Mountbatten handgun returned to family by Defence Forces and Garda

A pistol formerly owned by Lord Mountbatten was returned to his family during a reception yesterday evening at Glencairn House, the south Co Dublin residence of the British ambassador to Ireland.

The reception, to highlight the forthcoming World Police & Fire Games being held in Belfast from August 1st to 10th, was an opportunity for the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callanan, and the General Officer Commanding the 2nd Brigade of the Defence Forces, Brig-Gen Michael Finn, to return the weapon, via the ambassador, Dominick Chilcott.

The Berretta 0.22mm handgun had been stored at Custume Barracks in Athlone since shortly after 1972 when it was acquired by the authorities. No one in either the Garda or Defence Forces was quite sure yesterday how precisely it came into the possession of the State. However, the Garda at that time seized many weapons, not used in sport or for vermin control, as IRA violence increased, north and south.

It is not known whether Lord Mountbatten volunteered the gun to the Garda or it was removed from his summer holiday home in Co Sligo. Ultimately, Mountbatten, a second cousin to Queen Elizabeth and uncle of her husband, Prince Philip, became a victim of the violence associated with Northern Ireland when, in August 1979 on an otherwise perfect summer’s day, the IRA detonated a remote control bomb on his small wooden boat in Mullaghmore Harbour.

Mountbatten, aged 79, survived the blast but died from his injuries before being brought ashore. Two children, Nicholas Knatchbull, aged 14, and Paul Maxwell, aged 15, and Mountbatten’s daughter’s 83-year-old mother-in-law, Lady Brabourne, were also murdered.

The pistol, which has Mountbatten's name inscribed on it, was found recently by the 2nd Brigade's ordnance officer "who thought it would be a nice gesture if it was returned to the family", said a spokesman for the Defence Forces. It will be given to Lady Brabourne's daughter-in-law, Mountbatten's elder daughter, Countess Mountbatten, to be placed in the family's museum at their home in Broadlands, Hampshire.

This is the second gun belonging to Mountbatten to come to public attention this year. In January, a gold-plated pen gun, given to him in 1948 by the last Maharaja of Jodphur when Mountbatten was Viceroy of India, was bought by the Royal Armouries, Britain’s national museum of arms and armour.

It was marketed at auction as a “James Bond”-style gun and sold for £13,000. The weapon returned to Lord Mountbatten’s family last night was similar to the Barretta favoured by the fictional 007 in his early career.