Lord Montagu of Beaulieu Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3Rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, 20 October 1926 – 31 August 2015
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MUSEUMnews NATIONAL HERITAGE MUSEUMS ACTION MOVEMENT OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 Lord Montagu of Beaulieu Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, 20 October 1926 – 31 August 2015 Edward, 3rd Baron Montagu Estate was sold to Lord Montagu’s James Bishop writes: In 1974 of Beaulieu, was the devoted ancestor, Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Lord Montagu entered his custodian of his family’s 7,000- Earl of Southampton, by Henry National Motor Museum acre Beaulieu Estate in Hampshire. VIII in 1538. for the Museum of the Year Montagu’s birth in 1926 came as He was also a champion of the Awards. It caused some debate historic vehicle movement and a great relief to his father, who at among the judges: one, a founder of the National Motor the age of 61 was desperate for a Museum. He played a major male heir to his title and the estate. retired director of a London role in the preservation of After finally fathering the son he art museum, was concerned England’s historic houses and the had longed for, it was a sad irony that motor cars were not development of the UK tourism that John Montagu died in 1929 an appropriate subject for a industry. leaving Beaulieu to be managed museum. Reluctantly, he was Edward Montagu inherited by his widow and trustees until persuaded to visit Beaulieu and the Beaulieu Estate on the death Edward reached the age of 25. was greatly excited by what of his father, John Montagu, a By the age of two, Edward he saw. The museum won motoring pioneer, when he was Montagu was thus already a peer the award, sponsored at that just two years old. The family seat, of the realm, and gradually came time by National Heritage and to realise he was also heir to an Palace House, was built around The Illustrated London News, the original gatehouse of Beaulieu estate. In 1937, at the age of ten, and Montagu became an avid Abbey, a Cistercian monastery he attended the coronation of founded on land granted to the King George VI. The youngest supporter of the charity. Order by King John in 1204. The This article first appeared in The Times Continued on page 2 10 September 2015. peer in attendance, he wore a in trouble” he would later write. being, the house was a white special costume for minor peers In his second year at university elephant”, he would later say. “The and carried a black velvet bag an altercation between the wise solution was to get rid of it. containing sandwiches to sustain Bullingdon Club and the Oxford For me, however – neither entirely him through the day. University Dramatic Society led to sensible nor rational – that was In 1936 he went to boarding his room being wrecked, and he unthinkable.” school, attending St Peter’s Court, felt obliged to leave. Various solutions were Broadstairs, a feeder school for Edward Montagu was now considered, but eventually he Eton College where his name was determined to carve out a career decided to open the house to the already down. However, just as for himself. “Some eldest sons paying public (the abbey ruins and he was about to go to Eton, war were sufficiently affluent to retreat grounds had already been open intervened and he and two of his to the family estates and lead for many years). In his own words, sisters were evacuated to Canada, Edward Montagu’s early attempts to attract visitors to the house were “charmingly amateurish”. Palace House was not as grand as other stately homes, such as Longleat, which had opened its doors a couple of years earlier. What was needed, therefore, was an extra ingredient. Montagu later recounted: “What catapulted me permanently into the major league for the future was the idea of commemorating my father’s life… by exhibiting veteran cars. Without it, my life would have been very different and I doubt whether I would have been able to remain as owner and occupier of where they would spend the next a life entirely devoted to their my ancestral home.” two and a half years. He returned management and enjoyment”, he The idea would prove to be a to England when he was nearly said. “This was not an option for winner. In 1952, there were no sixteen and belatedly took up his me, nor did I want it.” other motor museums in the place at Eton. Instead, he secured a position country and it also gave Montagu In 1945, having completed with the advertising and public the opportunity to pay tribute to his schooling, he joined the relations agency Voice and Vision, the father he had never known, Grenadier Guards and was where his first job was to launch who as an MP had been an eager posted to Palestine as part of a the now classic comic Eagle. He campaigner for the needs of peacekeeping force. When he left publicised the first issue by hiring early motorists, and publisher of the army at the age of 21, he went a fleet of Daimlers mounted with the first motoring journal Car to New College Oxford where he huge model eagles to tour the Illustrated. The only drawback read modern history. During this country distributing vouchers for to this plan was that, at the time, time, he also took his seat in the the first issue. Over a million were he only had one veteran car, a House of Lords, where his maiden printed and all were sold. 1903 6hp De Dion Bouton which speech was about his experience When Edward Montagu took had previously been used by the in Palestine. over the running of the Beaulieu estate electrician. A call-out to the A keen party-goer, Montagu Estate on his 25th birthday in Society of Motor Manufacturers enjoyed mixing with the artistic 1951, he found that he could and Traders produced the and bohemian set as well as being expect only £1,500 a year from his additional exhibits he needed to part of conventional society. “I inheritance, a figure that would start a small motor museum in the suppose I should have realised that barely cover running costs. “In front hall of Palace House. sooner or later… I would end up 1951, to any sensible, rational On opening day, Edward 2 Montagu told his private house in 1957 recommended the guests that if they received more decriminalisation of homosexual than a hundred visitors by 6pm acts between consenting adults they would have champagne with in private. A decade later, dinner. The doors opened at 11am this recommendation was and by 12.30pm the hundredth implemented. Speaking on visitor passed through: they had the fiftieth anniversary of the champagne with lunch. publication of the Wolfenden Soon after the opening of Report, Edward Montagu said, the house, Edward Montagu “I am proud ... that the so-called embarked on a lecture tour of Montagu Case had more effect on America to publicise both his changing the laws than any other stately home and Britain’s other factor... I think because of the historic houses. It proved a great way we behaved and conducted success. However, on his return he our lives afterwards, because we would face a difficult time. didn’t sell our stories, just returned later recognised as pioneering The infamous Montagu trials of quietly to our lives ... that had a events in the burgeoning music 1953 and 1954 resulted in the peer big effect on public opinion.” festival movement that followed, being charged with homosexual By 1956 the vehicle collection, and top performers such as acts, which were then illegal. which now included several John Dankworth, Cleo Laine, He pleaded not guilty but was motorcycles, had outgrown the Humphrey Lyttleton and George convicted and given a twelve- house and Montagu established a Melly drew large audiences to month sentence. On his release, separate home for them in some Beaulieu. However, after what he immediately went about large sheds in the grounds. The became known as the ‘Battle of Montagu Motor Museum was Beaulieu’ at the 1960 festival, born. In the same year, he also involving rival gangs of modern launched Veteran and Vintage and traditional jazz fans, followed magazine, which he published by further trouble in 1961 when until its sale to IPC in 1979 (it 20,000 visitors crowded in for later became Collectors’ Cars the weekend, Lord Montagu and eventually Classic Cars). reluctantly called a halt to the Over the years he also became a events as they were having a successful author, The Gilt and detrimental effect on the village the Gingerbread, The Motoring and the patience of its residents. Montagus and Jaguar: A Biography Undaunted, Edward Montagu being the best known of the 21 put his energy into other ventures. books he wrote on motoring and Ever the entrepreneur, he noticed heritage topics. that the owners of old cars were rebuilding his life and developing By 1959 the vehicle collection having difficulty obtaining the estate. While not wanting to had grown even further, and authentic tyres, so in 1962 he hide his bisexuality, he was also a new building was therefore co-founded Vintage Tyre Supplies determined to keep his private life constructed. It was officially which remains the world’s largest private and refused to comment opened by Lord Brabazon of supplier of original equipment on the events of the trial, a silence Tara in the presence of many tyres for veteran, vintage and broken only in 2002 with the luminaries from the world of classic cars.