Lady Pamela Mountbatten was born on 19 April 1929, in the Ritz hotel in Barcelona. Her mother, the wealthy heiress and socialite, Lady Edwina Mountbatten (nee Ashley) had recently travelled to there ‘on a terribly bumpy’ train line from Malaga. Edwina’s husband, Lord Dickie Mountbatten, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a brother of the then Crown Princess Louise of Sweden, was then serving as an Assistant Wireless Officer in the Mediterranean Fleet. He had joined his wife in Madrid with the intention of taking a sightseeing tour. Fortunately, an English doctor was staying at the hotel when Edwina was suddenly awakened in the early hours with severe pains. However, as was his habit, Lord Mountbatten had also made contact with one of his network of royal relatives, King Alfonso of Spain, who said, ‘Leave Everything to me’ and promptly sent the Royal Guard to surround the hotel. The guards then attempted to arrest the English doctor when he returned to the hotel from the local hospital where he had gone in search of the necessary ‘kit’ for the birth. The labour lasted most of the day and despite being five weeks premature, Pamela was well and strong.

Pamela was initially raised at Adsdean, a large rented property near Chichester and at Brook House in London’s Park Lane. Edwina was somewhat of an absentee mother who thought nothing of making an extensive tour of the United States leaving behind her ten-month-old child. Indeed, in her memoirs Pamela admitted that ‘I can never remember my mother spending any length of time with me at Adsdean.’ Yet, over time, Edwina would probably become closer to Pamela than her older daughter Patricia (born in 1924). The latter, however, was without doubt (and by his own admission) the apple of Dickie’s eye. It was fortunate that Pamela had Nanny Vera (who she recalled had a crooked tooth) to look after her. It so happened that she was prone to ear and stomach aches and in 1931, while Edwina was on yet another tour (this time including Mexico, Cuba and South America) caught chicken pox from her older sister. This pattern of Edwina on tour and Dickie and others picking up the parental slack would continue throughout the 1930’s. It was he, not Edwina, who treated Pamela to lunch at a well-known restaurant to celebrate her fifth birthday, invented games to play or read to her at bedtime. Yet, Pamela never felt unloved with her dogs and ponies to attend to and the ever-comforting presence of her nanny or Mrs Lankaster (‘Hanky’) the Adsdean housekeeper.

In November 1931, Pamela joined her father, mother and sister in Malta where Dickie had been promoted to the post of Fleet Wireless Officer, Mediterranean. A Miss Vick was employed as a governess for Patricia and Pamela and was responsible for running the house, known as the Casa Medina, in the absence of Dickie (who was often working aboard HMS Daring) or the ever-restless Edwina. Meanwhile, the Mountbatten’s royal connections were underlined when, in August 1932, the family received a visit from the Prince of Wales and his brother Prince George. Pamela would also recall that they entertained the deposed King Alfonso of Spain during this period, both in England and in Malta. Then, in the autumn of 1935, when Italy invaded Abyssinia, Edwina decided that the girls should leave Malta and spend time in what she regarded as the relative safety of Hungary. After travelling to Budapest with Nannie and Miss Vick, the small party eventually settled at a hotel at Kekes Szallo. Following a short stay with Pamela’s Great Uncle and Great Aunt, the Grand Duke and Duchess of Hesse in Darmstadt, in the spring of 1936 they returned to England where Lord Mountbatten had been appointed to the Naval Air Division of the Admiralty. On one occasion, King Edward VIII came to Adsdean with his paramour Wallis Simpson and her husband Ernest Simpson. Edward VIII would abdicate that December. The following May, Pamela would recall being taken to Buckingham Palace while her parents and older sister attended the coronation service of King George VI at Westminster Abbey. She was able to watch the royal processions as they departed and returned.

During this period, Pamela became aware that her parents had reached a modus vivendi in their marriage. Edwina, who Pamela recalled ‘had endless boyfriends’ was particularly drawn to the tall a Guard officer, Harold ‘Bunny’ Phillips; while Lord Mountbatten favoured a Frenchwoman, Yola Letellier who was married to the owner of the newspaper Le Figaro. Tellingly, Pamela would admit that Bunny’s presence ‘made my mother easier to be around,’ for Edwina could be ‘prickly’ and prone to taking offence. By contrast, Pamela found her father to be quite the opposite, full of fun and keen to interact with his daughters, although by this stage she was attending a boarding school at Uckfield, Buckswood Grange. Yet, Edwina could be full of surprises and once brought home a three-month-old lion cub called Sabi from Africa. Thereafter, the family spent much of their time as Broadlands, the Hampshire home Edwina had inherited in July 1939 following the death of her politician father, Wilfred Ashley, the 1st Baron Mount Temple.

War broke out in September 1939 and Pamela recalls seeing the flashes from fighting at Calais across the English Channel from Broadlands. Her father was now serving as Captain of HMS Kelly which was torpedoed amidships in May 1940. It was deemed to be repairable. Edwina, meanwhile, was increasingly involved with the St John’s Ambulance Brigade, in due course rising to the rank of Lady Superintendent-in-Chief. In June 1940, Pamela and her older sister Patricia were evacuated to the United States and taken under the care of the wealthy American socialite, Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt (‘Aunt Grace’), at her impressive mansion on Fifth Avenue (where they and their nanny had a whole floor to themselves) or at her equally prestigious home on Rhode Island. It was felt that their Jewish blood (their late maternal grandfather, the financier Sir Ernest Cassel, was Jewish) would make them a target of the Nazi regime should Britain be invaded. An English governess, Miss Pugh, was engaged to look after them when Mrs Vanderbilt went off to Hot Springs for some rest and recuperation. Her appointment was not a success as the girls craved for their French governess Miss Chevrier who had been permitted to accompany them from England. During this time the girls attended the Hewitt School on 79th Street which had an English headmistress. Visits to the zoo, the cinema and the pantomime provided some distraction. However, letters from England were intermittent and often did not arrive in date order! Furthermore, gifts of ‘divinely pretty ‘ clothing by one rich socialite, concerned by the girls rather mundane wartime wardrobe, were resolutely refused to Pamela’s chagrin. Although the Mountbatten’s were rich, Edwina was subject to the same wartime monetary controls as anyone else. She relied on rich American friends such as John Schiff to settle the larger bills for schooling and medical fees and this was reimbursed as soon as practicable.

In May 1941, came the news that HMS Kelly had been sunk off Crete after being attacked by German dive bombers. It was feared that Lord Mountbatten was among the dead. Pamela was devastated when she learned of the ship’s fate. Fortunately, Mountbatten later cabled Edwina to say that he was safe. She then immediately telegraphed this news to New York. In the meantime, Edwina had managed to arrange a permit for Miss Chevrier to travel to New York. She was a godsend, teaching the girls to wash and mend their clothes, thus reducing the laundry bills. She also had sufficient authority to ensure that Pamela and her sister, with their links to “King George” were not “paraded” at smart lunch or dinner parties. However, it transpired that Pamela, in particular, felt homesick for much of her time in New York. On one occasion, she and Patricia, accompanied by Miss Chevrier, even made a wistful visit to the docks to see the ships bound for Europe. Eventually, in August 1941, Edwina and Dickie paid their daughters a visit, although they also both had demanding official duties to attend to on behalf of the Red Cross, St John’s Ambulance and the Royal Navy. Nonetheless, despite visiting 22 cities in the US, in part to highlight the wartime relief work being undertaken in Britain, Edwina did manage to take a bus trip with her daughters to a town some fifty miles from New York, where they enjoyed a restful lunch and spent the day together. However, she soon set off for Canada to undertake a ten-city tour of the Dominion. Thereafter, while Patricia stayed on for six months to complete her High School education, a ‘bored and irritable’ Pamela was to return England with her mother at the end of November aboard a Clipper seaplane via Bermuda, the Azores and Lisbon. However, when they reached Portugal mother and daughter had to separate as there was only one “priority connection” on 1 December to England available. Pamela had to bide her time at the British Embassy until mid-December when she too could flew home. However, space was so cramped at the Chester Street townhouse in London that during half-term, Pamela had to share a room with Edwina and the Sealyhams. Pammy’s cousin (the son of Dickie’s sister Princess Alice) Prince Philip of Greece, when on leave from the Royal Navy, slept on a camp bed in the drawing room.

