The funeral of Lady Pamela Hicks took place in Oxfordshire this afternoon following her death last week – just hours after the end of the King’s birthday parade
One of the late Queen’s best friends, who was a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Philip, has been laid to rest today following her death.
The funeral service for Lady Pamela Hicks, who died last week aged 97, was held at Bartholomew Church in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, this afternoon. Lady Pamela Hicks, who was the daughter of Lord Mountbatten and also a cousin of Philip, was a long-time lady-in-waiting for Elizabeth II and was with her in Kenya when she learned of the death of her father, George VI and ascended to the throne.
Paying their last respects to her at her funeral service were her close family, including her daughter India, who announced her mother’s death last Friday. She was joined by other relatives, who comforted each other as a wicker coffin was carried into the church.
The service began just two hours after the end of the King’s official birthday parade of Trooping the Colour in central London earlier today, meaning there were no royals in attendance at the funeral.
However, the King did pay his own personal tribute to Lady Pamela at the time of her death. His spokesperson said: “His Majesty was greatly saddened to learn of the death of Lady Pamela Hicks, a sorrow tempered by the fondest memories and deepest gratitude for her long life and loyal service to Queen Elizabeth.
“The King and Queen’s thoughts are with Lady Pamela’s family, as they mourn a woman whose warmth, wit and perspicacity always made such an impression, and who will be so dearly missed by all those who knew and loved her.”
Born in April 1929, Lady Pamela was the youngest daughter of Lord Mountbatten -the uncle of Prince Philip – and Edwina Ashley. Thanks to her family’s close ties to the Royal Family she was asked to be one of eight bridesmaids of the then Princess Elizabeth when she married the former Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey in November 1947.
In 1960, she married David Hicks in a society wedding, where a young Princess Anne was bridesmaid. As well as daughter India, they also had another daughter, Edwina, and a son, Ashley.
In 1979, her father, Lord Mountbatten was killed by an IRA bomb while fishing off the coast of County Sligo in Ireland. In November 1983, Lady Pamela accompanied the Queen to the unveiling of a statue of the late Lord Mountbatten in Westminster, at which the monarch gave a speech.
She lost her husband, David to lung cancer in 1998. Lady Pamela remained a lifelong friend of the late Queen and published several memoirs about her life with the Royal Family and her early life as the daughter of Lord Mountbatten.
When Elizabeth II died in 2022, she became the oldest living descendant of Queen Victoria and attended the state funeral alongside daughter India.
Lady Pamela was portrayed on-screen as a minor character in Netflix ’s The Crown, featuring in the show’s retelling of Elizabeth’s wedding to the late Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. Writing in Town and Country magazine in 2016, her daughter India revealed her mother, who was also Philip’s cousin, judged the show to be “rather good”.
