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{{Short description|British politician (1879–1924)}}
{{distinguish|Edwin Montague}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2015}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = Edwin Montagu
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Edwin Samuel Montagu.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| office = [[Secretary of State for India]]
| term_start = 17 July 1917
| term_end = 19 March 1922
| monarch = [[George V]]
| prime_minister = [[David Lloyd George]]
| predecessor = [[Austen Chamberlain]]
| successor = [[William Wellesley Peel, 1st Earl Peel|The Viscount Peel]]
| office1 = [[Minister of Munitions]]
| term_start1 = 9 July 1916
| term_end1 = 10 December 1916
| prime_minister1 = [[H. H. Asquith]]
| predecessor1 = [[David Lloyd George]]
| successor1 = [[Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison|Christopher Addison]]
| office2 = [[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]]
| term_start2 = 11 January 1916
| term_end2 = 9 July 1916
| monarch2 = [[George V of the United Kingdom|George V]]
| prime_minister2 = [[H. H. Asquith]]
| predecessor2 = [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Herbert Samuel]]
| successor2 = [[Thomas McKinnon Wood]]
| term_start3 = 3 February 1915
| term_end3 = 25 May 1915
| monarch3 = [[George V]]
| prime_minister3 = [[H. H. Asquith]]
| predecessor3 = [[Charles Masterman]]
| successor3 = [[Winston Churchill]]
| office4 = [[Financial Secretary to the Treasury]]
| term_start4 = 25 May 1915
| term_end4 = 11 January 1916
| prime_minister4 = [[H. H. Asquith]]
| predecessor4 = [[Francis Dyke Acland]]
| successor4 = [[Thomas McKinnon Wood]]
| term_start5 = 11 February 1914
| term_end5 = 3 February 1915
| prime_minister5 = [[H. H. Asquith]]
| predecessor5 = [[Charles Masterman]]
| successor5 = [[Francis Dyke Acland]]
| office6 = [[Under-Secretary of State for India]]
| term_start6 = 20 February 1910
| term_end6 = 17 February 1914
| prime_minister6 = [[H. H. Asquith]]
| predecessor6 = [[Alexander Murray, 1st Baron Murray of Elibank|Alexander Murray]]
| successor6 = [[Charles Roberts (British politician)|Charles Roberts]]
| office7 = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Cambridgeshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Cambridgeshire]] {{small|[[Chesterton (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterton]] (1906–1918)}}
| term_start7 = 8 February 1906
| term_end7 = 15 November 1922
| predecessor7 = [[Sir Raymond Greene, 2nd Baronet|Raymond Greene]]
| successor7 = [[Harold Gray (landowner)|Harold Gray]]
| birth_name = Edwin Samuel Montagu
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1879|02|6}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1924|11|15|1879|2|6}}
| death_place =
| party = [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] (Before 1916, 1923–1924)
| other_party = [[Coalition Liberal]] (1916–1922) [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1922)|National Liberal]] (1922–1923)
| spouse = [[Venetia Stanley (1887–1948)|Venetia Stanley]] (1887–1948)
| children = [[Judith Venetia Montagu]] (daughter)
| father = [[Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling]]
| mother = Ellen Cohen
| relatives =
| education =
| alma_mater = [[University College London]] [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]
| occupation =
| profession =
}}
'''Edwin Samuel Montagu''' [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|PC]] (6 February 1879 – 15 November 1924) was a [[Liberal Party (UK)|British Liberal]] politician who served as [[Secretary of State for India]] between 1917 and 1922. Montagu was a "radical" Liberal<ref>Levine, Naomi. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jQQUCgAAQBAJ Politics, Religion, and Love: The Story of H.H. Asquith, Venetia Stanley, and Edwin Montagu]'', 1991, p. 83</ref> and the third practising [[Judaism|Jew]] (after [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Sir Herbert Samuel]] and [[Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading|Sir Rufus Isaacs]]) to serve in the British cabinet.

He was primarily responsible for the [[Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms]] which led to the [[Government of India Act 1919]], committing the British to the eventual evolution of India towards [[British Dominions|dominion status]].

