Mountbatten, Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas (1900–1979)

English admiral and administrator, a great‐grandson of Queen Victoria. In World War II he became chief of combined operations in 1942 and commander‐in‐chief in southeast Asia in 1943. As last viceroy and governor general of India 1947–48, he oversaw that country's transition to independence. He was killed by an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb aboard his yacht at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, in the Republic of Ireland. He was knighted in 1922, became a viscount in 1945, and an earl in 1947.

As chief of combined operations he was criticized for the heavy loss of Allied lives in the disastrous Dieppe raid. In southeast Asia he concentrated on the reconquest of Burma, although the campaign was actually conducted by General Slim. Mountbatten accepted the surrender of 750,000 Japanese troops in his area of command at a formal parade in Singapore in September 1945. He was chief of UK Defence Staff 1959–65.