Royal Profile: Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma

Patricia Edwina Victoria Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma was born 14 Feburary 1924 as the elder of two daughters of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma & The Hon. Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley{Source}. She has one younger sister, was predeceased by a brother-in-law, and has two nieces, a nephew, five great nieces, and four great nephews{Source}:

1. The Lady Pamela Hicks (1929)
1. David Nightingale Hicks (1929-1998, m. 1960)
1. Edwina Victoria Louise Brudenell (1961)
1. Jeremy Alexander Rothwell Brudenell (1960, m. 1984, later div)
1. Maddison May Brudenell (1994)
2. Jordan Anne Brudenell (1995)
3. Rowan Michael David Brudenell (2001)
2. Ashley Louis David Hicks (1963)
1. Marina Allegra Federica Silvia Tondato (1960, m. 1990-2009, div)
1. Angelica Hicks (1992)
2. Ambrosia Hicks(1997)
3. India Amanda Caroline Hicks (1967)
1. David Flint Wood (partner since at least 1996)
1. Felix Austen Flint Wood (1997)
2. Amory John Flint Wood (1999)
3. Conrad Lorenzo Flint Wood (2003)
4. Domino Carmen Flint Wood (2007)

She was educated in Malta, England and the United States. In 1943, at age 19, she entered the Women's Royal Naval Service as a Signal Rating and served in Combined Operations bases in Britain until being commissioned as a third officer in 1945 and serving in the Supreme Allied Headquarters, South East Asia. It was where she would later meet the man who would become her husband, who happened to have been an aide at the time.

This is where she met Lord Brabourne, who was an aide to her father at the time. In 1973 was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Kent; she is also a serving magistrate and is involved with numerous service organisations including SOS Children's Villages UK, of which she was Patron; the Order of St John, of which she is a Dame; and the Countess Mountbatten's Own Legion of Frontiersmen of the Commonwealth, of which she was Patron.

In June 1974, she succeeded her distant cousin, Lady Patricia Ramsay as colonel-in-chief of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, she was later succeeded by the Rt. Hon Adrienne Clarkson in 2007{Source}.

Patricia was aboard the boat that had been blown up ny the IRA off the shores of Sligo in August 1979, which killed her 14 year old son, father, mother-in-law and a boat-boy, Paul Maxwell. She, her husband and other son, Timothy, were injured but survived. After recovering, she became patron and later president of The Compassionate Friends, which is an organization for bereaved parents in the UK.

During Queen Elizabeth II's official visit to Ireland in June 2012, The 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma said that the Queen had her full support for meeting Martin McGuinness, who had been a high raking member of the commander of the group that attacked her family in 1979 {Source}. In September 2012, she unveiled a memorial to the work of the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties at Hayling Island in Hampshire {Source}

In October 1946, she married John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne (1924-2005). Among her bridesmaids were:

• The Princess Elizabeth (her first cousin)
• The Princess Margaret (Elizabeth's sister)
• Lady Pamela Mountbatten (her younger sister)
• Princess Alexandra of Kent (her first cousin)

She and her husband would later become one of the few marriages in which both held a peerage in their own right, and their descendants inherited both titles. Together, they have eight children, eight children-in-law, and eighteen grandchildren:

1. Norton Louis Philip Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1947)
1. Penelope Eastwood (1953, m. 1979)
1. Nicholas Louis Charles Norton Knatchbull, Lord Brabourne, Lord Romsey (1981) 
2. Lady Alexandra Victoria Edwina Diana Knatchbull (1982)
1. Thomas Hooper (2016).
3. The Hon. Leonora Louise Marie Elizabeth Knatchbull (1986-1991, cancer)
2. The Hon. Anthony Knatchbull (1952-1952)
3. Lady Joanna Edwina Doreen Knatchbull (1955) 
1. Baron Hubert Pernot du Breuil (1956 -2004, m. 1984-1995, div) 
1. Baroness Eleuthera Roselyne Patricia Pernot du Breuil (1986)
2. Azriel Zuckerman (1943, m. 1995) 
   1. Alexander Azriel John David Zuckerman (5 October 2002)
4. Lady Amanda Patricia Victoria Knatchbull (1957)
1. Charles Vincent Ellingworth (1957, m. 1987)
1. Luke John William Ellingworth (1991)
2. Joseph William Vincent Ellingworth (1992)
3. Louis Charles Nicholas Ellingworth (Oct 1995)
5. The Hon. Philip Wyndham Ashley Knatchbull (1961), 
1.  Atalanta Cowan (1962, m. 1991-1999) 
1. Daisy Isadora Louise Knatchbull (1992)
2. Phoebe Knatchbull (1995)
2. Wendy Amanda Leach (1966, m. 2002)
   1. Frederick Michael Hubert Knatchbull (6 June 2003)
   2. John Robin Rocky Knatchbull (17 July 2004)
6. The Hon. Nicholas Timothy Charles Knatchbull (1964-1979, killed by an IRA Bomb)
7. The Hon. Timothy Nicholas Sean Knatchbull (1964)
1.  Isabella Julia Norman (1971, m. 1998),
   1. Amber Diana Patricia Knatchbull (2000)
   2. Milo Columbus John Knatchbull (2001)
   3. Ludovic David Nicholas Knatchbull (2003)
   4. Isla Selina Edwina Knatchbull (2005)
   5. Wilhelmina "Willa" Victoria Agatha Knatchbull (2008)

She was one of the eldest surviving five great-great grandchildren of Queen Victoria. The "new" five eldest living great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria are:

1. Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh (1921, Patricia's cousin)
2. King Michael of Romania (1921, 3rd cousins from both sides of Michael's family)
3. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (1926, 3rd cousins)
4. Lady Pamela Carmen Louise Hicks (1929, Patricia's sister)
5. Anne Mary Sibylla Liddell-Grainger (1932, Patricia's 3rd cousin, Anne is the daughter of Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone and Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone)

Her funeral was held on 28 June 2017. Aside from her immediate relations of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren and nieces and nephews and their families, in attendance were  Queen Elizabeth II, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales,  The Duke of York, The Princess Royal,  The Countess of Wessex, The Duke of Kent, Prince Michael of Kent, Princess Alexandra of Kent, The Hon. Lady Ogilvy, and The Lady Helen Taylor{Photos}.