The Lavish Life Of Queen Elizabeth's Former Lady-In-Waiting Lady Pamela Hicks

Lady Pamela Hicks may only be on the outskirts of the British royal family, but she is arguably every bit as interesting as some of the better-known royals. Born in 1929, Pamela is the first cousin of the late Prince Phillip and was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II. An esteemed position indeed. She was even present on the fateful trip to Kenya where Elizabeth learned her father had died and the crown had fallen to her. And then there's her ancestry. Hicks' mother was Edwina Mountbatten, who, according to the book "Lady Pamela" (via the Daily Mail), was a parent so remarkably inattentive she once accidentally left her children behind at a hotel for six months. And her father was Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, who was killed in an IRA attack in 1979.

Though there have definitely been hardships in Hicks' life, for the most part she's lived in luxury the likes of which an ordinary person can scarcely imagine. She's wandered the halls of some of the most incredible homes in the world, maintained a close relationship with the royal family, and experienced no less than the finest of what the world has to offer. Let's take a look at the lavish life of Pamela Hicks, lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth.

People as rich as the Mountbattens are the kind of people who throw legendary parties. And the parties Pamela Hicks remembers were certainly that. As her youngest daughter, India Hicks, noted in "Lady Pamela" (via Daily Mail), Louis and Edwina Mountbatten's extravaganzas welcomed big stars from the entertainment world such as Charlie Chaplin and Fred Astaire. What's more, the Mountbattens also happened to rub elbows with another A-lister who crossed over from entertainment to royalty. "It was fun having Princess Grace to stay, all we did was look at her, of course," Pamela recalled in 2024 to The Telegraph. (Hollywood star Grace Kelly became Princess of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III in 1956.) Clearly there was never a dull moment to be had if you were part of the family's inner circle.

After Pamela grew up and became the wife of interior designer David Hicks, she never faltered when it came time to plan a party. She followed the rules of aristocratic parties to the letter, doing everything in her power to be a good hostess. She sometimes took this to extremes that ordinary people would find shocking. When her husband died in 1998, Pamela made sure to still entertain the guests who were visiting at the time, much to India's surprise. "The undertakers arrived and [the guests] could see my father being bounced down the stairs," India told The Telegraph.

As a female aristocrat, Lady Pamela Hicks is expected to take pride in her appearance. You will never, ever see her with a hair out of place or a bow askew. Her daughter India Hicks grew up to be a fashion designer, so it seems fair to say high sartorial standards run in the family. But that's not even getting started on the high-end make-up and perfume she wears. For starters, "perfume" is not the right word for what she's working with. "We call it scent, not perfume. Very common to call it perfume," she told The Telegraph in 2024.

She explained in the same interview that her mother, Edwina Mountbatten, approved of most Chanel scents, but had strong feelings about the brand's most famous fragrance offering. "My mother said, 'Use any that you like, but not Number 5. That's the tart's scent,'" Pamela recalled to The Telegraph. Then also allowed the outlet to take a glance inside her handbag, which was of the Tusting brand and thus handmade to exacting standards. In it the main items were a card holder designed by India, a vintage pouch, and a lipstick. "You disappear without your lipstick," Lady Pamela informed the newspaper.

After getting married, Pamela Hicks and David Hicks bought the incredible Britwell House in Oxfordshire. This was a Georgian manor situated among beautiful scenery. Being a highly accomplished interior designer, David immediately transformed the place to his own liking, and the house became a home. Unfortunately, Britwell House ended up being too expensive for the Hicks family to maintain, which sounds unbelievable given how rich they were, but these things happen. They moved out in 1979.

Pamela and David's son, Ashley Hicks, ended up following in his father's footsteps. He became an architect and interior designer, and his career highlights can be viewed on his Instagram. Design has always been a part of his life, and his bedroom at Britwell was exquisitely decorated. "When I was 6, [my father] did a bedding collection for JP Stevens, and used its chic, striped sheets to line my attic bedroom, forming an Empire-style campaign tent, with bed and chairs covered in khaki tweed with scarlet edging, like a British army officer's uniform," he remembered to LifeMStyle.

After the Hicks family packed up the Britwell House, they headed to a not-so-humble abode. Pamela Hicks' family's next stop was The Grove, a stunning property that was also in Oxfordshire. It was smaller than Britwell but still had absolutely everything Pamela and her family needed to maintain their lifestyle. There, David Hicks ran wild with designs again, but he allowed son Ashley Hicks to design his own bedroom. Ashley (pictured above) was only 16 years old at that point, but he knew exactly what he wanted.

"Given a small attic room with awkward shapes, I painted walls, ceiling and woodwork black, with a black velvet carpet and all white furniture which seemed to float in space. Not a scrap of color was permitted apart from the view of lush, green countryside framed by the circular window," he told LifeMStyle, painting a picture of just how beautiful the place was. "Always immaculate, it was ruthlessly chic, but very cold and hard: not somewhere I would feel happy now!" His mother Pamela, however, is perfectly happy still living at The Grove today.

As previously stated, Lady Pamela Hicks met many famous people at her family's grand parties, but that wasn't the only spot where she interacted with high-profile figures. Her parents, Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, were part of a vast network of the wealthy and privileged. As noted in "Lady Pamela" (via the Daily Mail), when the young Pamela was evacuated from Britain after the outbreak of the Second World War, she stayed with none other than the Vanderbilts — yes, those Vanderbilts. 

