Lord & Lady Mountbatten visit Ohakea, 1 April 1946

[fwx]

Lord Louis Mountbatten, Viceroy of India and Supreme Allied Commander in South-East Asia, and his wife Edwina, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, visited New Zealand briefly in 1946. The couple touched down at Ohakea air base on April 1 with a large military entourage, were met by Minister of Defence Frederick Jones and officials, then left almost immediately for Wellington and Auckland.

Though Louis went back to Sydney a week later, his wife stayed on in New Zealand for a few days and visited Palmerston North on April 11.

Avro York MW102 was Mountbatten's personal VIP aircraft, modified as a "flying office". It was painted a light duck egg green colour to keep the aeroplane cool!




Photo from the "Mac" Baigent collection, by generous permission of his daughter Jan.

[Dave Homewood]

Those roundels are huge. Great photo

[davidd]

Definitely a most interesting photograph, don't know if I have ever seen a photo of this York previously.

David D

[fwx]

Full-resolution shows the South East Asia Command logo:

[davidd]

That would be the Phoenix of course (rising from the dead). And the pilots would get a great view too, so would the passengers.
David D

[angelsonefive]

Hey, Lord Louis, I like your whitewall tyres.

( See also the York arriving at Laverton : www.awm.gov.au/collection/C229006 )

[davidd]

angelsonefive,
More likely silver-wall tyres, to match rest of the airframe I reckon.
David D

[angelsonefive]

And all this time I thought that Lord Mountbatten was a stuffy old British aristocrat, and it turns out he was really a super-cool dude who knew how to pimp his ride.