NAVAL LIFE IN MANSION

Shannon News, 8 October 1926, Page 3

NAVAL LIFE IN MANSION

LORD LOUIS MOUNTBATTEN’S cabin BEDROOM. SEA GLIMPSES. “Naval life at home” is the idea of many novelties which. Lord Louis Mountbatten has introduced into the fittings and decorations of his mansion in Park Lane, London. Lord Louis Mountbatten—-who married the great heiress, Miss Edwina Ashley, and is, of course, the great friend and naval colleague of the Urince of Wales —has found novel methods of carrying his love of the Navy into his OAvn home. EA r cn when ashore Lord Louis does his best to recreate the atmosphere he loves, and his bedroom in Brook House, Park lane, is an exact reproduction of an officer’s cabin on a warship. Even the minutest details have been copied, and ingenious devices employed to strengthen the illusion. No windows, but tAvo portholes, give access to the outer world, and on the opposite'wall of the Avell hole into Avhich tbey open has been painted a sunlit** naval scene, Avith ships, small native boats, and a harbour background.

By clever lighting' devices, this panorama either appears as bathed in sunlight or in moonlight, and Avhen the latter is the case the ships twinkle 1 signals Avith flashing lamps and lighted buoys mark the ocean passage.

In a glass case near to Lord Louis’ bunk, the uinform and decorations of his father —Prince Louis of Battenburg, who'was' head of the -Navy war broke out —are displayed. The bathroom belonging tq this aprtment has also been subjected to imaginative treatment. Painted panels make the walls appear like marine tanks, in which, strange monsters swim to and fro, Avliilst on the surface of the ocean on the frieze above their heads ships again play their part. _ ■' ' .>. * Almost the Avhole of this, Avorlc was designed and carried out by ex-Ser-A-ice officers and men. In addition t.o : his idea of house decoration, Lord ' Louis has shown himself to b e a clever inventor, and has produced an • ingenious little device known as the “morning cal! indicator,” Avhioffi, when fixed to a bedroom door, will prevent either the rude disturbance of your morning slumbers, or'' their over-indulgence.

This device is also being sold, and the profits devoted by the inventor to charity. /