SHARING UNSEEN PHOTOS OF THE ROYALS LADY PAMELA HICKS AND DAUGHTER INDIA TELL THE STORIES BEHIND MAJOR MOMENTS IN A SINGULAR LIFE

Lady Pamela Hicks has been witness to some of the most significant events in British royal history in a life defined, says her daughter India, by “loyalty and family, endurance, quiet wisdom and curiosity”.

- ROSALIND POWELL

The younger daughter of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of India, Lady Pamela lived in India with her parents from the age of 17, before returning to the UK and acting as a ladyin-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II both before and after her coronation. She was also a bridesmaid at the then Princess Elizabeth’s wedding to Prince Philip – Pamela’s cousin – in 1947.

Fascinated by her mother’s extraordinary life, India, a philanthropist and designer, embarked on a project to mark some of these milestones in a visual biography, filled with previously unseen pictures and fascinating anecdotes.

She unearthed “an awful lot of ephemera and archive material” and enlisted help from a reluctant Lady Pamela, 95 (affectionately known as “Lady P”), who accused her daughter of “persuasive assault”.

India, whose godfather is the King, says: “There’s a lot of resilience, and [her life] has been all about duty and service. She says these are two words we don’t hear enough any more.”

Here, India shares some previously unseen photographs of her mother and the royal family and tells us the stories behind them.

MOTHERLY LOVE

“My mother would say she had a wonderful mother, just a slightly distant mother,” says India of Edwina Mountbatten (right with a young Lady Pamela).

“There weren’t that many times when her mum actually held her.

“She spent the first part of my mum’s life dancing her way around the world with other people, and the last part of her life dedicating herself to the world in a very different way.

“She recognised her skill set, her contacts list and the advantages of money, and was able to do some incredible things.”