A Royal Murder

It’s 40 years since a bomb killed Lord Mountbatten on his fishing boat…

- Hannah Davies, Ian Macewan

During the Summer of 1979, India Hicks was holidaying in County Sligo, Ireland, with her family and grandfather, Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was an uncle of Prince Philip and a distant cousin of the Queen. He was also Prince Charles’ close mentor.

It was something India, then aged 11, had done every year. But on 27 August, Lord Louis and several other family members were out fishing on his boat, Shadow V, when an IRA bomb went off. The blast killed four people, including Louis and his 14-year-old grandson, Nicholas, India’s closest cousin.