Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas, Prince of Battenberg was born in Windsor Castle on 25 June 1900. His mother was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, he was the second cousin of George V and his father was Prince Louis of Battenberg. His father resigned as First Sea Lord on the outbreak of the First World War because of his German origins and during the war, in which Louis Francis served, the family name was anglicised to Mountbatten.
The name is quite independent however of Mountbatten on the edge of Plymouth Sound for this takes its name from Captain Batten who fought bravely to defend that headland during the Civil War and who was later made Governor of the headland and promoted to Admiral. Prior to that time Mount Batten had been known as Howe Stert – “the end of the high ridge”. Nevertheless the nominal link between the two was doubtless sufficient to occasion the naming of one of the most recent developments on this RAF base, Lord Louis Crescent.
