Alexander Victor Edward Paulet Montagu (22 May 1906 – 25 February 1995), known as Viscount Hinchingbrooke from 1916 to 1962, as the Earl of Sandwich from 1962 to 1964 (when he disclaimed his peerages) and as Victor Montagu from 1964 to 1995, was a British

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP). He was usually known to family and friends as 'Hinch Hinchingbrooke' or 'Hinch Sandwich' or, later, as 'Hinch Montagu'. In 2015, it was revealed that he was cautioned for indecently assaulting a child for a period of two years between 31 December 1970 and January 1972.Laville, Sandra; Travis, Alan (15 May 2015
"Tory MP Victor Montagu escaped child sex abuse trial in 1970s"
''The Guardian''. London.

Early life

Montagu was the eldest son of The 9th Earl of Sandwich and his wife,

Alberta Sturges Alberta Montagu, Countess of Sandwich (née Sturges; 7 September 1877 – 23 October 1951) was an American heiress, diarist, and letter writer who was the wife of George Montagu, 9th Earl of Sandwich. Like many Gilded Age debutantes from the Uni ...

. He was an older brother of Lady Mary Faith Montagu and the novelist

Lady Elizabeth Montagu Lady Elizabeth Montagu, known as Betty Montagu, (4 July 1917 – 10 January 2006) was a British novelist, nurse, and art collector. The daughter of the 9th Earl of Sandwich and the American heiress Alberta Sturges, she grew up at Hinchingbrook ...

. He was educated at Eton and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. In 1926, he joined the

5th (Huntingdonshire) Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment The Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion was a bicycle infantry battalion of the British Army. Formed in the Territorial Force in February 1914, it remained in the United Kingdom throughout the First World War. After the war, in 1920, it was conve ...

, as a

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

Political career

A member of the Conservative Party, Lord Hinchingbrooke, as he then was, was Private Secretary to the

Lord President of the Council The lord president of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. The Lord ...

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

, from 1932 to 1934 and Treasurer of the Junior Imperial League from 1934 to 1935. He briefly served in France in 1940, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. A year later, he was elected MP for

South Dorset South Dorset is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Richard Drax, a Conservative. The constituency was created as a consequence of the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, although the area cove ...

, replacing

Viscount Cranborne A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

, who was called up to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

. A radical

backbencher In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the ...

, Lord Hinchingbrooke set up the

Tory Reform Committee A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

in 1943, and was its founding chairman until a year later. It was at this time he wrote ''Essays in Tory Reform'', a response to the party's moves toward liberalism. Hinchingbrooke was elected in the following five

general elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, and continued as MP for South Dorset until 1962 when his father died. Viscount Hinchingbrooke succeeded to his father's titles and automatically joined the House of Lords, meaning he could no longer sit in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

, and as such resigned his seat. Lord Sandwich, as he had become, disclaimed his peerages in 1964, however, under the Peerage Act 1963. As Victor Montagu, he unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative candidate at

Accrington Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...

at the 1964 general election. Although he did not sit in the House of Commons again, Montagu was President of the

Anti-Common Market League Get Britain Out is a United Kingdom based independent cross-party grassroots Eurosceptic Group which campaigned for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. The campaign is still in operation and is pushing for the UK to break away fr ...

from 1962 to 1984; he also joined the

Conservative Monday Club The Conservative Monday Club (usually known as the Monday Club) is a British political pressure group, aligned with the Conservative Party, though no longer endorsed by it. It also has links to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unioni ...

in 1964 and wrote ''The Conservative Dilemma'' in 1970.

Personal life

Victor, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, married the artist

Rosemary Peto Maud Rosemary Peto (1916–1998) was a British painter and artist. She was titled Viscountess Hinchingbroke from 1934 to 1958. Biography Peto was born in London to Major Sir Ralph Harding Peto and Frances Ruby Vera Lindsay, a family of artist ...

(1916–1998), only daughter of

Major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

Ralph Peto and a goddaughter of

Queen Maud of Norway Maud of Wales (Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria; 26 November 1869 – 20 November 1938) was the Queen of Norway as the wife of King Haakon VII. The youngest daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, she was known as P ...

, on 27 July 1934; they were divorced in 1958, after they had seven children. Montagu was

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

. His youngest son, therapist Robert Montagu, has since alleged that his father sexually abused him on an almost daily basis from the ages of seven to eleven. In addition to his son's allegations of child sexual abuse, in 2015, Freedom of Information requests revealed that Victor Montagu "was let off with a caution by police and the director of public prosecutions in 1972 for indecently assaulting a boy for a duration of nearly two years". Lord Hinchingbrooke was married a second time to

Lady The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Inf ...

Anne Holland-Martin (née Cavendish), the youngest daughter of The 9th Duke of Devonshire, on 7 June 1962, but they were to divorce in 1965 (she became in the same year the mother-in-law of his daughter Lady Katherine, wife of her son Nicholas Hunloke). He succeeded as The 10th

Earl of Sandwich Earl of Sandwich is a noble title in the Peerage of England, held since its creation by the House of Montagu. It is nominally associated with Sandwich, Kent. It was created in 1660 for the prominent naval commander Admiral Sir Edward Montagu. ...

upon his father's death on 15 June 1962, about a week after his second marriage. Lady Anne was the widow of

Christopher Holland-Martin Christopher John Holland-Martin (16 November 1910 – 5 April 1960) was a British banker and Conservative Party politician. Early career The son of the Chairman of Martins Bank, Holland-Martin was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxfor ...

, MP, and the wife of

Henry Hunloke Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Philip Hunloke TD (27 December 1906 – 13 January 1978) was a British Conservative politician. Early life Hunloke was born in Marylebone, London, the only son of Philip Hunloke and the former Sylvia Heseltine. ...

, MP. Victor Montagu died in 1995, aged 88.

Sources

Burke's Peerage & Gentry

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Montagu, Victor 1906 births 1995 deaths 20th-century English criminals Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British Army personnel of World War II Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Sanwich, Victor Montagu, 10th Earl of English sex offenders LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom LGBT military personnel English LGBT politicians Victor Montagu, 8th Earl of Sandwich Northamptonshire Regiment officers People educated at Eton College People educated at West Downs School Hinchingbrooke Hinchingbrooke Hinchingbrooke Hinchingbrooke Hinchingbrooke Hinchingbrooke Sandwich, E10 Violence against men in the United Kingdom