Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
Encyclopedia
Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (born 20 October 1926) is a British
Conservative
politician
well known in Britain for founding the National Motor Museum
, as well as for a pivotal cause célèbre
in British gay history, his 1954 conviction and imprisonment for homosexual sex
, a charge he denied.
, and inherited his barony in 1929 at the age of two, when his father John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
, was killed in an accident. His mother was his father's second wife, Alice Crake (1895-1996). He attended St. Peter's Court School and Ridley College
in Canada
, Eton College
and New College, Oxford
. He served in the Grenadier Guards
, including service in Palestine before the end of the British Mandate.
On coming of age, Lord Montagu immediately took his seat in the House of Lords
and swiftly made his maiden speech on the subject of Palestine
.
" mascot for his Rolls-Royce
— and with his family collection of historic cars this led him to open the National Motor Museum
in the grounds of his stately home, Palace House, Beaulieu, Hampshire
in 1952.
Lord Montagu founded The Veteran And Vintage Magazine in 1956 and continued to develop the museum, making a name for himself in tourism. He was chairman of the Historic Houses Association
from 1973 to 1978 and chairman of English Heritage
from 1984 to 1992. Whilst there he appointed Jennifer Page
(later of the Millennium Dome
) as Chief Executive in 1989.
In the 1999 reform of the House of Lords, Lord Montagu was one of 92 hereditary peers selected to remain in Parliament
pending further reform of the upper chamber.
Lord Montagu knew from an early stage of life that he was bisexual, and while attending Oxford
was relieved to find others with similar feelings. In a 2000 interview he stated, "My attraction to both sexes neither changed nor diminished at university and it was comforting to find that I was not the only person faced with such a predicament. I agonised less than my contemporaries, for I was reconciled to my bisexuality, but I was still nervous about being exposed."
trials in 1895, and remained on the books until 1967.
On two occasions Lord Montagu was charged and committed for trial at Winchester Assizes
, firstly in 1953 for allegedly taking sexual advantage of a 14-year-old Boy Scout at his beach hut on the Solent
, a charge he has always denied. When prosecutors failed to achieve a conviction, in what Lord Montagu has characterised as a "witch hunt" to secure a high-profile conviction, he was arrested again in 1954 and charged with performing "gross offences" with an RAF
serviceman during a weekend party at the beach hut, located on Lord Montagu's country estate. Lord Montagu has always maintained he was innocent of this charge as well ("We had some drinks, we danced, we kissed, that's all.") Nevertheless, he was imprisoned for twelve months for "consensual homosexual offences" along with Michael Pitt-Rivers
and Peter Wildeblood
.
, which in its 1957 report recommended the decriminalisation of homosexual activity in private between two adults. Ten years later, Parliament finally carried out the recommendation, a huge turning point in gay history in Britain, where male homosexuality had been completely outlawed in statute law since 1533.
In a 2007 interview, when asked if he felt that he and his co-defendants had been instrumental in the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain, Lord Montagu said, "I am slightly proud that the law has been changed to the benefit of so many people. I would like to think that I would get some credit for that. Maybe I'm being very boastful about it but I think because of the way we behaved and conducted our lives afterwards, because we didn't sell our stories, we just returned quietly to our lives, I think that had a big effect on public opinion."
, by whom he had a son and a daughter before their divorce in 1974:
In 1974, he married his second wife, Fiona Herbert. Lord and Lady Montagu of Beaulieu had a son:
The 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu and his sons are also in the line of succession to the Dukedom of Buccleuch
and the Dukedom of Queensberry
.
and other activities. However, in 2000, he finally broke his silence with the publication of his memoirs, Wheels Within Wheels, of which two chapters are devoted to the story of his trial and imprisonment. In interviews, Lord Montagu has stated that by publishing his story, he wanted to "put the record straight" because "I felt it was important to get it accurate."
The story of Lord Montagu's trial is told in a 2007 Channel 4
documentary, A Very British Sex Scandal.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
well known in Britain for founding the National Motor Museum
National Motor Museum
The National Motor Museum is a museum in the village of Beaulieu, set in the heart of the New Forest, in the English county of Hampshire.- History :...
, as well as for a pivotal cause célèbre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
in British gay history, his 1954 conviction and imprisonment for homosexual sex
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
, a charge he denied.
Early life
Lord Montagu was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and inherited his barony in 1929 at the age of two, when his father John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu , was a British Conservative politician and promoter of motoring....
, was killed in an accident. His mother was his father's second wife, Alice Crake (1895-1996). He attended St. Peter's Court School and Ridley College
Ridley College
Ridley College is a co-educational boarding and day university-preparatory school located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 20 miles from Niagara Falls...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
. He served in the Grenadier Guards
Grenadier Guards
The Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to the Life Guards...
, including service in Palestine before the end of the British Mandate.
On coming of age, Lord Montagu immediately took his seat in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
and swiftly made his maiden speech on the subject of Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
.
Activities
Lord Montagu gained an interest in motoring from his father — who had commissioned the original "Spirit of EcstasySpirit of Ecstasy
The Spirit of Ecstasy is the name of the hood ornament on Rolls-Royce cars. It is in the form of a woman leaning forwards with her arms outstretched behind and above her...
" mascot for his Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Limited
Rolls-Royce Limited was a renowned British car and, from 1914 on, aero-engine manufacturing company founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906 as the result of a partnership formed in 1904....
— and with his family collection of historic cars this led him to open the National Motor Museum
National Motor Museum
The National Motor Museum is a museum in the village of Beaulieu, set in the heart of the New Forest, in the English county of Hampshire.- History :...
in the grounds of his stately home, Palace House, Beaulieu, Hampshire
Beaulieu, Hampshire
Beaulieu is a small village located on the south eastern edge of the New Forest national park in Hampshire, England and home to both Palace House and the British National Motor Museum.- History :...
in 1952.
Lord Montagu founded The Veteran And Vintage Magazine in 1956 and continued to develop the museum, making a name for himself in tourism. He was chairman of the Historic Houses Association
Historic Houses Association
The Historic Houses Association, a not for profit organsiation, represents 1,500 privately owned historic country houses, castles and gardens throughout the UK. These are listed buildings or registered gardens, usually Grade I or II* and often outstanding....
from 1973 to 1978 and chairman of English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
from 1984 to 1992. Whilst there he appointed Jennifer Page
Jennifer Page
Jennifer Anne "Jennie" Page, CBE was Chief Executive of the London Millennium Dome project from 1 March 1995 until she was fired after a flawed opening night and poor early attendance at the start of 2000.-Education:...
(later of the Millennium Dome
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...
) as Chief Executive in 1989.
In the 1999 reform of the House of Lords, Lord Montagu was one of 92 hereditary peers selected to remain in Parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
pending further reform of the upper chamber.
Sexuality
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
was relieved to find others with similar feelings. In a 2000 interview he stated, "My attraction to both sexes neither changed nor diminished at university and it was comforting to find that I was not the only person faced with such a predicament. I agonised less than my contemporaries, for I was reconciled to my bisexuality, but I was still nervous about being exposed."
Trial and imprisonment
Despite keeping his homosexual affairs discreet and out of the public eye, in the mid-1950s, Lord Montagu became "one of the most notorious public figures of his generation," after his conviction and imprisonment for "conspiracy to incite certain male persons to commit serious offences with male persons," a charge which was also used in the Oscar WildeOscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
trials in 1895, and remained on the books until 1967.
In the cold warCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
atmosphere of the 1950s, when witch hunts later called the Lavender ScareLavender scareThe Lavender Scare refers to the fear and persecution of homosexuals in the 1950s in the United States, which paralleled the anti-communist campaign known as McCarthyism....
were ruining the lives of many gay men and lesbian women in the United States, the parallel political atmosphere in Britain was virulently anti-homosexual. The then Home SecretaryHome SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, had promised "a new drive against male vice" that would "rid England of this plague." As many as 1,000 men were locked up in Britain's prisons every year amid a widespread police clampdown on homosexual offences. Undercover officers acting as "agents provocateurs" would pose as gay men soliciting in public places. The prevailing mood was one of barely concealed paranoia.
On two occasions Lord Montagu was charged and committed for trial at Winchester Assizes
Winchester Castle
Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1067. Only the Great Hall exists now; it houses a museum of the history of Winchester.-Great Hall:...
