UK blocks publication of Mountbatten's diaries that could shed light on India's partition

A UK-based historian has been fighting for the diaries and letters of Lord and Lady Mountbatten that were “saved for the nation” in 2010. According to The Guardian, Andrew Lownie, who is the author of a 2019 book about the Mountbattens, says that he has already spent £250,000 of his own money trying to see the private diaries of Lord Mountbatten, written from 1918 until 1979 when he was killed by the IRA. Lownie claims that the letter should be a public resource, however, Southampton University and the UK Cabinet Office have denied access to the papers because he believes that it may “endanger national security and international relations”. 

Lord Mountbatten was the last Viceroy of India, the uncle of Prince Philip and confidant of Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor). Lady Mountbatten, on the other hand, was a glamorous heiress turned philanthropist and she had a close relationship with the Jawaharlal Nehru, who became independent India's first Prime Minister. Lownie believes that the Mountbatten files include the private diaries of his wife Edwina and may also shed light on the royal family and the independence and partition of India. 

While speaking to the media outlet, Lownie informed that Southampton University had bought the Mountbatten files for £2.8m in 2010, attracting funding by stating it would “preserve the collection in its entirety for future generations to use and enjoy” and “ensure public access”. However, the historian added that he has been fighting unsuccessfully since 2017 for the diaries to be released. 

Papers sealed under ‘ministerial direction’ 

Lownie said he has been told that the papers had been sealed in 2011 under a “ministerial direction”. He had even made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Cabinet Office and the university but he has repeatedly been denied access to them. The university said that it was directed by the government to keep a small number of the papers private until told otherwise. 

Lownie said that the officials have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds and brought in two top QCs, and the fight has been going on for four years. So the historian now believes that there is something “interesting” otherwise would they bother. The academic is determined to continue the fight and is also trying to raise  £50,000 on CrowdJustice to help fight an appeal by the university and Cabinet Office against the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) decision. Lownie believes that the diaries could be an important source for any 20th-century story and could also reveal about the abdication, the Duke of Windsor, and the royals’ lovers and mistresses. 

Lownie’s lawyers have already complained to the ICO in 2018 and only after being taken to the High Court for contempt did the university started to cooperate with the ICO. the historian said that in 2019, the ICO directed the university to disclose the diaries and correspondence. The university, however, has launched an append which will be heard in November this year. A University of Southampton spokesman said it has “always aimed to make public as much of the collection as is possible whilst balancing all its legal obligations”. 

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