1st January 1969 - Lord Mountbatten And Baroness Soames dancing on QE2

[Rob Lightbody]

Does anyone know what the story is here please?  What was the event being held on board?

Getty Images has it as 1st January 1969, the same day Cunard refused delivery of the ship... so it must have been a muted party?

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/louis-mountbatten-1st-earl-mountbatten-of-burma-enjoys-a-news-photo/512353819

[Michael Gallagher]

Lord Mountbatten was not onboard on 1 January.

He attended the Supper Dance held on QE2 after her maiden arrival in New York with approx. 1,000 other guests that included Mary Soames, the wife of the British Ambassador to Paris and daughter of Sir Winston Churchill; John Freeman, Britain’s Ambassador to America; Lord Caradon, the British Ambassador to the United Nations and John A Roosevelt, son of the late President of the United States. Other ambassadors included those from France, Sweden, the Soviet Union, Ghana and Morocco. QE2 was the biggest happening in New York.

This pic is taken in the Q4 Nightclub.

The Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten returned with QE2 to Southampton on her return crossing that departed on 9 May and arrived on 14 May.

The Earl informed Captain Warwick that he would be writing a report to Cunard Chairman Sir Basil Smallpeice which would include adverse comment on the sound reproduction equipment. He thought that the news broadcasts both off air and off tape were rendered inaudible by distortion. He also thought the taped music channels lacked variety – but then there were only two tapes available for each channel – and he pointed out that there were no inscriptions or plaques to indicate one Royal Standard from the other.