Edwina Mountbatten (28 November 1901 – 21 February 1960) was a British heiress and socialite who was the wife of Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India.
Biography[]
Edwina Ashley was born in Broadlands, Hampshire, England on 28 November 1901, the daughter of Conservative MP Wilfrid Ashley. She was left £80 million after the death of her maternal grandfather, and she became a leading member of London society due to her wealth. Edwina Ashley first met Louis Mountbatten in 1920, and the two of them married in 1922. Edwina and her husband were promiscuous, and she even developed friendships with some of her husband's lovers, while she had an affair with Mountbatten's friend Jawaharlal Nehru during her time as Vicereine of British India in the late 1940s. She was known for helping to relieve the misery of several Pakistanis and Indians after the 1947 Partition of India, and she died from unknown causes in Jesselton, North Borneo (now Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia in 1960 at the age of 58.