Penelope Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma


Penelope Meredith Mary Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma,, known until 2005 as Lady Romsey, and until 2017 as The Lady Brabourne, is the wife of The Rt. Hon Norton Louis Philip Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and a British peeress.

Early life

Lady Mountbatten was born Penelope Meredith Mary Eastwood in London, England, only daughter of Reginald W R F Eastwood, a wealthy businessman whose successes included financing the Angus Steakhouse restaurants, and his wife Marian Elizabeth Eastwood. She has one brother Peter R W Eastwood who died of cancer in 2013. She grew up and was educated in Switzerland. She graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1976.

Marriage and children

On 20 October 1979 at Romsey Abbey in Romsey, she married The Hon. Norton Knatchbull, Lord Romsey, son and heir of Patricia Mountbatten, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma and John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne, and grandson of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last Viceroy of India. The bridegroom's cousin, The Prince of Wales, served as best man. The family seat is Broadlands, Hampshire.
The wedding took place two months after the assassination of her husband's grandfather, Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, by an IRA bomb which also killed three others, his younger brother, Nicholas Knatchbull, his grandmother Doreen Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne and Irish friend Paul Maxwell.
Lady Mountbatten and her husband had three children and two grandchildren: