On This Day

06 February 1879

Birth of Edwin Montagu, Liberal MP for Chesterton 1906-18 and Cambridgeshire 1918-22

Well-connected in Liberal circles – his father Samuel Montagu was Liberal MP for Whitechapel (1885-1900) and he was a cousin of fellow Liberal MP Herbert Samuel. He served as Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster and Minister of Munitions in Asquith’s wartime coalition cabinet and was later promoted by Lloyd George to the India Office in 1917. As Secretary of State, Montagu led the Indian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and introduced the Government of India Act (1919) which committed the British to eventual Dominion status for India. In 1915 Montagu married Venetia Stanley much to the distress of Prime Minister Asquith who had become enamoured of her and spent many a cabinet meeting writing long letters to Venetia. The marriage was not a happy one but endured until Montagu’s death aged 45 in November 1924.