Lownie launches crowdfunder fight to access Lord Mountbatten's diaries

Author and literary agent Andrew Lownie has launched a crowdfunding campaign to gain access to Lord Mountbatten's diaries, branding it a "David and Goliath" scenario.

Lownie says he has spent £250,000 of his own money trying to access the diaries, written from 1918 until 1979, which he believes could shed light on the royal family as well as the independence and partition of India. Lord Mountbatten was the uncle of Prince Philip, and the last Viceroy of India. His wife, Lady Mountbatten, also had a close relationship with the Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru.

The agent is now trying to raise £50,000 on Crowdjustice to fight an appeal by Southampton University and the Cabinet Office over a decision by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to release the papers.

Lownie told The Bookseller: “I think the big issue for authors and publishing is that this is an important archive, second to the Churchill archive, and it should be available to scholars. I think all of us in publishing want access to archives. We don’t want access closed as if we’re in some banana republic.”

The papers are held by the University of Southampton, which purchased the wider Broadlands archive from the Mountbatten family trust in 2011. It helped attract funding by stating it would “preserve the collection in its entirety for future generations to use and enjoy” and “ensure public access”.

Lownie said that when he began researching for his biography The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves (Bonnier Books UK) he found omissions relating to the Mountbattens from the university’s inventory.

He made a freedom of information request to access the materials, but this was refused. Southampton University said it was directed by the government to keep a small number of the papers private until told otherwise.

Lownie then complained to the ICO, which contacted the university. After the university failed to respond for 12 months, the commissioner was prompted to issue contempt of court proceedings.

In December 2019 the university responded, and the ICO ordered it to release the Mountbattens’ diaries and letters. However, the university and the Cabinet Office launched an appeal against the ICO decision, which is due to be heard in November and which Lownie hopes to challenge.

Although it is too late for his own book, Lownie says it is important to fight an "abuse of power". He said: “I’m feeling very despondent. I’ve got £40,000 to raise in 10 days. I suspect that we still have a very long, hard fight ahead."

He added: "A private individual should not have to use their money to get access to documents which were bought for the nation with public funds and have been closed.”

A spokesperson for the University of Southampton said: “As part of the allocation of the archives in August 2011, the university was directed to keep a small number of the papers closed until we were otherwise advised. The university has always aimed to make public as much of the collection as is possible whilst balancing all its legal obligations.

“The collection consists of some 4,500 boxes of documents of which the vast majority are publicly available and accessed regularly by researchers globally, as an invaluable historic resource. We have also organised exhibitions, conferences and other events which allow the public to enjoy and appreciate the archives.”

Last week the Cabinet Office allowed the online publication of the diaries up to 1934. The Cabinet Office said it would not comment while proceedings were ongoing