Edwina Cynthia Annette Ashley was born on 28 November 1901, the elder daughter of
Wilfrid Ashley, later 1st
Baron Mount Temple, and Amalia Mary Maud Cassel (1880–1911). Her younger sister was
Mary Ashley (Lady Delamere). Through her father she was a great‑granddaughter of the reforming
7th Earl of Shaftesbury. Her mother was the only child of the international financier
Sir Ernest Cassel (1852–1921), a close friend and private adviser to the future
King Edward VII. Cassel born in
Cologne, Prussia, to a Jewish family, became one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Europe. Following her mother's death and her father's remarriage to
Molly Forbes-Sempill (formerly the wife of Rear-Admiral
Arthur Forbes-Sempill), Edwina was sent to
boarding schools, first the Links in Eastbourne and later Alde House in Suffolk. She disliked both establishments. Alongside a strained relationship with her stepmother, she was
bullied because her grandfather was rich, German, and Jewish. She later described her experience at school as "sheer hell". Her grandfather eventually intervened, inviting her to live with him and to act as hostess at his London residence,
Brook House. His other properties, including
Moulton Paddocks and Branksome Dene, later formed part of her inheritance. Edwina first met
Louis Mountbatten, a relation of the
British royal family and nephew of
Empress Alexandra of Russia, at a ball at Claridge's in October 1920. By then she was already a
prominent figure in London society. The couple married on 18 July 1922 at
St Margaret's, Westminster. More than 8,000 people gathered to witness the event, which was attended by
Queen Mary,
Queen Alexandra, and the Prince of Wales (the future
King Edward VIII), who served as Mountbatten's best man. Contemporary newspapers dubbed it the "wedding of the year". Their honeymoon included visits to several European royal courts and a tour of the United States, during which they visited
Niagara Falls because, as Edwina remarked, "all honeymooners went there". While in California they appeared in a private silent film made by
Charlie Chaplin,
Nice And Friendly, which was never commercially released.
Wealth and inheritance On the death of her maternal grandfather in 1921, Edwina inherited a life interest in a trust fund derived from a 25/64 share of his residuary estate, valued at approximately £7,330,000 (about £390 million in 2023). After specific bequests, administrative costs, and death duties, the amount placed in trust for her benefit was about £1,600,000. She also inherited Brook House. At the time, her future husband's salary as a
Royal Navy lieutenant was £310 a year (about £16,400 in 2023), supplemented by his private income. She later inherited
Broadlands, the family seat in Hampshire, from her father. During the 1930s Edwina and Mountbatten enjoyed a combined pre‑tax income of £113,000. Mountbatten later told their elder daughter that, before the Second World War, the couple sometimes struggled to spend their post‑tax income of £60,000 a year. By the
end of the war the highest rate of income tax in Britain had risen to 19s 6d in the pound (97.5 per cent), reducing the Mountbattens' post‑tax income from Edwina’s trust to £4,500. They sought parliamentary approval to amend the trust's restrictive terms, arguing that their extensive programme of public duties placed an exceptional burden on their private resources. The resulting "
Mountbatten Estate Bill" was introduced in 1949. During committee hearings, Edwina's representative, Sir Walter Monckton KC, noted that she had enjoyed a post‑tax income of about £40,000 before the war. The valuation of Edwina's trust fund was handled separately from her personal estate, with the trustees responsible for paying tax from the trust's assets; unlike her personal fortune, probate of the trust was not required to be published. ==Second World War==