Louis Mountbatten

8.9: LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN

Blown up while sailing on his fishing boat along the coast of County Sligo in Ireland in 1979, the assassination of Lord Mountbatten resulted in international condemnation of the IRA, which claimed responsibility for the blast. Three other people — two teenaged boys and a woman in her eighties — were also killed. Many wondered why the IRA had chosen to kill Mountbatten, an old man who had long ago retired from public life, and who regularly summered in Ireland. It was especially strange that the Irish Republican group would choose to carry out the assassination on the same day as, and overshadowing, a bombing attack against a British Army barracks. 

Many years later, it was revealed that there was another aspect of Mountbatten’s life, quite apart from his royal status, that might have put a target on his back. A disgraceful secret that could have made him a liability to the British.