Inside the ‘difficult’ marriage of ‘royal’ Lady Pamela and ‘commoner’ David Hicks: How the designer ‘tore off’ his windscreen wipers ‘in a rage’ on the best way to their honeymoon after they wed 65 years in the past

Wintry weather and heavy snowfall created a tricky start to the marriage of the late Queen’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Pamela Mountbatten to decorator and designer David Hicks at Romsey Abbey in Hampshire, 65 years ago.

For when David set off to drive his new wife to Southampton for the beginning of their honeymoon, the windscreen wipers on his ‘fancy sports car could not cope,’ the couple’s daughter Pamela Hicks wrote in her new book. 

‘Neither could my father, who stopped the car, leapt out in a rage, and tore them off!’ the former fashion model told in her new publication released last year. 

However, David’s hasty decision made the visibility worse and Lady Pamela, who was Queen Elizabeth’s third cousin, had to lean out of the car window and continuously brush the snow off the windscreen as they drove along the icy roads. 

The couple eventually pulled up at a garage along their journey and had the wipers repaired while Lady Pamela made up the excuse that children had vandalised their vehicle. 

The day marked, ‘the beginning of a complicated marriage between two people who adored each other,’ their daughter wrote.

Among the 2,000 guests at the marriage ceremony on January 13, 1960, the Royal party included Prince Philip, Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother, Prince Charles and Princess Anne as bridesmaid. 

The couple’s daughter, India Hicks, recorded her parents’s memories of their wedding day in her book Lady Pamela: My Mother’s Extraordinary Years As Daughter To The Viceroy of India, Lady-in-Waiting To The Queen, And Wife Of David Hicks. 

In the biography, she describes how the newly-wed couple ’emerged into a whirling snowstorm’ as they left the abbey.

The couple had first met the previous year at a party in London where David managed to charm the aristocrat into visiting his home at South Eaton Place ten days later to look at his interior design drawings.

She arrived at their date in a pink and blue car, which David described as the ‘ugliest car’ he had ever seen, Ms Hicks recalled.

The artist, repulsed by the colour choice and embarrassed by the prospect of clients potentially thinking it belonged to him, asked Lady Pamela to park away from his house in future visits. 

Soon, he was introduced to Lady Pamela’s parents – the Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Edwina, Countess Mountbatten.

On November 2, 1959, their engagement was announced in The Times and Ms Hicks described how it caused ‘huge press excitement: a “royal” Mountbatten was marrying a “commoner,” Hicks’.

David, famed for his colourful style and adventurous furniture placements, was a interior designer and decorator who had built up an extensive list of high class clients.

He was regularly commissioned by the social elite and went on to design Prince Charles’ apartment at Buckingham Palace as well as the nightclub on the QE2. 

David grew up in Essex with his parents, stockbroker Herbert and Iris Elsie Hicks. He was educated at the Central College of Art.

Despite not being the type of man Lady Pamela had previously dated – which included ‘future dukes and millionaires,’ Lady Pamela was smitten, according to her daughter.

Of David’s marriage to Lady Pamela, Paul Tanfield’s column wrote in the Daily Mail at the time: ‘Certainly it will raise no difficulties in his relationships with his clients. For he has discreetly acquired a considerable social standing of his own. 

‘His financial position? Mr Hicks’s services are expensive. Very expensive.’ 

The family celebrated Christmas at Broadlands in Hampshire, before Lady Pamela and David married the following month. 

The manor house owned by the Mountbatten family even featured in their wedding as the cake, which was a scaled down copy of the Grade II-listed building and weighed 140lb.

Lady Pamela wore a white satin dress by fashion house Worth that was elegantly edged in white fur – perfect for a winter wedding. She finished her look with a pearl and diamond tiara loaned by her mother.

The Queen had been unable to attend the ceremony because she was heavily pregnant with Prince Andrew at the time. 

Lady Pamela and David enjoyed a luxurious honeymoon during which they visited the West Indies.

When they returned to England, they were informed of the death of Lady Pamela’s mother, Edwina Mountbatten who passed away on February 21, 1960, Ms Hicks wrote.

The couple went on to buy a house in Oxfordshire, in the Chiltern Hills, and began to create their family.

Lady Pamela and David had three children – Edwina, goddaughter of the Queen, Ashley, godson of Prince Philip, and India, goddaughter of King Charles. 

They spent 38 years together before David passed away on March 29, 1998, with his wife and son by his side.