, firstly in 1953 for allegedly taking sexual advantage of a 14-year-old Boy Scout at his beach hut on the Solent
Solent
The Solent is a strait separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England.The Solent is a major shipping route for passengers, freight and military vessels. It is an important recreational area for water sports, particularly yachting, hosting the Cowes Week sailing event annually...
, a charge he has always denied. When prosecutors failed to achieve a conviction, in what Lord Montagu has characterised as a "witch hunt" to secure a high-profile conviction, he was arrested again in 1954 and charged with performing "gross offences" with an RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
serviceman during a weekend party at the beach hut, located on Lord Montagu's country estate. Lord Montagu has always maintained he was innocent of this charge as well ("We had some drinks, we danced, we kissed, that's all.") Nevertheless, he was imprisoned for twelve months for "consensual homosexual offences" along with Michael Pitt-Rivers
Michael Pitt-Rivers
Major Michael Augustus Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers was a West Country landowner who gained notoriety in Britain in the 1950s when he was put on trial charged with buggery...
and Peter Wildeblood
Peter Wildeblood
Peter Wildeblood was a British-Canadian journalist, novelist, playwright, and gay rights campaigner. He was one of the first men in the UK to publicly declare his homosexuality.-Career:...
.
Role in gay history
Unlike the other defendants in the trial, Lord Montagu continued to protest his innocence. The trial caused a backlash of opinion among some politicians and church leaders that led to the setting up of the Wolfenden CommitteeWolfenden report
The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution was published in Britain on 4 September 1957 after a succession of well-known men, including Lord Montagu, Michael Pitt-Rivers and Peter Wildeblood, were convicted of homosexual offences.-The committee:The...
, which in its 1957 report recommended the decriminalisation of homosexual activity in private between two adults. Ten years later, Parliament finally carried out the recommendation, a huge turning point in gay history in Britain, where male homosexuality had been completely outlawed in statute law since 1533.
In a 2007 interview, when asked if he felt that he and his co-defendants had been instrumental in the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain, Lord Montagu said, "I am slightly proud that the law has been changed to the benefit of so many people. I would like to think that I would get some credit for that. Maybe I'm being very boastful about it but I think because of the way we behaved and conducted our lives afterwards, because we didn't sell our stories, we just returned quietly to our lives, I think that had a big effect on public opinion."
Marriage and children
In 1958, he married Elizabeth Belinda Crossley, a granddaughter of Savile Crossley, 1st Baron SomerleytonSavile Crossley, 1st Baron Somerleyton
Savile Brinton Crossley, 1st Baron Somerleyton GCVO, PC , known as Sir Savile Crossley, Bt, from 1872 to 1916, was a British Liberal Unionist politician who served as Paymaster General from 1902 to 1905.-Background:...
, by whom he had a son and a daughter before their divorce in 1974:
- Hon. Ralph Douglas-Scott-Montagu (born 13 March 1961), heir apparent to the barony
- Hon. Mary Rachel Scott (born 1964)
In 1974, he married his second wife, Fiona Herbert. Lord and Lady Montagu of Beaulieu had a son:
- Hon. Jonathan Deane Douglas-Scott-Montagu (born 11 October 1975)
The 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu and his sons are also in the line of succession to the Dukedom of Buccleuch
Duke of Buccleuch
The title Duke of Buccleuch , formerly also spelt Duke of Buccleugh, was created in the Peerage of Scotland on 20 April 1663 for the Duke of Monmouth, who was the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II of Scotland, England, and Ireland and who had married Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch.Anne...
and the Dukedom of Queensberry
Duke of Queensberry
The title Duke of Queensberry was created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1684 along with the subsidiary title Marquess of Dumfriesshire for the 1st Marquess of Queensberry...
.
Memoirs
For nearly half a century, Lord Montagu steadfastly refused to speak publicly about the conviction. Lord Montagu focused his energies instead on the National Motor MuseumNational Motor Museum
The National Motor Museum is a museum in the village of Beaulieu, set in the heart of the New Forest, in the English county of Hampshire.- History :...
and other activities. However, in 2000, he finally broke his silence with the publication of his memoirs, Wheels Within Wheels, of which two chapters are devoted to the story of his trial and imprisonment. In interviews, Lord Montagu has stated that by publishing his story, he wanted to "put the record straight" because "I felt it was important to get it accurate."
The story of Lord Montagu's trial is told in a 2007 Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary, A Very British Sex Scandal.