==Early life and career==
Montagu was the second son and sixth child of [[Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling]], by his wife Ellen, daughter of Louis Cohen. He was educated at Doreck College,<ref>"[https://books.google.com/books?id=jQQUCgAAQBAJ Politics, Religion and Love: The Story of H.H. Asquith, Venetia Stanley and Edwin Montagu]" Levine,N.B. pp.29-31: New York; New York University Press; 1991</ref> [[Clifton College]],<ref>"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. pp168/9: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948</ref> the [[City of London School]], [[University College London]] and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=MNTG898ES|name=Montagu, Edwin Samuel}}</ref> At Cambridge, he was the first student president of the [[Cambridge University Liberal Club]] from 1902 to 1903.<ref>[http://keynessociety.wordpress.com/about-the-keynes-society About Us], Keynes Society.</ref> In 1902, he was also president of the [[Cambridge Union]].

==Political career==
[[File:Montagu left.jpg|thumb|left|Edwin Montagu (left), Under-Secretary of State for India, with [[Reginald McKenna]] in 1911.]]
Montagu was elected Member of Parliament for [[Chesterton (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterton]] in 1906, a seat he held until 1918, and then represented [[Cambridgeshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Cambridgeshire]] until 1922. He served under [[H. H. Asquith]] as [[Under-Secretary of State for India]] from 1910 to 1914, as [[Financial Secretary to the Treasury]] from 1914 to 1915 and again from 1915 to 1916 and as [[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]] (with a seat in [[Cabinet (government)|the Cabinet]]) in 1915 and 1916. In 1915 he was sworn of the [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Council]]. In 1916 he was promoted to [[Minister of Munitions]].

Montagu was a friend of Asquith, [[Gertrude Bell]], Lord Lloyd, [[Maurice Hankey]] and [[Duff Cooper]], with whom he dined frequently. When Hankey was promoted to the newly created post of Cabinet Secretary, he recommended Montagu as Minister for National Service, for which he was considered in December 1916 (the job was given in the end to [[Neville Chamberlain]]). Instead he was initially left out of [[David Lloyd George]]'s coalition government in December 1916, but in August 1917 he was appointed [[Secretary of State for India]].<ref>Note, memo, 13 Dec 1916, Milner Papers, box 123, folios 124-8, Roskill, I, p.344-45</ref> Montagu was not initially part of Lloyd George's inner circle, when he became Prime Minister, but he remained in office until his resignation in March 1922.

As Secretary of State, Montagu represented the interests of the [[British Empire]] and opposed the most strident Indian nationalists, calling [[S. Subramania Iyer]] the "Grand old man of South India."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Wilsonian moment : self-determination and the international origins of anticolonial nationalism|last=Erez|first=Manela| publisher = Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195176155|location=Oxford|oclc=176633240|date = 23 July 2007}}</ref> Montagu led the Indian delegation at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] in 1919, where, out of concern about antagonising Indian Muslim opinion, he opposed plans for dividing Turkey (including the Greek occupation of [[İzmir|Smyrna]] and the projected removal of the Sultan from [[Constantinople]]). On this subject, at the [[The Big Four (World War I)|Council of Four]] on 17 May 1919, he introduced representatives of [[Islam in India|Muslim India]] (including the [[Aga Khan III|Aga Khan]]) and urged that Muslim peoples were beginning to see the Conference as "taking sides against Islam".<ref>''The Deliberations of the Council of Four: Notes of the Official Interpreter Paul Mantoux'' tr. A. S. Link (Princeton, 1992) vol. 2 p. 99.</ref>

He was primarily responsible for the [[Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms]] which led to the [[Government of India Act 1919]], committing the British to the eventual evolution of India towards [[British Dominions|dominion status]].

