George Mountbatten

Captain George Louis Victor Henry Serge Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, GCVO (6 December 1892 – 8 April 1938), styled Earl of Medina between 1917 and 1921, was the elder son and third child of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven (Prince Louis of Battenberg) and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine at Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. His subsidiary titles included Viscount Alderney. He died aged 45 of bone marrow cancer and was buried in Bray Cemetery, Bray, Berkshire.

Biography

His siblings were Princess Alice (mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to whom he was a mentor in Philip's adolescence, a role assumed after his death by his younger brother Louis), Queen Louise of Sweden and Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

He married Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna de Torby (daughter of Russian Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich Romanov and Sophie von Merenberg, Countess de Torby) on 15 November 1916 in London. They lived at Lynden Manor at Holyport in Berkshire and had two children:

• Lady Tatiana Elizabeth Mountbatten (Edinburgh, 16 December 1917 – Northampton, 15 May 1988)
• David Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven (12 May 1919 – 14 April 1970). He was a close friend of his cousin Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh who was two years his junior, and acted as best man at his wedding to Queen Elizabeth II.

He was an accomplished mathematician, who "could work out complicated gunnery problems in his head" and "read books on calculus casually on trains".

Queen Elizabeth II said of him, "He was one of the most intelligent and brilliant of people."

Legacy to British Museum

He left artefacts including a collection of pornography to the British Museum.

Titles and styles

• 6 December 1892 – 1917: His Serene Highness Prince George of Battenberg
• 14 July – 7 November 1917: Sir George Mountbatten
• 7 November 1917 – 11 September 1921: Earl of Medina
• 11 September 1921 – 8 April 1938: The Most Honourable The Marquess of Milford Haven

Honours

• Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, 1916
• Order of St Vladimir, 4th class, with Swords, authorised to wear 5 June 1917
• Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers, Grand Cordon, 1917.
• Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, 1932