Michael Montague, Baron Montague of Oxford

Michael Jacob Montague, Baron Montague of Oxford , CBE (born March 10, 1932 , † November 5, 1999 in London ) was a British businessman , businessman and politician ( Labor Party ). Since 1997 he was a life peer member of the House of Lords .

Life

Michael Montague was the son of David Elias Montague and his wife Eleanor Montague, b. Stagg, born. He came from a Jewish family. He attended the Grammar School in Royal High Wycombe in the County of Buckinghamshire and the Magdalen College in Oxford .

In 1958 Montague founded his own electrical company Gatehill Beco . He initially dealt with electrical wiring; later he made inexpensive electric hotplates . After receiving a larger order that he could not fulfill alone, he entered into a cooperation and in 1962 sold his company to the Birmingham- based company Valor , which u. a. Manufactured locks and stoves . There he became Managing Director in 1963; then he was chairman there from 1965 to 1991. Montague led by the introduction of a new product portfolio and enhanced export a diversification by the company. He also focused on the markets in Africa , Southeast Asia and Japan .

In 1987 Montague expanded and bought Yale Security, Inc. (Yale Locks), a manufacturer of door locks, and NuTone , a company that manufactured intercoms , lighting fixtures, and ventilation systems . In August 1989 Ingersoll Rand sold its stake in Yale & Valor to Williams Holdings . In January 1991, Williams Holdings and Yale & Valor merged. Montague left the company.

Montague was also active as an investor in other companies, including a. at Planet Hollywood and the British hotel chain Ramada Jarvis Hotels . From 1969 to 1972 he was chairman of the Asia Committee of the British National Export Council ; in recognition of his services, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970. Montague was the governor and chairman of the Audit Commission at Oxford Brookes University . From 1979 to 1984 he was chairman of the English Tourist Board . In this function he attacked "second-class hoteliers , greedy tour operators in vacation spots by the sea, the operators of dirty motorway service stations , bad museum guides , unfriendly waiters and taxi drivers "; He accused them of demanding excessive tips from inexperienced tourists in addition to the taxi tariff. He was also from 1984 to 1987 Chairman (Chair) of the National Consumer Council ; he urged consumers to boycott suppliers who delivered poor quality.

Montague was a patron of the arts; he was u. a. Sponsor of the Oxfordshire Festival and chair of the Henley Festival from 1992 to 1994 . He was a member of the Council of the Royal Albert Hall .

Politics and membership in the House of Lords

Montague had close ties with the Labor Party. He was a good friend of Labor Chairs John Smith and Peter Mandelson . Montague was a member of the Millennium Commission from February 1994 to May 1997 . Montague continued his friendly relations with the Labor Party through Mandelsen, including under the new Labor Chairman Tony Blair .

On November 1, 1997 Montague was named Life Peer and became a member of the House of Lords for the Labor Party ; he bore the title of Baron Montague of Oxford , of Oxford in the County of Oxfordshire. It was later revealed that he was awarded Life Peerage after receiving a donation of £ 5,000 from him to the Labor Party . He gave his inaugural address on December 2, 1997. He spoke in a debate on education policy and university policy . In Hansard , Monday's contributions to the House of Lords from 1997 to 1999 are documented. On November 5, 1999, he spoke for the last time in a debate on energy policy .

Death and aftermath

Montague collapsed on November 5, 1999 during a debate in the House of Lords; half an hour earlier he had spoken in the debate. He hit his head on the bench in front of him and got a head wound. John Rea, 3rd Baron Rea , a former general practitioner, and John Oliver , the Bishop of Hereford , attempted to resuscitate Montague, but to no avail. In the ambulance that was on its way to St Thomas' Hospital , the emergency doctor officially declared his death.

Montague was gay . He lived with his partner, the Japanese Takashi Sizuki, in Dorchester on Thames , where he owned an estate. Montague and Sizuki had lived together as a couple for more than 35 years when Montague died.

In February 2000, the openly gay life peer Waheed Alli, Baron Alli publicly pointed out the legal and financial problems of Montague's life partner Sizuki. He had to sell the common property in Dorchester in order to pay the inheritance tax. By that time, inheritance tax had been raised in Great Britain on property purchases; Exceptions only applied to surviving spouses, but not to unmarried partnerships. The Montague case was part of Alli's nationwide campaign for legal equality for homosexual partnerships that eventually resulted in the Civil Partner Ship Act 2004.

Web links

• Michael Montague at Hansard (English)
• Obituary: Lord Montague of Oxford - Obituary in: The Independent, November 8, 1999
• Peer dies after Lords result - obituary; BBC News dated November 5, 1999

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Peer dies after collapsing in Lords ( Memento of February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) in: Oxford Mail of November 6, 1999. Retrieved on February 11, 2014
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Michael Jacob Montague, Baron Montague of Oxford on thepeerage.com , accessed September 12, 2016.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Michael Montague, 66 Vita. Planet Hollywood Inc. Edgar Online. Retrieved February 11, 2014
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Michael Montague. Chairman ZoomInfo.com. Retrieved February 11, 2014
5. ↑ Millennium Commissioners . In: Millennium Commission . Archived from the original on March 30, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2007.
6. ↑ Education (Student Loans) Text of the December 2, 1997 speech
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Late lord's lover has to sell home ( Memento of July 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) in: Oxford Mail of February 29, 2000. Retrieved on February 11, 2014