Who is Penelope Knatchbull and how did she know Prince Philip?

Countess Mountbatten of Burma was one of Philip's closest friends right up to his death.

The Queen had to make some difficult decisions for the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral today.

In ordinary times, some 800 people would have attended the ceremony at St George’s Chapel, on the grounds of Windsor Castle.

But due to Covid restrictions just 30 people were to attend, all but four of whom are members of the Royal Family.

Three of the Duke’s German relatives – whose ancestors were denied a place at his wedding in the aftermath of the Second World War – were at today’s ceremony.

Completing the list was one of Prince Philip’s closest companions, Penelope Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma.

She joined the Queen and Philip’s four children and eight grandchildren with their respective spouses for the 3pm service, beginning with a national minute’s silence.

Who is Penelope Knatchbull – what was her relationship to Prince Philip?

Born Penelope Meredith Mary Eastwood in London in 1953, Countess Mountbatten was the daughter of Marian Elizabeth Hood and Reginald Wray Frank Eastwood – founder of the Angus Steakhouse chain.

In 1979 she married Norton Knatchbull, 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, from whom she gets her title.

The Earl is the the grandson of Philip’s beloved uncle the 1st Earl Mountbatten, who was murdered by the IRA in 1979.

He was also a close friend of Prince Charles, who was best man at his wedding.

Countess Mountbatten, previously known as Lady Romsey and later Lady Brabourne, had three children with the Earl – Nicholas, Alexandra and Leonora.

Known as ‘Penny’ among friends, Lady Brabourne, 68, became one of the Duke’s closest confidants when he began teaching her carriage driving in 1994.

It is understood she became good friends with both him and the Queen in 1991 after Leonora died of liver cancer at just five years old.

The quickly became close friends and were often seen together at the Royal Windsor Horse show, sometimes riding mini motorcycles around the carriage driving course.

Penny became the Duke’s regular riding companion and she is one of the main reasons he carried on with the sport well into his nineties.

After the Duke’s retirement, she was a regular visitor at his Wood Farm cottage on the edge of the royal Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

Their friendship was so close that palace staff reportedly nicknamed her ‘and also’, because no guest list was complete without her.

In 2010 it emerged that Lord Brabourne had been having an affair and had gone to start a new life with another woman in the Bahamas.

Both the Queen and Philip were said to have shown a great deal of admiration for Lady Brabourne’s insistence that life should carry on as normal on her family estate in Hampshire.

Lord Brabourne returned to Broadlands in 2014, initially moving into a stableblock.

However in 2017 it was reported that he was allowed back into the 60-room mansion to live with the Countess again.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.