The marriage of Lady Pamela Mountbatten, the late Queen’s lady-in-waiting, to designer David Hicks got off to a bumpy start, thanks to a heavy snowstorm and wintry conditions.
It was January 13, 1960, and the couple had just married at Romsey Abbey in Hampshire.
The storm made travel difficult, and things only got trickier when the windscreen wipers on David’s “fancy sports car” malfunctioned.
A Hasty Decision Leads to More Trouble
David, in a flurry of frustration, made the quick decision to rip the wipers off the car.
This only made things worse, forcing Lady Pamela, the Queen’s third cousin, to stick her head out of the window and brush the snow off the windscreen as they drove along the icy roads.
It was a chaotic but memorable moment, as their daughter, Pamela Hicks, recalled in her book.
When they eventually stopped at a garage to get the wipers fixed, Lady Pamela told a fib, explaining that children had vandalized the car.
A Memorable Wedding Celebration
Among the 2,000 guests at their wedding were royals like Prince Philip, Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother, and even Princess Anne, who served as a bridesmaid.
Lady Pamela and David’s daughter, India Hicks, shares these insights in her biography, Lady Pamela: My Mother’s Extraordinary Years, where she describes how the couple “emerged into a whirling snowstorm” after the ceremony.
A Royal Romance
The two had first met the year before at a party in London, where David charmed Lady Pamela into visiting his home in South Eaton Place.
It was there that he confessed his dislike of the “ugly” pink-and-blue car she drove.
Over time, Lady Pamela introduced David to her parents—Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Edwina, Countess Mountbatten.
Their engagement was announced in The Times in November 1959, causing quite a stir, as it was a “royal” Mountbatten marrying a “commoner” Hicks.
David’s Rising Stardom
David was well-known for his bold and adventurous style, with a client list that included the social elite.
He later went on to design Prince Charles’ apartment at Buckingham Palace and even the nightclub aboard the QE2.
Despite not being the typical type of man Lady Pamela had dated—she had been courted by dukes and millionaires—she was deeply smitten, according to their daughter.
A Lavish Wedding and Honeymoon
Lady Pamela’s wedding dress, a white satin gown by fashion house Worth, was trimmed in white fur, perfect for a winter wedding.
Her mother loaned her a pearl and diamond tiara to complete the ensemble.
The Mountbatten family’s manor house in Broadlands played a role in the wedding, too.
The wedding cake was a replica of the Grade II-listed house, weighing in at 140 pounds.
Although the Queen couldn’t attend the ceremony because of her pregnancy with Prince Andrew, the couple’s honeymoon in the West Indies provided a luxurious break before they returned to England.
There, they were met with the sad news of Lady Pamela’s mother’s passing just a month later.
Building a Family and Life Together
After their honeymoon, the couple moved to a house in Oxfordshire, where they started their family.
Lady Pamela and David had three children—Edwina, Ashley, and India—who would go on to have notable connections to the royal family.
They spent 38 years together before David’s passing in 1998, with Lady Pamela and their son by his side.
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