Royal baby name is tribute to Lord Louis Mountbatten

The newest member of the royal family has been named Louis Arthur Charles in a poignant tribute to his grandfather’s beloved mentor.

The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge.

Prince Charles’ beloved great uncle and ‘honorary grandfather’ was Lord Louis Mountbatten, the great-grandson of Queen Victoria and uncle to Prince Philip.

His full title was Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

In 1979, Mountbatten, his grandson Nicholas, and two others were killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), which had placed a bomb in his fishing boat, Shadow V, in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland.

Lord Louis Mountbatten wearing the Veterans of Foreign Wars Merit Award

Prince of Wales and Lord Mountbatten, wearing full naval uniform, on a visit to Nepal for the coronation of King Birendra on January 01, 1975

Louis Mountbatten with members of his family on his 30ft boat, Shadow V, at Mullaghmore, County Sligo in the Republic of Ireland, circa 1975 – some four years before his death

Lord Mountbatten was born Prince Louis of Battenburg in Windsor in 1900.

His great-grandmother was Queen Victoria and his sister was Princess Alice of Battenberg, Prince Philip’s mother.

Mountbatten encouraged the betrothal of his nephew Philip to Elizabeth, the future queen.

He was particularly close to Prince Charles before Uncle Dickie, as he was known in the family, was assassinated by the IRA in August 1979.

Lord Mountbatten was admiral of the fleet in the Second World War and the last viceroy of India.

The 79-year-old had been frequently warned about his safety while visiting his Irish holiday home, which is just 12 miles from the border with Northern Ireland.

On the day he was killed, Mountbatten, who was the Duke of Edinburgh’s uncle and the Queen’s second cousin once removed, had set sail on pleasure boat Shadow V for a fishing trip.

Lord Louis Mountbatten , the last Governor General from Britain waving a cheery farewell to the crowds in Delhi

Prince Charles visits the harbour in the village of Mullaghmore in Ireland on May 20, 2015 where the his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten was killed

Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was a British statesman and naval officer

But a bomb had been smuggled on board the night before, and once the boat was a few hundred yards offshore it was remotely detonated.

IRA activist Thomas McMahon had planted the bomb, but was already being held by the Garda at the time of the explosion having been stopped during a routine check.

McMahon was jailed for murder in November, 1979, but released in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday agreement.

Mountbatten’s murder happened on one of the bloodiest day of the Troubles.

Timothy Knatchbull, then a 14-year-old boy, survived the deadly 1979 attack and was pulled alive from the wreckage by a local couple.

But, tragically, his twin brother Nicholas, his grandmother Doreen, and his grandfather, Lord Mountbatten, were all killed.

In 2015, Prince Charles had made a poignant speech in which he praised Mountbatten as ‘the grandfather I never had’

Doreen, the 83-year-old Dowager Countess of Brabourne, Lord Mountbatten’s daughter’s mother-in-law, died the following day.

In 2015, Prince Charles had made a poignant speech in which he praised Mountbatten as ‘the grandfather I never had’.

‘In August 1979, my much-loved great uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was killed alongside his young grandson and my godson, Nicholas, and his friend, Paul Maxwell, and Nicholas’s grandmother, the Dowager Lady Brabourne,’ the Prince told an audience at The Model arts centre in Sligo.

‘At the time I could not imagine how we would come to terms with the anguish of such a deep loss since, for me, Lord Mountbatten represented the grandfather I never had.

‘So it seemed as if the foundations of all that we held dear in life had been torn apart irreparably.’

RAF pall bearers carry the coffin containing the body of Lord Mountbatten from a Hercules aircraft

‘I HAVE HEALED FROM THE DEVASTATING BLOW OF HIS DEATH AND FOUND PATH TO FORGIVENESS’: MOUNTBATTEN’S GRANDSON, WHO LOST TWIN BROTHER IN THE IRA BOMB, ON PAIN OF LOSING HIS ‘COMPLETE SOULMATE’

Survivor Timothy Knatchbull was standing just three feet away from Lord Mountbatten when he was killed by an IRA bomb.

The twin, who was just 14 at the time of the attack, told how he had been standing one metre away from his grandfather when the deadly attack took place as they were embarking on a family fishing trip on a gloriously sunny day in August 1979.

He also told how, shortly before the detonation, his grandmother – who was also killed following the blast – had turned to his mother and said: ‘Isn’t this a beautiful day?’

The attack took place after IRA terrorists planted a bomb under the floorboards of Mountbatten’s boat, Shadow V, on the long Bank Holiday weekend.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph in 2012, Mr Knatchbull told hwo the explosion had caused him to lose his ‘complete soulmate’ – his brother Nicky – but that he had ‘found a path to forgiveness’.

He wrote: ‘I have healed from the devastating blow of his death, and found a path to forgiveness and peace. That has allowed me to move on, to cherish life, my inspiring wife Isabella and our five young children.’

Mr Knatchbull, who met with the prince in 2015, also described how Paul Maxwell, the 15-year-old whom they had befriended that summer, had, that fateful day, been wearing a pair of jeans borrowed from a friend and had been trying desperately not to get them dirty. He was also killed.

After the death of his brother and grandparents, Mr Knatchbull remained in hospital for two weeks. His mother – who was forced to have 117 stitches – and father were also severely injured, meaning he stayed temporarily with the Queen at Balmoral.

He wrote: ‘Within two weeks, I was strong enough to leave hospital in London, and within two months my parents followed, still desperately incapacitated and therefore unable to look after me themselves. The Queen quickly invited me to Balmoral, one mother stepping in for another. I have never forgotten her care, nor her motherliness.’

Within hours of the bombing, the Queen had despatched Northern Ireland’s foremost heart doctor to be at my father’s side, he wrote.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk