THE life of Countess Mountbatten of Burma was remembered at her funeral attended by the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and her godson, the Prince of Wales.

Charles gave a private address at the funeral service of Lord Mountbatten’s daughter, a woman he has described in the past as his “very special godmother”.

Born Patricia Mountbatten, the Countess was the Duke of Edinburgh’s first cousin and was the daughter of Charles’s beloved great-uncle Earl Mountbatten.

She was the mother of the present Lord Brabourne who inherited the ancestral home, Broadlands in Romsey, from Earl Mountbatten following his assassination in 1979.

The countess suffered serious injuries when the IRA blew up the boat she and her family were on, off the coast of Sligo.

Her 14-year-old son Nicholas Knatchbull and her mother-in-law, the Dowager Lady Brabourne, were all murdered. A local boat boy, 15-year-old Paul Maxwell, also died.

She was married to John Knatchbull, the seventh Baron Brabourne. A celebrated film producer, who died in 2005, and worked on films such as A Passage To India and Death On The Nile.

The then Princess Elizabeth, her third cousin, was one of her bridesmaids at the couple’s wedding in 1946.

Countess Mountbatten died peacefully at her home in Mersham, Kent, on June 13, surrounded by her children who attended the service with their families.

The mourners arrived under heavy downpours with around 500 filling the pews of St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, where the vicar, the Reverend Alan Gyle, conducted the service.

Among the group were the Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal and her husband Vice Admiral Tim Laurence and the Duke of York.

Members of the royal party also include the Duchess of Gloucester, Duke of Kent and Prince Michael of Kent.

Charles arrived at the church ahead of the Queen and Duke and when the royal couple approached the west door the prince kissed his mother’s cheek and hand, then kissed his father on both cheeks before laying a hand affectionately on his back.

Philip’s public appearance was only his second since a brief spell in hospital last week, for treatment for an unspecified infection.

The Countess had been the Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, known as “The Patricias”, and soldiers from the unit acted as pall bearers.