The Right Honourable Edwin Montagu
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 3 February – 25 May 1915
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	H. H. Asquith
Preceded by	Charles Masterman
Succeeded by	Winston Churchill
In office 11 January – 9 July 1916
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	H. H. Asquith
Preceded by	Herbert Samuel
Succeeded by	Thomas McKinnon Wood
Secretary of State for India
In office 17 July 1917 – 19 March 1922
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Austen Chamberlain
Succeeded by	The Viscount Peel
Personal details
Born	(1879-02-06)6 February 1879
Died	15 November 1924(1924-11-15) (aged 45)
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Venetia Stanley (1887–1948)
Relatives	Judith Venetia Montagu (daughter)
Alma mater	University College London Trinity College, Cambridge

Edwin Samuel MontaguPC (6 February 1879 – 15 November 1924) was aBritish Liberal politician who served asSecretary of State for India between 1917 and 1922. Montagu was a "radical" Liberal^[1] and the third practisingJew (afterSir Herbert Samuel andSir Rufus Isaacs) to serve in the British cabinet.

He was primarily responsible for theMontagu–Chelmsford Reforms which led to theGovernment of India Act 1919, committing the British to the eventual evolution of India towardsdominion status.

Montagu was the second son and sixth child ofSamuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling, by his wife Ellen, daughter of Louis Cohen. He was educated at Doreck College,^[2]Clifton College,^[3] theCity of London School,University College London andTrinity College, Cambridge.^[4] At Cambridge, he was the first student president of theCambridge University Liberal Club from 1902 to 1903.^[5] In 1902, he was also president of theCambridge Union.

Montagu was elected Member of Parliament forChesterton in 1906, a seat he held until 1918, and then representedCambridgeshire until 1922. He served underH. H. Asquith asUnder-Secretary of State for India from 1910 to 1914, asFinancial Secretary to the Treasury from 1914 to 1915 and again from 1915 to 1916 and asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (with a seat inthe Cabinet) in 1915 and 1916. In 1915 he was sworn of thePrivy Council. In 1916 he was promoted toMinister of Munitions.

Montagu was a friend of Asquith,Gertrude Bell, Lord Lloyd,Maurice Hankey andDuff 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 toNeville Chamberlain). Instead he was initially left out ofDavid Lloyd George's coalition government in December 1916, but in August 1917 he was appointedSecretary of State for India.^[6] 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 theBritish Empire and opposed the most strident Indian nationalists, callingS. Subramania Iyer the "Grand old man of South India."^[7] Montagu led the Indian delegation at theParis Peace Conference in 1919, where he opposed plans for dividing Turkey (including the Greek occupation ofSmyrna and the projected removal of the Sultan fromConstantinople). On this subject, at theCouncil of Four on 17 May 1919, he introduced representatives ofMuslim India (including theAga Khan) and urged that Muslim peoples were beginning to see the Conference as "taking sides against Islam".^[8]

He was primarily responsible for theMontagu–Chelmsford Reforms which led to theGovernment of India Act 1919, committing the British to the eventual evolution of India towardsdominion status.

The August 1917 memorandum by Edwin Montagu, the only Jew then in a senior British government position,^[9]: 193 stating his opposition to the pro-ZionistBalfour Declaration, and that he viewed it as antisemitic^[10]

Despite his father's active support for the cause, Montagu was stronglyopposed to Zionism, which he called "a mischievous political creed", and opposed theBalfour Declaration of 1917, which he consideredanti-Semitic and whose terms he managed to modify. In a memo to the Cabinet, he outlined his views on Zionism:

...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 ofa religious test.^[11]

He was opposed by his cousin Herbert Samuel, a moderate Zionist, who became the firstHigh Commissioner of theBritish Mandate of Palestine.

In 1912, Montagu accompanied the prime minister on holiday in Sicily.H. H. Asquith brought alonghis daughter Violet, and she in turn brought her friendVenetia Stanley, daughter ofEdward 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 afreethinking family and was not a devoutAnglican,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 befriendPrincess Margaret duringWorld War II and marry the American photographerMilton Gendel, with whom she created an artistic salon in Italy.^[12] They had one child, Anna Mathias (née Gendel), the god-daughter of Princess Margaret.^[13]

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 eitherblood poisoning orencephalitis.^[14]

• Liberalism in the United Kingdom

• Hankey, Sir Maurice (13 December 1916). "Note on the Composition of the Secretariat of the War Cabinet".Memorandum.
• Montagu, Venetia, ed. (1930).Edwin S. Montagu, An Indian Diary. London: Heinemann.
• Roskill, Stephen P. (1970).Hankey: Man of Secrets. Vol. 2 vols,1877–1918,1018–1931. Collins.
• Waley, Sir Sigismund David (1964).Edwin Montagu: A Memoir and an Account of His Visits to India. New York, Asia Pub. House.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toEdwin Montagu.

• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Edwin Montagu

• Secretaries of State for India
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