In episode one of Season 4 of The Crown, between an anxious montage and haunting music, we can feel something terrible building.
Thud.
“At the moment of the explosion, my only memory is of a sickening thud and then lying on the bottom of the boat and realizing I needed to stay very calm and hold on,” explains the Hon Timothy Knatchbull to The Daily Mail.
Tim was 14 when the IRA attacked his family and changed his life forever.
The explosion took the life of his grandmother, grandfather, a teenage friend, and his identical twin brother. His grandfather is Lord Mountbatten. Lord Mountbatten is also the great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a loving father figure to Prince Charles.
“I could hear anxious, distressed, emotionally-charged Irish voices and I knew that something terrible had happened… but I had no inkling of what it was.”
He had been pulled from the water by boaters.
“I didn’t think anything about death. My mind was not capable of processing thought. I just have these tiny memories that do not gel.”
He was cold.
“I couldn’t see, I could hardly hear – the bomb had perforated my eardrums – and I remember attempting to say, ‘I’m cold’ because that was the only thing I felt; that and a sense of shrivelling into an inner core. I just wanted to shrink into the bottom of the boat.”
Physical healing came much faster than the emotional healing. Tim was left with slight opaqueness in his blind right eye but was incredibly grateful that his parents, although seriously injured, also survived the attack.
“My first memories are of the brilliant blue sky and the sunshine,” he remembers. “I came down to the dining room and my grandfather lifted my chin and found the mole which everyone looked for to identify me from Nick. Then he leaned down, kissed me and said, “Morning Timmy.”
“I went on to the cabin roof to act as lookout,” He remembers of the boat. “I was pointing out the lobster pots, which was important, because their lines could get caught in the propeller – but my grandfather didn’t seem to be listening. He was quietly enjoying himself, in a world of his own.”
Thud.
“I remember a sensation, as if I’d been hit with a club, and a tearing sound. I don’t remember my journey through the air or hitting the water. Before the debris finished raining down, I was unconscious and about a hundred feet from my grandfather. My next memory is of lying on a very hard surface feeling incredibly cold,” he tells The Daily Mail.
In his 2010 book, From A Clear Blue Sky, he opens up about the Queen’s kindness.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip invited Tim and his older sister Amanda to Balmoral after he was released from the hospital. “My twin brother was dead, my family blown apart. Suddenly the Queen went into unstoppable mothering mode,” Tim says.
“We have a great mother on the throne of this country. When my mum, her good friend, was laid low, the Queen stepped in. We were very late arriving at Balmoral, because of a delay to our flight, and the Queen and Prince Charles plied us with soup and sandwiches.”
Tim remembers his older sister thanking them profusely and suggesting that they go to sleep. “There was no persuading them. They continued to bring food and drink and ask for news from home. After a while we ambled down the corridor. We knew the form; at some point the Queen would break off and head in the direction of her bedroom. None of it.”
“She shepherded us into our rooms and started to unpack. Here, Amanda drew the line, removing a sweater from the Queen’s hands and convincing her that we really would be happier if she took herself to bed.”
“She was in an almost unstoppable mothering mode and I loved it. We kissed her goodnight and then unpacked as we chatted to [Prince] Charles.”
Today Tim is married with five children and has written a book about the experience, From A Clear Blue Sky.
Mr. Knatchbull has not publicly commented on the 4th Season of The Crown.
Read his full 2010 interview with The Daily Mail here.
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