==Anti-Zionism==
{{multiple image
| image1 = The Anti-Semitism of the Present Government, Edwin Montagu, 23 August 1917.jpg
| image2 =
| caption1 = The August 1917 memorandum by Edwin Montagu, the only Jew then in a senior British government position,<ref>{{cite book| title = The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict | last = Schneer | first = Jonathan | year = 2010 | publisher = [[Random House]] | url = https://archive.org/details/balfourdeclarati00schn_0 | via = [[Internet Archive]] | isbn = 978-1-400-06532-5}}</ref>{{rp|193}} stating his opposition to the pro-Zionist [[Balfour Declaration]], and that he viewed it as antisemitic<ref>{{Cite news| title = The myth of the new anti-Semitism: reflections on anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and the importance of making distinctions | last = Klug | first = Brian | author-link = Brian Klug | magazine = [[The Nation]] | url = https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/myth-new-anti-semitism/ | date = 15 January 2004}}</ref>
| caption2 =
| width1 = 215
| width2 =
| footer =
}}

Despite his father's active support for the cause, Montagu was strongly [[anti-Zionism|opposed to Zionism]], which he called "a mischievous political creed", and opposed the [[Balfour Declaration]] of 1917, which he considered [[anti-Semitic]] and whose terms he managed to modify. In a memo to the Cabinet, he outlined his views on Zionism:<blockquote>...I assume that it means that Mahommedans [Muslims] and Christians are to make way for the Jews and that the Jews should be put in all positions of preference and should be peculiarly associated with Palestine in the same way that England is with the English or France with the French, that Turks and other Mahommedans in Palestine will be regarded as foreigners, just in the same way as Jews will hereafter be treated as foreigners in every country but Palestine. Perhaps also citizenship must be granted only as a result of [[Israeli nationality law#Law of Return|a religious test]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Montagu |first=Edwin |title=Memorandum of Edwin Montagu on the Anti-Semitism of the Present (British) Government |date=23 August 1917 |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Montagumemo.html |access-date=7 November 2010}}</ref></blockquote> He was opposed by his cousin Herbert Samuel, a moderate Zionist, who became the first [[High Commissioner]] of the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate of Palestine]]. Edwin Montagu cooperated with the anti-Zionist architect [[Ernest Richmond|Ernest Tatham Richmond]] and significantly supported Richmond's study on the [[Dome of the Rock]].<ref>Moya Tönnies. ''Colonial Diplomacy through Art. Jerusalem 1918–1926''. Leiden: Brill, 2024, 86n, 194, 196n, 275, 278–279, 280, 282–285 (Fig. 17.4).</ref>

==Personal life & death==
[[File:The Jews the world over love liberty poster.jpg|thumb|220px|World War I enlistment poster from Canada, with Jewish members of the British parliament, Montagu (extreme right).]]
In 1912, Montagu accompanied the prime minister on holiday in Sicily. [[H. H. Asquith]] brought along [[Violet Bonham Carter|his daughter Violet]], and she in turn brought her friend [[Venetia Stanley (1887–1948)|Venetia Stanley]], daughter of [[Edward Stanley, 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley]]. It appears that during this holiday, both men fell in love with Stanley.

During the next three years Asquith wrote more and more frequently to her, even during Cabinet meetings. At the same time, Montagu was attempting to court her, unsuccessfully proposing marriage in 1913. She liked him but did not reciprocate his love. Also, Montagu had to marry within his Jewish faith to keep his inheritance. Although Stanley was from a [[Freethought|freethinking]] family and was not a devout [[Anglicanism|Anglican]], [[conversion to Judaism]] seemed too great a barrier. However, Asquith's epistolary obsession with Venetia and his constant demands for advice apparently became overwhelming even for this intelligent and well-read woman, keenly interested in politics as she was. As a result, she finally accepted Montagu's proposal on 28 April 1915. She converted to Judaism, and the couple were wed on 26 July 1915.

In 1923 a child was born, [[Judith Venetia Montagu]]. She grew up to befriend [[Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon|Princess Margaret]] during [[World War II]] and marry the American photographer [[Milton Gendel]], with whom she created an artistic salon in Italy.<ref>"A Six-Decade Roman Holiday". ''Vanity Fair''. November 2011.</ref> They had one child, Anna Mathias (née Gendel), the god-daughter of Princess Margaret.<ref>"Montagu, Viscount". ''Debrett's Peerage'' (2010),</ref>