Pamela also formed a bond with Gandhi. After they met in India through her parents, the two became friends. Pamela even credits Gandhi's teachings for allowing her to forgive the people who killed her father. In 2017 she told BBC Radio 2 (via The Telegraph) "Gandhi had such good teaching always: he would say to us, 'Religion is a strong tree and it has many branches and each branch has almost equal importance, but it's just a different definition of the same thing.'"

The Rashtrapati Bhavan, which was once known as Viceroy's House, is surely one of the most spectacular houses in the world. The mammoth property, which is now the official residence of the president of India, was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker and it took 17 years to complete. It has no less than 340 rooms, which are used for entertaining members of high society during important events. The gardens are equally spectacular; 84 different animal species call the grounds home.

And when Lady Pamela Hicks lived there as the daughter of the viceroy, she lived a life of luxury. She remembered to The Telegraph in 2017, "There were twenty-five gardeners to attend to flower arrangements alone, and there was one man who did nothing but prepare chickens. The house was so vast that one had to allow ten minutes to arrive at dinner on time." She then added, "My father, of course, was quite unimpressed because he spent his youth with his Russian aunt and uncle in much grander buildings." That if nothing else should give you an insight into the awe-inspiring riches of Lady Pamela's family.

Being a bridesmaid at a royal wedding is a huge, huge deal. And Pamela Hicks was one when Queen Elizabeth II wed Prince Phillip in 1947. While everything went smoothly in the eyes of the public, behind the scenes it was chaotic, and Pamela was there to witness everything. "As [Elizabeth] was having her veil fitted the tiara broke, so an aide had to be bundled into a taxi and sent across London to the jewelers," she remembered to the Daily Mail in 2022.

"Furthermore," she went on, "the princess wished to wear the pearls her father had given her but after a frantic search someone remembered they'd been left on display with the other wedding presents at St James's Palace, so her secretary was dispatched to retrieve them." As if that all wasn't bad enough, the bouquet for the future queen was only located at the last minute. But the event went down in history as a great success, and Lady Pamela was part of that. Many years later her youngest child, India Hicks, would also serve as a royal bridesmaid, this time for Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981.

While Pamela Hicks' 1960 wedding to David Hicks wasn't technically one of history's royal weddings — it wasn't on the same scale as, say, Prince William and Princess Catherine's nuptials – it was still a lavish occasion. Naturally, it received a great deal of attention; British Pathé was there to document the grand soiree. The event, with the outlet dubbed "the wedding of the year," was attended by a number of high-profile guests. Actors Noel Coward and Douglas Fairbanks were there, dressed to the nines, as was a young Prince Charles. His little sister Princess Anne took on bridesmaid duties, the first time in her life she had done so.

Thousands of people waited outside Romsey Abbey in Hampshire in the driving snow in order to get just one glimpse of the bride, and she didn't disappoint. Then the family left and threw a big reception party at the Mountbatten country house of Broadlands, complete with wedding cake that was shaped like the house. (It's not everyone who has a house so big you can make an entire cake out of it.) After that the newlyweds headed off for honeymoon on, what else, the RMS Queen Elizabeth.

Lady Pamela was always going to be rich — just look at who her mother was. Edwina Mountbatten, born Edwina Ashley, was the daughter of politician Wilfrid Ashley and immensely wealthy heiress Amalia Cassel. As for where all of Amalia's money came from? Wouldn't you know it, Pamela's maternal grandfather, Sir Ernest Cassel, was a successful financier who became one of the richest men of his era. Edwina was therefore the perfect match for a Mountbatten, and it didn't hurt that she was very pretty as well. She wed Pamela's father, Louis Mountbatten, in 1922. Edwina's wedding, just like her daughter's, was a hugely lavish affair that attracted famous guests. And by 1947, she was the vicereine of India alongside her husband as viceroy.

Edwina did a lot of charity work and supported St John Ambulance throughout her life. But she was never quite able to have a close relationship with her daughter Pamela. "I never liked her," Pamela said of her mother to The Telegraph in 2012. "She had no idea of how to play with children, unlike my father. She was a woman who could never have a personal conversation with you, and who needed constant flattery. If she didn't have that, she became lonely and miserable." But she did add, "As a child, I admired her for her glamor. Then when we were in India, and I saw the work she did there, especially with Japanese prisoners of war, that admiration grew."

The most well-known of Pamela Hicks' three children is India Hicks. India leads a pretty luxurious life, living happily in the Bahamas with her husband and five children. But when she's not there, she stays at the stunning Oxfordshire country house America Farm. As she noted in the 2018 book "India Hicks: A Slice of England" (via Flower magazine), India wanted to set up a residence there because it was close to her mother's home. "Not once would I dare to complain about my tropical existence, but every so often during the winter months a tiny emotion stirs deep inside, reminding me that I grew up in gardens of frost, not fronds," she wrote.

Pamela's only son, Ashley Hicks, is, as previously mentioned, an interior designer like his father. Her eldest child, Edwina Hicks (named of course after her grandmother), is married to actor Jeremy Brudenell and has three children. One of their kids, Maddison May Brudenell, wed her second husband, Bret Kapetanov, in November 2024. The wedding was a gorgeous event held at a church located in the Chiltern Hills. Maddison's grandmother played a key role on the big day: According to the Daily Mail, Pamela not only attended the ceremony, but held the reception at The Grove. Given everything we know about Pamela, we are inclined to assume she hosted a truly magnificent event for her granddaughter.