LORD Louis Mount batten was tall, charismatic and dashing, a decorated World War 2 hero, a gifted story teller and a natural leader who drew people like magnets.
Yet it was young Charles, sensitive, awkward, shy, unsure of his place in the world and fearful of his formidable father, who loved him the most.
Uncle Dickie, as everyone in the family called him, became the father figure Charles would’ve liked Prince Philip to be. It was Dickie to whom he turned when he needed advice and Dickie to whom he listened when he stepped out of line.
Dickie was related to Charles in more ways than one. He was the great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a second cousin to Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth.
He was also the older brother of Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark – and if it hadn’t been for Dickie, Charles might never have been born.
It was he who arranged the first meeting between Philip and Elizabeth in 1939, setting in motion their future engagement and the trajectory of the royal family. Dickie was delighted when, nine years later, Charles was born.
AN ADORED UNCLE
Charles’ earliest memory of Dickie is from when he was about five years old, watching his