Despite his wife's affairs, Montagu's marriage lasted until his death in 1924. The cause of his physical deterioration and death at the age of 45 was unknown, but was thought to be either [[blood poisoning]] or [[encephalitis]].<ref name="Levine1991">{{cite book |author=Naomi Levine |title=Politics, Religion, and Love: The Story of H. H. Asquith, Venetia Stanley, and Edwin Montagu, Based on the Life and Letters of Edwin Samuel Montagu |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsreligion0000levi/page/682 |url-access=registration |date=1 September 1991 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-5057-5 |page=682}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
Montagu is a central character in [[Robert Harris (novelist)|Robert Harris]]'s 2024 novel ''Precipice'', which depicts his friendship with, and eventual marriage to, Venetia Stanley.<ref>{{cite book |last=Harris |first=Robert |title=Precipice |publisher=Hutchinson Heinemann |date=2024-08-29 |isbn=978-1-5291-52821}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Liberalism in the United Kingdom]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |last1=Buczacki |first1=Stefan |title=My Darling Mr Asquith |date=2016 |publisher=Cato & Clarke |author-link = Stefan Buczacki|isbn=978-0993418624}}
* {{cite journal|first=Sir Maurice|last=Hankey|title=Note on the Composition of the Secretariat of the War Cabinet|journal=Memorandum |date=13 December 1916|ref=Milner Papers, Box 123, folios 124-8}}
* {{cite book|editor-first=Venetia|editor-last=Montagu|title=Edwin S. Montagu, An Indian Diary|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.7982|location=London|publisher=Heinemann|year=1930}}
* {{cite book|first=Stephen P.|last=Roskill|title=Hankey: Man of Secrets|volume=2 vols, 1877-1918; 1018-1931|publisher=Collins|date=1970}}
* {{cite book|first=Sir Sigismund David|last=Waley|title=Edwin Montagu: A Memoir and an Account of His Visits to India|url=https://archive.org/details/edwinmontagu0000wale|url-access=registration|year=1964|publisher=New York, Asia Pub. House}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Edwin Montagu}}
* {{Hansard-contribs|mr-edwin-montagu|Edwin Montagu}}

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{{s-bef|before=[[Sir Walter Greene, 2nd Baronet|Walter Raymond Greene]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Chesterton (UK Parliament constituency)|Chesterton]]|years=[[1906 United Kingdom general election|1906]]–[[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918]]
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Cambridgeshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Cambridgeshire]]|years=[[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918]]–[[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922]]
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{{s-aft|after=[[Harold Stannus Gray]]}}
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{{succession box|title=[[Under-Secretary of State for India]]|before=[[Alexander Murray, 1st Baron Murray of Elibank|The Master of Elibank]]|after=[[Charles Henry Roberts]]|years=1910–1914}}
{{succession box|title=[[Financial Secretary to the Treasury]]|years=1914–1915|before=[[Charles Masterman]]|after=[[Sir Francis Dyke Acland, 14th Baronet|Francis Dyke Acland]]}}
{{succession box|before=[[Charles Masterman]]|title=[[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]]|years=1915|after=[[Winston Churchill]]}}
{{succession box|title=[[Financial Secretary to the Treasury]]|years=1915–1916|before=[[Sir Francis Dyke Acland, 14th Baronet|Francis Dyke Acland]]|after=[[Thomas McKinnon Wood]]}}
{{succession box|before=[[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Herbert Samuel]]|title=[[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]]|years=1916|after=[[Thomas McKinnon Wood]]}}
{{succession box|before=[[David Lloyd George]]|title=[[Minister of Munitions]]|years=1916|after=[[Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison|Christopher Addison]]}}
{{succession box|before=[[Austen Chamberlain]]|title=[[Secretary of State for India]] | years=1917-1922|after=[[William Peel, 1st Earl Peel|The Viscount Peel]]}}
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{{Minister of Munitions}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Montagu, Edwin Samuel}}
[[Category:1879 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century British Jews]]
[[Category:Secretaries of state for India]]
[[Category:Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Cambridge Union]]
[[Category:Samuel-Montagu family|Edwin]]
[[Category:People educated at the City of London School]]
[[Category:Younger sons of barons]]
[[Category:People educated at Clifton College]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1906–1910]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1910]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1910–1918]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1918–1922]]
[[Category:Jewish British politicians]]
[[Category:National Liberal Party (UK, 1922) politicians]]
[[Category:Jewish British anti-Zionists]]

Edwin Montagu - Revision history

Budhu at 14:03, 24 April 2026