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Lord Mountbatten was “a homosexual with a perversion for young boys”, according to newly released FBI files.

The decorated war hero – who was a valued mentor to great-nephew Prince Charles and was said to have counselled him on his love life – was under US surveillance for more than three decades.

And one source described the Earl and wife Edwina as “persons of extremely low morals” – with him being “an unfit man to direct any sort of military operations” because of his sexual tastes.

The files emerged after historian Andrew Lownie used freedom of information laws while researching his new book about the couple, The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves.

It follows years of speculation over the private life of Mountbatten, who once said he and Edwina “spent all our married lives getting into other people’s beds”.

(Image: Getty Images) (Image: Mirrorpix)

In Mr Lownie’s book, Ron Perks, who was the Earl’s driver in Malta in 1948, breaks his silence to claim one of his favourite places was the Red House near Rabat, “an upmarket gay brothel used by naval officers”.

And Anthony Daly, a rent boy to the rich and famous in the 1970s, claims he was told “Mountbatten had something of a fetish for uniforms — handsome young men in ­military uniforms and beautiful boys in school uniform”.

The first FBI files on the Earl date to February 1944 – soon after he was made supreme allied commander in south-east Asia during the Second World War.

After the war, he was the last viceroy of India, then chief of defence until 1965. He was killed in an IRA bomb attack in 1979.

Homosexual acts were banned here until 1967 and it is believed many FBI memos on Mountbatten’s sexuality have been edited or destroyed.

But one file references a 1944 interview with Elizabeth de la Poer Beresford, Baroness Decies.

The memo says: “She states that in these circles Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife are considered persons of extremely low morals.

“She stated Lord Louis Mountbatten was known to be a homosexual with a perversion for young boys. In Lady Decies’ opinion he is an unfit man to direct any sort of military operations because of this condition. She stated further his wife was considered equally erratic.”

And in a document from May 1968, an FBI agent discusses “a number of reports pertaining to the alleged homosexuality of Anthony Eden, Earl Mountbatten and [the diplomat] Anthony Nutting”.

Mr Lownie believes Edwina came under scrutiny in the mid-1950s because of her close friendship with Indian defence minister Krishna Menon and several men involved with the civil rights movement.

At the same time, the FBI sent a report on Lord Mountbatten’s alleged homosexuality to the Department of Justice.

Edwina had several liaisons with black men and in April 1957 the FBI filed a memo on allegations of an affair with singer Paul Robeson.

Mr Lownie’s book is published on Thursday.