Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu

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Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (2006)

Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (* 20th October 1926 in London , †  31 August 2015 ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party , peer and founder of the National Motor Museum . In 1954 he was sentenced to prison for homosexual intercourse .

life and career

Montagu was born in London in 1926 and inherited the title of Baron Montagu of Beaulieu 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, Alice Crake (1895-1996), was his father's second wife.

He attended St. Peter's Court School and Ridley College in Canada , Eton College and New College . Montagu served in the Grenadier Guards . He was also stationed in Palestine during this period before the British mandate ended.

Membership in the House of Lords

When he had reached the necessary age, Montagu took his seat in the House of Lords in 1947 and delivered his inaugural address on January 20, 1948 on the subject of Palestine . On the House of Lords website, he named national heritage, museums and galleries, road transport, motor industry and tourism as his political interests . Montagu named Canada and the United States as states of interest .

After the expiry of his sentence, he returned to the House of Lords. He left the Conservatives for some time and was a crossbencher during that time . He returned some time later. When most of the hereditary peers were expelled by the House of Lords Act 1999 , he was among those who were elected and kept their seat.

His attendance at meeting days has been in the medium range since 2001. He last spoke up on June 8, 2009 for the third reading of the Marine and Coastal Access Bill .

Other offices

Montagu was President of the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society in 1957 . From 1973 to 1978 he was the first president of the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society . He was President of the Southern Tourist Board from 1977 to 2004 . From 1978 to 1981 he was the first President of the European Union of Historic Houses Associations . From 1982 to 1984 he was President of the Museums Association . Since 1983 he was Chancellor ( Chancellor ) of the Wine Guild UK . Since 1988 he has been President of the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs . From 1991 to 2000 he was President Emeritus of the Tourism Society . Since 1993 he has been Honorary Vice-President of the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain and since 1996 President of the United Kingdom Vineyards Association . In 2000 he was President of the Millennium Institute of Journalists . He was a member of the Commission Historique Internationale de FIA ​​(Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) and the International Council of Museums . In his last years he was also a director of Commodore Corporate Travel , Beaulieu Enterprises Ltd and Vintage Tire Supplies Ltd .

further activities

Montagu became interested in cars and motorsport through his father. He had commissioned the original Spirit of Ecstasy - hood ornament for his Rolls-Royce . With his family collection of historic cars, this led him to the opening of the National Motor Museum in 1952 on his Palace House estate in Beaulieu .

Montagu founded The Veteran And Vintage Magazine in 1956 and continued work on developing the museum. He became known in the tourism sector. He was Chairman of English Heritage from 1984 to 1992, during which time he appointed Jennifer Page , who later worked for the Millennium Dome , in 1989 as Chief Executive Officer .

sexuality

Montagu knew early in his life that he was bisexual . While studying at the University of Oxford , he was relieved to find that there were others there with the same sentiments. In an interview he gave in 2000, he said, “My affection for either sex was not changed or waned at university, and it was relieving to find that I was not the only person facing such a situation was. I was less offensive than my contemporaries because I had come to terms with my bisexuality, but I was still nervous about being discovered. "

Trial and Detention

Despite keeping his homosexuality a secret from the public, he became “one of the most notorious public figures of his generation” in the mid-1950s after being convicted and imprisoned for “conspiring to induce certain males to to commit serious offenses with other males ”. These charges were also made in the 1895 trials against Oscar Wilde and used until 1967.

In the Cold War atmosphere of the 1950s, witch hunts, later called Lavender Scare , shaped the lives of many gay men and lesbian women in the United States. The political atmosphere in Britain was virulently anti-gay. The then Home Secretary Sir David Maxwell Fyfe announced that "a new drive would be made to rid England of this plague ( male vice )." Thousands of men were jailed in British prisons every year for homosexual offenses. Undercover police officers acted as agents provocateurs and posed as gay men in public places. The prevailing mood was a barely disguised paranoia .

Montagu has been indicted and convicted by the Winchester Assizes on two occasions . First in 1953 for alleged claims for sexual advantages of a 14-year-old boy scout in his beach hut on the Solent , an accusation that he always rejected. The prosecutors failed to obtain a conviction. In 1954 he was arrested again on charges of "gross violations" with a member of the Royal Air Force during a weekend party at the beach house on his property. Montagu also rejected this allegation. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to a twelve-month prison term for "collective homosexual offenses" along with Michael Pitt-Rivers and Peter Wildeblood .

Role in the history of homosexuals

Unlike the other defendants in the trial, Montagu continued to insist on his innocence. The trial caused a change in the minds of some politicians and church leaders, leading to the creation of the Wolfenden Committee , which in 1957 presented a report recommending the decriminalization of homosexual activities in private between two adults. Ten years later, Parliament implemented the recommendation - a major turning point in homosexual history in Britain, where homosexuality between men had been banned since 1533.

In a 2007 interview, Montagu replied, when asked if he and his co-defendants were instrumental in decriminalizing homosexuality in the UK, “I'm glad the law was changed for the benefit of so many people. I would like to think that I share some of the credit. Maybe I'm bragging about it, but I think because of the way we behaved and lived our lives afterwards. Because we weren't selling our stories, we were just going back to normal life; I think that had a big impact on public opinion. "

family

Douglas-Scott-Montagu married Elizabeth Belinda Crossley, granddaughter of Savile Crossley, 1st Baron Somerleyton , in 1958 ; with her he had a son and a daughter. In 1974 they divorced.

  • Ralph Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 4th Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (born March 13, 1961)
  • Hon. Mary Rachel Scott (born 1964)

In the same year he married his second wife Fiona Herbert. They had a son together.

  • Hon. Jonathan Deane Douglas-Scott-Montagu (born October 11, 1975)

Douglas-Scott-Montagu and his sons are also in the line of succession of the titles Duke of Buccleuch and Duke of Queensberry and the titles that are subordinate to these.

After his death, his eldest son Ralph inherited the title.

memoirs

For nearly half a century, Montagu refused to speak publicly about his conviction. Instead, he focused his energies on the National Motor Museum and other activities. In 2000 he broke his silence with the publication of his memoir Wheels Within Wheels , in which two chapters are devoted to the history of his trial and prison sentence. In interviews, Montagu said that he wanted to "put his story right" with the publication, because he "thinks it's important to get it right."

The story of the Montagu trial was told in a 2007 Channel 4 documentary entitled A Very British Sex Scandal .

Publications

Web links

Commons : Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Beaulieu motor museum founder Lord Montagu dies aged 88. In: ITV , August 31, 2015 (English).
  2. House of Lords: Members 'expenses Members' expenses on the House of Lords website , accessed August 28, 2011
  3. a b c d Lord Montagu on the court case which ended the legal persecution of homosexuals. In: Evening Standard , July 14, 2007 (English).
  4. ^ John Bell Young: His lordship's wheel of fortune In: St. Petersburg Times , April 16, 2001.
predecessor Office successor
John Douglas-Scott-Montagu Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
1929-2015
Ralph Douglas-Scott-Montagu