All were glad when Patricia arrived home in the spring of 1942 to join the WRNS. However, the death of Prince George, the Duke of Kent in a flying accident, while on active duty in north-east Scotland, was a reminder of the dangers of wartime. He had only recently stayed to Broadlands while carrying out local inspections. It must be remembered that around this time, Lord Mountbatten was flying as far afield as the United States, which had now entered the war, on official duties. He was soon to be absent from Pamela’ s life for a long period as in August 1943, Churchill appointed Mountbatten Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command (SEAC). Dickie would be based out of Kandy in Ceylon until 1945. Patricia would eventually serve there. Furthermore, for much of the time Edwina was travelling the length and breadth of the country with her war work. In January 1945, she left Pamela behind in England for three months while she headed off to India on an inspection tour, sometimes taking in four hospitals in one day. Pamela was waiting at Broadlands (much of which was in use as an annexe to a local Hampshire hospital) when she returned in April. Patricia, who had ten days leave, joined them. By the summer, Pamela had left school (St Giles) and spent time with her parents as Lord Mountbatten had arrived home on leave in July. She was with her father when he received word, on 9 August, that Japan had capitulated. However, all too soon her father was on the move back to the Far East. On 19 August, Pamela and her mother attended the Thanksgiving Service in St Paul’s Cathedral in the presence of the King and Queen. However, within 36 hours, Edwina too was off again to the Far East to coordinate the return of prisoners of war who were still living in filthy conditions, leaving Pamela to cope as best she could.

By April 1946, Pamela was approaching her 17th birthday and attending a new finishing school in Gloucestershire. Edwina, who was currently much enamoured of the conductor Malcolm Sargent, introduced his son Peter to her youngest daughter in the hope that he would be a friend. Pamela was not at all interested. Her father finally returned home in June. Neither he nor Pamela were happy about the liaison between Edwina and ‘the bandmaster’ (as Pamela’s grandmother Victoria referred to him) particularly when Edwina found Sargent a larger flat and helped furnish it with items from Broadlands.

However, Dickie, Edwina and Pamela’s life was all about to change… In October 1946, Patricia married the aristocrat John Knatchbull, the 7th Baron Brabourne. The couple had met in Ceylon during the war when he was Lord Mountbatten’s Aide-de-Camp. Pamela was a bridesmaid, as were her third cousins, the King’s daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. Then in February 1947 Dickie was appointed Viceroy of India. He gave Pamela the news during a morning ride at Broadlands, adding that she was to accompany her parents to Delhi in March. Thereafter, Pamela was busy having old garments altered and new ones bought. The Mountbatten family all attended a farewell cocktail party attended by 700 people at the RAC Club before flying out to Delhi via Karachi. After familiarising herself with her quarters in the vast Viceroy’s House, Pamela was soon encountering some of the leading politicians of the day in India including Gandhi, his protégé Nehru of the Congress Party and the Muslim leader, Jinnah. It would be fair to say she had a ringside seat as the independence negotiations unfolded as the house was a hive of social as well as political activity. Pamela was witness to numerous garden parties attended by up to 600 invitees; while on her 18th birthday, her parents held a small dance outside by the pool. She fretted over her mother’s neuralgia, partly caused by overwork and the draining heat. Sometimes she accompanied Edwina on her round of hospital inspections or visits to exhibitions. On other occasions Pamela ploughed her own furrow, making use of a contact list of ‘progressive’ individuals provided by the Quakers in London. She would later work in a clinic providing free medicines and healthcare to the needy of Delhi, as well as at the Allied Forces Canteen. At one stage, while in Simla, her leg became badly infected. However, for her father, Pamela’s role was as a sounding board, as well as a source of solace and relaxation when they rode together each morning at 6.30.

India would achieve independence on 15 August. The price of independence was the partition of the Indian sub-continent with Mountbatten being appointed the new mainly Hindu India’s first Governor-General (Jinnah would become Governor-General of the mainly Moslem Pakistan which included the West Punjab and what is today known as Bangladesh). In Delhi, Pamela could look on proudly as the people gathered in the streets to cheer her father ‘as no European had ever been cheered before’. However, once the Radcliffe Commission had given a final decision on the boundaries of the two nations on 16 August, both India and Pakistan were torn apart by fighting between displaced Hindus and Muslims. In Delhi, Muslim members of staff at Government House (formerly Viceroy’s House) required protection. Edwina joked that ‘Pammy’ had become ‘quite keen’ on Spam, as there was often little else available to eat and food had to be rationed as supplies were scarce. During this period Pamela was attached to the staff of the head of the Military Emergency Staff, General Peter Rees as his personal assistant.

