Mountbatten Pink

[Farmer John]

I listened to a programme recently about colours and the origins and names. The "heading" for one bit was Mountbatten Pink, described as a colour used in Naval camouflage initially but later perhaps for planes. The colour was stated to have come from a time when Mountbatten noticed that a Union Castle ship in convoy "disappeared" into the twilight before others did due to the hull colour, which he used for camouflage purposes himself (well, not his actual person, you understand).

The question then arises, where did the colour originally come from, and did it have a name before Mountbatten Pink?

[Dartskipper]

You have raised a fascinating topic, FJ. Pink (PRU pink,) was used for some of the high speed photo reconnaissance aircraft late in the War, and pink shades were also used in some schemes applied to ships. Peter Scott, who served in Coastal Forces, also devised camouflage schemes using natural colours and schemes that he was familiar with from his bird watching studies as an ornithologist. In all the articles and chapters I have read, I never saw Mountbatten's name mentioned in relation to any colour.

Regards,

[Farmer John]

I had never heard of it before with that name, but if you Google it, quite a few references come up. Anyone Union Castleish enough to make any comment on the colour, use and name?

[Chris Isaac]

I am fairly Union-Castleish and have heard this before.
The hull colour we knew as Lavender Grey. I know of others who have called it London Grey. At the time I was with them I never heard it described as Mountbatten Pink but then if the story is true then I would guess that it was only named thus in the RN as U-C already had their own name for the colour.
The slight doubts I have about the story are that by the time ships were sailing in convoys they were no longer in company colours. Also Union-Castle ships were not often in convoys as their speed was their protection.

[Farmer John]

Originally Posted by Chris Isaac

I am fairly Union-Castleish and have heard this before.
The hull colour we knew as Lavender Grey. I know of others who have called it London Grey. At the time I was with them I never heard it described as Mountbatten Pink but then if the story is true then I would guess that it was only named thus in the RN as U-C already had their own name for the colour.
The slight doubts I have about the story are that by the time ships were sailing in convoys they were no longer in company colours. Also Union-Castle ships were not often in convoys as their speed was their protection.

That is interesting, and your last Para makes a lot of sense. Perhaps this is a case of a story being invented to make a legend better. Even the explanation given in the programme sounded a little contrived and tentative, but I suppose if it Googles nowadays it is true.

[Dartskipper]

I am currently reading a book about the Abdiel Class fast minesweepers, "Very Special Ships," by Arthur Nicholson.( Published in 2015.) There are illustrations of the many and varied camouflage schemes worn by these ships, and HMS Latona wore a scheme which featured two shades of "Mountbatten Pink" from May until the Autumn of 1941, when she was serving in the Med.

Most of the hull was a dark shade, the upper works were a lighter shade, and the funnels were mostly white. None of the other vessels in the class appeared to have used this colour scheme. There is no mention of how this colour was named, and it appears to have no Admiralty "shade number" to identify it. Could it have been purely an experiment?

In late 1941, this scheme was replaced by a two tone Admiralty grey camouflage pattern.

[RobPage]

I had always known the Union Castle hill colour ,a lot of people called lavender as London Gray . At the time British and Commonwealth group owner a paint factory in Glasgow called Craig Hubbock . So I always wondered if the difference in the name of the Colour depending whether it came from international paints or from the Craig Hubbock factory

[Malcolm G]

Not entirely connected but in my youth I assisted with some theatrical lighting.

The colour filters used came in a huge range of colours, originally made of a gelatine based material and known as 'gels'.
In the range of 'gels' supplied by Strand Electric there was one called 'Surprise Pink'. In daylight it looked just a pale pink, but placed on a theatre light with a tungsten lamp and the colour changed to something very similar to the 'lavender' shade as described above - hence the name.

Perhaps with different lighting conditions of different colour temperature the Union Castle paint changed shade, or appeared to the human eye to change, in much the same way, albeit reflected rather than transmitted light.

Doesn't help with the name but it might account for it being chosen for use as camouflage.

[John Rogers]

Would that be The Lavender Hill Mob

[andysk]

Like Chris, I am also a bit Union Castle-ish, in my time there I never neard of the colour referred to as anything other than Lavender Gray (grey ?), the name Mountbatten was not used AFAIR.