The PPCLI lose their Patricia

-- From the Monarchist

Mother Mountbatten, the beloved "Lady P", bids her regiment goodbye: At 83, "I am no longer able to get into a tank," says Colonel-In-Chief.

Lady Patricia, Countess Mountbatten of Burma and Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), shakes hands with honour guard member Cpl. Robert Farquhar in Ottawa today. The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, former Governor-General of Canada, is scheduled to take over the Colonelcy-in-Chief on Saturday, becoming the first Canadian in history to head one of Her Majesty's regiments.

Lady Patricia is a link to the final glorious days of the British Empire. Her father, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, became the last Viceroy of India in 1947. It was his job to oversee the transfer of power, ending the Raj. In 1979, he was assassinated by the IRA when a bomb ripped apart his yacht at Mullaghmore Bay in Ireland. Lady Patricia and her husband, Lord Brabourne, a movie producer whose films included Murder on the Orient Express and A Passage to India, were seriously injured in the explosion. Their 15-year-old son Nicholas, an identical twin, was killed with his grandfather. After the assassination of her father, Lady Patricia, as heir to his Earldom, became the Countess Mountbatten of Burma.