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Montague Russell PageOBE (1 November 1906 – 4 January 1985) was a British gardener,garden designer andlandscape architect. He worked in the UK, western Europe and the United States of America.
Montague Russell Page was born inLincolnshire, the second son of the three children of Ida Flora,née Martin (1875–1963) and her husband, Harold Ethelbert Page (1876-1966), a solicitor inLincoln.[1] He was educated atCharterhouse School in Surrey (1918–24), going on to study in London at theSlade School of Fine Art in London University (1924–26), under ProfessorHenry Tonks. From 1927 to 1932 he studied art in Paris, and took some small gardening jobs in France.
He began his professional career with projects inRutland (1928), and chateaux in France atMelun (1930) andBoussy Saint-Antoine (1932). On his return to the UK, Page was employed by the landscape architectRichard Sudell, and he began remodelling the gardens atLongleat – a work which would continue for many years. Between 1934 and 1938, he contributed articles to the periodicalLandscape and Gardening. From 1935 to 1939 he worked in partnership withGeoffrey Jellicoe. Page and Jellicoe designed the landscape and building for the 'Caveman Restaurant' atCheddar Gorge on the Longleat estate inSomerset, and worked at the Royal Lodge, Windsor;Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire; Holme House,Regent's Park, London; Broadway in theCotswolds; and Charterhouse school. During this period, Page also worked atLeeds Castle, Kent (1936 and later); château Le Vert-Bois in France (1937); château de la Hulpe, Belgium (1937) and château de Mivoisin, France (1937 – 1950s).
DuringWorld War II, Page served in the UK'sPolitical Warfare Department in France, the United States, Egypt and Sri Lanka.
After the war, Page went on to design gardens in Europe and the United States. His clients included:
His works include theNational Capitol Columns inWashington'sUnited States National Arboretum[2] and theTenuta di San Liberato, Bracciano near Rome.
In 1947, Page married Lida Gurdjieff, a niece of the spiritual teacherG. I. Gurdjieff, and together they had one son, David. They divorced in 1954. In 1954, Page married Mme Vera Milanova Daumal, widow of the poetRene Daumal and former wife of the poetHendrick Kramer. She died in 1962.
Page's autobiography,The Education of a Gardener, was published in 1962.[3]
Page died on 4 January 1985 in London and was buried in an unmarked grave in Badminton, Gloucestershire.[1]
In an interview by Christopher Woodward inThe Telegraph, Page's niece, Vanessa showed Woodward some of the "treasured fragments" of her uncle's life, including a pamphlet on medicinal herbs by the writer and thinker,Idries Shah who, she explained, was a teacher in theSufimystical tradition, and who became "Page's spiritual mentor in Sixties London."[4]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) 945 pages Publisher: Hacker Art Books; Facsimile edition (June 1972)ISBN 0878170081;ISBN 978-0878170081.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| International | |
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