, who has died aged 97, was a witness to history as the daughter of Lord Mountbatten and a bridesmaid to the future Queen Elizabeth II. She was the great-great granddaughter of Queen Victoria and her oldest surviving descendant. Her father, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, made her first cousin to Prince Philip, and she was also the great-niece of the last empress of Russia, Alexandra Feodorovna.
Early Life and Royal Connections
As a child, Pamela was a playmate of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. She later served as a lady-in-waiting to the young queen. Despite her privileged upbringing, she remained down-to-earth. At age 89, she was hospitalised with pneumonia and spent 20 hours on a trolley in a corridor, yet she praised the NHS staff as "brilliant."
Born on 19 April 1929 in the Ritz hotel in Barcelona, five weeks premature, her mother Edwina initially apologised that she wasn't a boy. The couple considered naming her Ritzy but settled on Pamela Carmen Louise. Her godparents included King Alfonso XIII of Spain and the Duke of Kent.
Childhood and Family
Pamela had a peripatetic childhood, often left with nannies while her father served at sea and her mother travelled with boyfriends. At age eight, she and her sister Patricia were left for four months in a Budapest hotel because their mother lost the address. She later admitted she never liked her mother, who she said could not have close conversations and needed constant flattery. In contrast, she hero-worshipped her father.
During World War II, she was evacuated to New York but returned homesick within a year. In 1946, she accompanied her parents to India, where her father served as the last viceroy. They lived in the vast viceregal lodge with 340 rooms and 25 servants solely for flower arrangements. Her mother developed a close friendship with Jawaharlal Nehru, which Pamela insisted was platonic. She attended a prayer meeting with Mahatma Gandhi and received a get-well card from him after falling off her horse.
Royal Wedding and Service
Pamela was a bridesmaid at Princess Elizabeth's wedding to Philip in 1947. She served as lady-in-waiting during the royal couple's trip to Kenya, where Elizabeth learned of her father's death. Pamela watched as Philip broke the news and saw Elizabeth's body stiffen as she realised she was queen. The following year, she accompanied them on a round-the-world Commonwealth tour, carrying the royal handbag, answering correspondence, and collecting bouquets.
Marriage and Later Life
In 1960, she married interior designer David Hicks, a break with tradition as he was not an aristocrat. They had three children: Edwina, Ashley, and India. The family faced tragedy in August 1979 when the IRA assassinated Lord Mountbatten on his fishing boat in Sligo, also killing Patricia's son Nicholas, his mother-in-law, and a local boy. Pamela, who had opted not to go on the boat, later forgave the killers, saying, "We loved the Irish... You have got to go forward – follow Gandhi's example."
David died in 1998. Pamela remained close to the royal family, attending Queen Elizabeth's funeral but not King Charles's coronation due to a reduced guest list. She watched on television without complaint. She wrote three memoirs: India Remembered (2007), Daughter of Empire (2012), and My Years With the Queen and Other Stories (2024).
