Jacket blurb

'This book is one which I think he would have welcomed and enjoyed.'

So says His Royal Highness Prince Charles in his Foreword to William Pattinson's book

Mountbatten and the Men of the 'Kelly'. 'Bill Pattinson', he continues, 'has spent some years talking with Kelly personnel and he has been able to capture some of the remarkable rapport that went on between Captain and crew in Kelly.'

Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten's official and bestselling biographer, adds the following words in his Preface:
'This is the story of HMS Kelly, of the men who sailed in her, of her triumphs and disasters, of the Kelly Reunion Association which today still unites the survivors from her crew. Above all, it is the story of her Captain. Without Mountbatten there would still have been a Kelly, there might have been a Reunion Association, but it is his contribution that has made the spirit of HMS Kelly burn so bright and endure so long.'

Here, William Pattinson provides an absorbing insight into Lord Louis Mountbatten's character and into his career as a Naval officer. Pattinson, who was one of the last journalists to interview Lord Louis before his assassination by the IRA in 1979, has drawn widely for his account on the reminiscences of officers and men who served with Mountbatten when he was Captain of the destroyer HMS Kelly, immortalized in Noel Coward's film In Which We Serve. He has been given exclusive access to letters between Mountbatten and surviving members of his crew, and he has also drawn on speeches which both Lord Louis and his great-nephew, Prince Charles, have made at the private biennial dinners of the Kelly Reunion Association.

The book contains many dramatic, humorous and harrowing accounts of incidents during the short, hectic wartime career of the Kelly, including Mountbatten's own gripping description of her sinking by German dive bombers off Crete in May 1940. It also includes accounts by other survivors from the ship's last engagement, one of the most amazing being that of an engine room rating who was trapped when the ship capsized but who miraculously succeeded in escaping.

Shortly after the war ended, Mountbatten was delighted when a number of his former seamen formed the Kelly Reunion Association and invited him to become President. One of the tasks Mountbatten asked of survivors was that they should write down their own memories and experiences, which he always hoped would one day be assembled into a book. He insisted that the accounts should be uncensored, reflecting situations and incidents as his crew remembered them, rather than as they might think their former Captain would have liked to see them written. As a result, the various narratives are both earthy and lively, giving an accurate picture of life aboard a destroyer during the war.

More than this, however, throughout all the episodes one rapidly becomes aware of the tremendous respect, admiration, affection and even love which the Kelly's Captain was afforded by all who served under him. He is revealed as a man of almost infinite compassion, a strict disciplinarian to be sure, but always scrupulously fair, a man who possessed 'the human touch' in full measure and who, loathing war, nevertheless served with great dash and distinction in the 'front line', expecting - and receiving - no favouritism because he was a member of the Royal Family.

After his brutal murder - a tragic and ironic fate for a man who had worked so hard in the cause of peace - the Kelly Reunion Association has `kept on' (following the ship's motto) and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has become its new President. The reasons for its long endurance will become clear to anyone who reads this book. As Prince Charles says: 'It is a wonderful example of the strength of human relationships which can be forged during the vicissitudes of war and which can continue into the future because the spirit of a ship lives on to inspire the descendants of those who served in her.'

Jacket painting by Michael Turner

The author

William Pattinson has been a journalist for most of his working life and was the last News Editor of the News Chronicle. During the war he joined the RNVR and served in destroyers in the Atlantic before being commissioned. He then commanded a major tank landing craft in the Mediterranean, taking part in the Allied landings on Sicily and Elba as well as at Salerno, Anzio and the south of France, where he was wounded. After recovery he became Staff Officer Naval Information to the Commanderin-Chief Mediterranean, Admiral Sir John Cunningham. Mr Pattinson is a Fellow of the Institute of Journalists and a Freeman of the City of London. This is his third book.

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