| Honorific-Prefix: | Lieutenant The Most Honourable | ||||||
| The Marquess of Milford Haven | |||||||
| Parents: | George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna of Torby | ||||||
| Spouse: | |||||||
| Birth Date: | 12 May 1919 | ||||||
| Birth Place: | Edinburgh, Scotland | ||||||
| Birth Name: | David Michael Mountbatten | ||||||
| Death Place: | London, England | ||||||
| Issue: | George Mountbatten, 4th Marquess of Milford Haven Lord Ivar Mountbatten | ||||||
| Module: |
| ||||||
Lieutenant David Michael Mountbatten, 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven, (12 May 1919 – 14 April 1970), styled Viscount Alderney before 1921 and Earl of Medina between 1921 and 1938, was the son of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven and Countess Nadejda Mikhailovna of Torby.
Lord Milford Haven was born in 1919. He was the only son of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven (who had been born as Prince George of Battenberg), and Russian Countess Nadejda (Nada) Torby, who wed in 1916. His paternal grandparents were Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine.[1] Therefore, he was a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria. His maternal grandparents were Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia and Countess Sophie von Merenberg. He was also a descendant of the Russian writer Aleksandr Pushkin as well as Peter the Great's African protégé, General Abram Petrovich Gannibal.
He grew up at the family home in Holyport, Berkshire and enjoyed a close friendship with his first cousin Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later the Duke of Edinburgh. They both attended Dartmouth Naval College. He served as best man to the prince at his marriage in November 1947 to the Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II.[2]
Upon the death of his father on 8 April 1938, he became the 3rd Marquess of Milford Haven and head of the House of Mountbatten.
During the Second World War Milford Haven served in the Royal Navy. In 1942 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for taking the destroyer Kandahar through a minefield in an attempt to rescue the cruiser Neptune. In 1943 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his work on Malta convoy operations. He retired from the Navy in 1948. He subsequently joined The Castaways' Club, which enabled him to keep in close contact with many of his naval contemporaries.
He then played a prominent part in the London demi-monde of the 1950s, which brought together a colourful mix of aristocrats and shadowy social climbers like osteopath Stephen Ward. This hard-partying set formed the nucleus for the Profumo affair.[3]
Milford Haven was married twice:
Milford Haven died of a heart attack, aged 50, on 14 April 1970 in London. His ashes were buried in the Battenberg Chapel at St. Mildred's Church, Whippingham, on the Isle of Wight (photo).
| Coronet: | A Coronet of a Marquess |
| Crest: | 1st: Out of a Coronet Or two Horns barry of ten Argent and Gules issuing from each three Linden Leaves Vert and from the outer side of each horn four Branches barwise having three like Leaves pendent therefrom of the last (Hesse); 2nd: Out of a Coronet Or a Plume of four Ostrich Feathers alternately Argent and Sable (Battenberg) |
| Escutcheon: | Quarterly: 1st and 4th, Azure a Lion rampant double-queued barry of ten Argent and Gules armed and langued of the last crowned Or within a Bordure compony of the second and third (Hesse); 2nd and 3rd, Argent two Pallets Sable (Battenberg); charged on the honour point with an Escutcheon of the arms of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, namely the Royal Arms differenced by a Label of three points Argent the centre point charged with a Rose Gules barbed Vert and each of the other points with an Ermine Spot Sable |
| Supporters: | On either side a Lion double-queued and crowned all Or |
| Motto: | In Honour Bound |