In November, the trio interrupted their work to return briefly to London for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Pamela’s cousin, Prince Philip of Greece. ‘Pammy’ was one of the eight bridesmaids and would later recall that the King and Queen had initially been ‘appalled’ at the thought of the marriage, wondering why their daughter did not marry ‘some respectable English Duke’. Back in India, an understanding Pamela was amused by her father’s occasional mild flirtations including with an Anglo-Indian actress. She was also undoubtedly aware of the ‘deeper attachment’ that existed between Edwina and the Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru. Pamela had observed this at first hand when Nehru had previously joined the Mountbatten family for a short stay at the Vice-Regal weekend house, the Retreat at Mashobra, close to Simla. Yet she was adamant in later life ‘It was not a sexual relationship but every bit as deep.’ The work of the Military Emergency Committee was wound up on 28 November.

As 1948 dawned, Pamela was shocked like everyone else by the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a right-wing Hindu nationalist in Delhi. She had been fond of him and attended his funeral at nearby Raj Ghat, as did hundreds of thousands of others. Pamela now often accompanied her parents on engagements such as to the Kennel Club of India Championship Dog Show and was pleased that her sister Patricia was able to pay a visit. Another, perhaps less welcome visitor was Malcolm Sargent who joined the four Mountbatten’s on a two-day break to Mashobra. However, the conductor was laid low with dysentery and at Edwina’s insistence cancelled his onward flight to Ankara. Back in Delhi, he was whisked off to an Inter-Service Tattoo and also entertained to a post-dinner recital of Indian music.

Lord Mountbatten’s period as Governor-General came to an end in June 1948. On the final day the Mountbattens processed through Old Delhi with crowds estimated at 250,000. Dickie, Edwina and Pamela now returned to Malta where Lord Mountbatten, a Vice-Admiral, took command of the First Cruiser Squadron. Pamela sometimes assisted her mother with correspondence at their new residence in Valletta, the Villa Guardamangia. Otherwise, she worked in the offices of SSAFA [Soldiers, Sailors & Airmen Families Association] who dealt with the domestic welfare of those serving overseas. At the end of 1949, Edwina asked Pamela to join her on a trip to India to inspect the work of a Refugee Relief she had set up after independence. Much of the time was spent visiting galleries and museums with Nehru and her mother. This expanded Pamela’s historical and cultural horizons.

When Prince Philip joined the Mediterranean Fleet in October 1949, he and his wife Princess Elizabeth often stayed at the Villa. With her semi-royal status, Pamela was appointed a Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Elizabeth. She was to accompany her and Prince Philip on an extensive Commonwealth tour in early 1952 with firm instructions from Queen Mary never to call her by the familiar family name of ‘Lilibet’ but as Princess Elizabeth or Ma’am. However, Pamela received a dress allowance which was sufficient to buy six dresses from the couturier Worth. After spending a few days in Nairobi, the royal party arrived at Sagana Lodge, a fishing lodge which had been a wedding gift Princess Elizabeth and her husband from the people of Kenya. While the menfolk fished, Pamela rode out early each morning with the Princess. On the evening of 5 February, Pamela and Mike Parker, Prince Philips Private Secretary travelled with the royal couple around 20 miles to Treetops, a rather basic lodge four-bedroom lodge set in a large tree overlooking a salt lick where animals could be observed in their native environment. After spending the night there, the group returned to Sagana Lodge. However, during the early hours of 6 February, while the royal party had been observing the wildlife at Treetops, King George VI died at his Sandringham home in Norfolk and Princess Elizabeth had became Queen. However word of his death did not reach Kenya until 1.45pm local time. Pamela watched from a window as Prince Philip delivered the news to his wife. Like everyone else, Pamela was shocked, but she did remember to drop a deep curtsey to her Sovereign. Of course, this meant an end to the trip and an immediate return from Kenya by air via Entebbe to London. Her father and mother were waiting at the airport to greet her on her return.

At this juncture Pamela again spent time in Malta where her father was now Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. At one stage she even toyed with joining the staff of the Indian High Commission in London but her father dissuaded her. She was then back in London for the Coronation and later learned that the postponed Commonwealth tour of the previous year was to resume in November 1953. She would be absent from England for six months but the upside was that Pamela would visit Jamaica, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia and Ceylon, although inevitably the engagements were formulaic and repetitious. However, the presence of her cousin Prince Philip was a boon as he jollied proceeding along. Only in New Zealand, where there had been a dreadful rail disaster at Christmas, did Pamela feel particularly downcast and miserable for she was so far from her parents and other loved ones. She was certainly wowed by the royal entry into Sydney as they sailed through “the Heads” into the harbour aboard the royal ship, Gothic. However, a polo epidemic in Western Australia somewhat curtailed activities, particularly where young children were concerned. No hands could be shaken and food was brought up to Government House at mealtimes from the Gothic. The royal party ate separately from the others to cut the risk of infection and returned to sleep aboard the ship each night. Despite the long absence, Pamela found the tour to have been a great experience. On the return journey, Pamela had the enjoyable experience of embarking the new Royal Yacht Britannia at Tobruk. This was to be the Queen’s first journey aboard the recently-completed vessel. They proceeded to Malta where the Queen and Prince Philip’s children Charles and Anne were waiting to greet their parents and full of tales of their time with Uncle Dickie and Aunt Edwina.

Pamela would continue to accompany her mother on trips to India as recently as 1959. Pamela married David Hicks on 13 January 1960. It would be fair to say that a few eyebrows were raised at the time, including by Lord Mountbatten, as Mr Hicks was not an aristocrat but a (soon-to-be internationally celebrated) interior designer and the son of a stockbroker. They soon set off on honeymoon together aboard the Queen Mary to New York and then onward to the West Indies. Meanwhile, Edwina, who was now suffering from extreme exhaustion and heart problems, set off on a tour on behalf of the Red Cross and the Save the Children Fund only days after the nuptials. Her family and friends-who were all too aware of warnings from doctors of the serious consequences if she continued with her busy pace of life-had pleaded with her not to make the tour or at best to cut it short. She died in Jesselton, North Borneo on 20 February at the age of only 58. Pamela-who had just returned from her honeymoon to be greeted with the dreadful news at the airport by her brother-in-law John- joined her father, sister and other family members at Broadlands to receive the body which had been flown home. As per her own wishes, Edwina was buried at sea from HMS Wakeful. Pamela inherited around 7.5% of her mother’s fortune (80% having gone on tax).

Meanwhile, in October 1960, David Hicks was hailed by the Sydney Morning Herald, during his visit to Australia, accompanied by Pamela, as the ‘Interior designer [that] Has Ideas to Suit all Pockets.’ In December 1961, Pamela gave birth to a daughter, Edwina. She would go on to have two more children, a son Ashley (whose godfathers were Prince Philip and Pamela’s uncle, the King of Sweden) and a daughter India. In March 1962, she and her husband were on a visit to India and dined with Jackie Kennedy who was on a “goodwill visit” at the Maharana’s Palace in Udaipur. She also accompanied David, now described as the master of ‘jet-set chic’ to New York where he had been busy with interior design work at the upmarket St Regis Hotel. He also undertook work for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and Helena Rubenstein, the cosmetics queen. In 1968, American interior designers were said to be up in arms because the talented designer was consulted by Sargent Shriver and his wife Eunice (nee Kennedy) on interior design changes at the United States Embassy in Paris. Somewhat bitchily, the press noted his ‘soaring career has not been handicapped at all by the fact he is married to Lord Mountbatten’s daughter, Lady Pamela.’ Back in England, Pamela would become mistress of a country home set in 578 acres, Britwell House, Oxfordshire where her husband would subsequently design the most interesting geometrically precise gardens. His company David Hicks Ltd would continue to grow over the years producing wallpaper, fabrics and linens and at one stage had offices in eight countries. Nor was he or Pamela afraid of promoting the work of others: On one occasion they attended an exhibition of the work of the Australian artist Peter Upward at the Rowan Galleries in Belgravia.

In May 1964, Nehru died. Pamela accompanied her father and the British Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home to the funeral. In 1965, Lord Mountbatten’s sister, Louise, the Queen of Sweden died in Stockholm. As Dickie was currently in New Zealand undertaking duties in his latest role as Chief of the British Defence Staff, he asked Pamela to represent him at the funeral. Pamela also accompanied her father on visits to the Duke of Windsor in Paris. She recalled they liked to reminisce about England and the past while the Duchess of Windsor was at the hairdresser as such talk ‘bored’ her. While Pamela conceded that ‘Wallis’ was a ‘the best’ at giving parties and her homes were ‘perfection’; she thought too that the Duchess was also basically ‘hard hearted’ and was perplexed as to how the one-time King Edward VIII could give up his throne for her. In 1973, Patricia joined her father in Dallas to promote “British Fortnight” there at the Neiman Marcus department store. They were also present at a Ball to raise funds for one of Lord Mountbatten’s charities, United World Colleges.

In 1978 Pamela and David moved out of their home, Britwell House and sold much of their furniture in a sale at Sotheby’s. She and David moved to a one-time farmhouse nearby called The Grove which was still a substantial residence. It was said that the cost of maintenance and staff at the Britwell House property was proving to be too high. Since the death of Lady Mountbatten, Lord Mountbatten and his family had spent August at a property Edwina had owned, Classiebawn Castle, in County Sligo. As it was in the Republic of Ireland, there had always been security concerns and an increased police presence, but Dickie brushed these off. Sadly on 27 August he was killed by a bomb placed in his fishing boat Shadow V at Mullaghmore’s harbour by the IRA. So too was Pamela’s 14-year-old nephew Nicholas Knatchbull and his paternal grandmother, Doreen, the Dowager Lady Brabourne, who had survived but briefly. Paul Maxwell, a local lad who helped with the boat, was also killed. Lady Patricia, her husband John and their son Timothy (twin of Nicholas) were seriously injured. Pamela and her children had remained behind at Classiebawn and so were uninjured. While there was great pageantry at the funeral of Lord Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey a few days earlier, the joint funeral of Pamela’s 14-year-old nephew and his paternal grandmother Doreen at Mersham was a simple, country affair. Neither Patricia nor her husband John were able to attend as they were still recovering from their dreadful injuries. Prince Philip and the Prince of Wales did attend.

Even although her father was dead, Pamela still undertook engagements to secure his legacy as ‘the greater fixer of all time’. In September 1980, Pamela was at Waterloo Station, along with Patricia, now known as Countess Mountbatten, to attend the naming ceremony of two railway locomotives. Patricia named one “Earl Mountbatten of Burma”; while Pamela’s was called “The Burma Star.” In 1985, she and her sister Patricia and other family members also attended a fund-raising dinner and dance at the prestigious Palm Beach Polo and Country Club to raise further funds for United World Colleges. Two hundred tickets were sold at $350 each.

However, Pamela’s close links to the Royal Family continued when her daughter India was asked to be a bridesmaid at the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. David Hicks died in April 1998 at the age of 69. He had suffered a stroke and had only recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. He had previously stated that, ‘My greatest contribution as an interior designer has been to show people how to use bold colour mixtures, now to use carpets patterned carpets, how to light rooms and how to mix old with new.’ Pamela was quoted as saying that ‘He was an absolute volcano to live with, but so life-enhancing.’ She carried on living at The Grove, although a knee replacement in 2014, meant that she had to vacate her “set” of rooms at Albany, in London’ s Piccadilly as their was no lift to whisk her up to her apartment. Her son Ashley took them over.

In 2012 Pamela wrote her memoirs: Daughter of Empire: Life as Mountbatten. Then in June 2017, Patricia died at the age of 93. Pamela loved her sister dearly and regarded her as ‘the personification of the stiff upper lip.’ Only the now aged Prince Philip and the still active Queen were really left from the early years and she remained close to both as she had throughout their long lives. Their deaths in 2021 (just shy of 100) and 2022 (at 96) respectively were another loosening of the ties from the past. She herself was now in her 90’s and her daughter India produced the most beautiful and well-reviewed book in 2024 Lady Pamela: My Mother’s Extraordinary Years as Daughter to the Viceroy, Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen and, wife of David Hicks. After a long and full life Lady Pamela herself died on 5 June 2026 aged 97. Her funeral-a low key affair as it coincided with the Trooping the Colour in London-was held on 13 June at St Bartholomew’s Church in Bridewell Baldwin. The King did, however, issue a statement: “His Majesty was greatly saddened to learn of the death of Lady Pamela Hicks, a sorrow tempered by the fondest memories and deepest gratitude for her long life and loyal service to Queen Elizabeth.”