Although it was said Victoria of Battenberg was an egalitarian who didn't take royalty seriously, she is described by her granddaughter as more imperious than previously thought.
Pamela Hicks on her Mountbatten matriarch grandmother, Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven:
"Even though the king had turned her into a marchioness, she was still a princess in the eyes of her family. My father always kissed her hand before kissing her on the check. As children we didn't think much of her royal starus, but on one motifying occasion, before breakfast, Grandmother called my sister over and said; 'Patricia, dear child, you know all my OTHER granddaughters give me a little curtsey when they say good morning and goodnight.' In point of fact we also kissed her hand and courtsied, but Patricia must have been a little stiff-kneed that weekend. So rare was it for Grandmama to show any disapproval towards us that ever after my sister's bob was so low she was almost on the floor."
Interesting - and quite in line with the Victoria who was scandalised when her nurse dropped the "Princess" before their names! (though she was still a child at the time, of course).
It was common for European children to show such marks of respect to elders in the early twentieth century, so Victoria might have been betraying her German roots as much as her royal ones in expecting this, but I think the idea of her as some sort of socialist was overplayed by Mountbatten and his "pet authors". In the 1890s she wrote to Queen Victoria that she believed in gradual change for Russia, when the people were deemed ready, and the whole family was supportive of Grand Duke Serge's views on the need to go VERY slow - see, for example, her brother's memoirs. Of course, everyone will say they believe slow change is better than revolution, but it's a standard conservative argument: "change will come, but only when we say so."
Victoria of Battenberg & Ernest Ludwig mostly agreed with the Grand Duke Serge's point of view that "slow change" would be a necessity for Russia.
It is also a standard "Rules For Radicals" far left argument that: "Change will come, the way Marxist's 'social justice" arbitrates that it come, our way--or else." Post-revolutionary Marxist, Russia underwent massive change very rapidly culminating in unprecedented civil rights violations and the greatest mass slaughter in history. Russia remains a corrupt de facto KGB dictatorship to this day.
The Hesse family line had it that Victoria of Battenberg was "egalitarian". Hicks described her Grandmother as "enlightened coming from a long line of progressive thinkers". Victoria taught Lord Mountbatten herself until he was ten years old; "gifting him an education that was thorough and polymathic., she taught him to be open minded, methodical and thorough, and above all encouraged him to be enjoy learning, to enquire".
Hick's writes that her grandmother was entirely free of prejudice & was interested in all that was around her....a huge influence on her father's life and his "refreshing way of viewing the world".
i.e., Victoria of Battenberg was an inspiration to all in her family.
Hick's memoirs are not terribly illuminating. She recounts little that royal readers don't already know. Hicks is discreet--there are no shocking revelations, no details, very fitting for a former Lady-In-Waiting to the young Princess Elizabeth.
Not uncommon with many young aristocrats of her day, Hick's found her High-Society mother Edwina Mountbatten trying--deficient & difficult.
Hick's confirms that her mother collected young men, found that pursuit exciting, and admitted that the ramifications were "messy and complex". According to Hicks when her father first heard that Edwina had acquired lovers, he was "devastated", but eventually as a result of, "their reserves of deep mutual affection, my parents managed to negotiate through this crisis and found a modus vitendi...It was my father's complete lack of jealousy and total desire for my mother's happiness that made their marriage work....he sought a practical solution to life's tricky problems."
No doubt, it was also expedient to Mountbatten's interests; professionally, financially, & for the sake of his children, to come to terms with Edwina's proclivities & excesses.
Hick's writes as a young child she rarely saw her mother & that it was her nanny Vera who was the center of her universe. As it happened, the absentee Edwina and her lover "Bunny" Phillips would spend up to six months on their world tours. Hick's recounts it was difficult getting used to being back with her mother after she returned from her many adventures,--especially if lover "Bunny" wasn't around. Hick's remembers Edwina as "prickly", and that it was necessary to be very careful of what was said in her presence because "sometimes it was like treading, on egg-shells"--Edwina would be hurt "by the most unlikely things and then would sulk for hours afterwards". In contrast Hick's writes one could say anything one liked to her father, and that she adored living with him when he returned from his tours of duty..."My father was so inventive, constantly thinking up things that would make Patricia and me happy.'
Although Edwina had many lovers she was openly jealous of Mountbatten's romantic attachments and his close relationship with their elder daughter Patricia. Many family scenes resulted.
Hick's actually welcomed her mother's 'deep freindship of love and respect' with Nehru because it made her father's life so much easier. It seems, Edwina's "new found happiness" released Mouthbatten from the relentless late night recriminations. i.e.,--Whenever L.M. left his "huge pile of paperwork" to go up and say goodnight to Edwina he would be bombarded with a "long string of accusations". Her Ladyship accused her husband of not understanding her, of being rude to her, he didn't care about her, he wasn't sufficiently sympathetic to her needs, etc. Mountbatten was always sympathetic & apologized although it wasn't clear to him what exactly he had done. Apparently, subsequent to Edwina's friendship with Nehru it was simply "Goodnight, Dickie darling"--with a smile, & Mountbatten could then go to bed without a heavy heart.
Hick's is convinced Edwina Mountbatten's & Nehru's "affair' was not sexual in nature. (Lucky Nehru, considering.)
Hick's accepted Edwina Mountbatten--warts & all. Perhaps, influenced by her father's "refreshing" philosophy, this daughter of the empire expressed no apparent bitterness towards her mother. As with Elizabeth of Hesse, her chief attachment was for the father she loved.
Interestingly, Hick's admitted that her own marriage to David Hicks, while enduring, was "unothodox'.