1629 Edwin Montagu

Constituency : Chesterton  1906-18, Cambridgeshire  1918-22

Edwin  took  Chesterton  from  the  Tories.

Edwin  was  the  son  of  the  former  Whitechapel  MP , Samuel  Montagu  and  cousin  to  Herbert  Samuel. He  was  educated  at  Clifton  College  and  Cambridge  where  he  became  president  of  the  Union. He  was  Jewish. He  had  a reputation  as  a  thoughtful  and  impressive  orator. He  was  a  radical  who  supported  the  direction  of  travel  towards  social  reform. He  wrote  a  book  called  Canada  and  the  Empire. He  refused  to  become  a  barrister  which  enraged  his  father.

Once  in  Parliament , Edwin  became Asquith's  parliamentary  private  secretary and part  of  his  social  set  although  the  latter  gave  him  the  charmingly  racist  nickname "The  Assyrian"  in  correspondence. He  was  a  fairly  quiet  member  at  first  but  was  observed  supporting  Asquith  and  his  ability  slowly  began  to  be  recognised.  He  also  made  enemies  of  Charles  Dilke  over  taxation  and  Rosebery  over  land  reform. In  1910  he  was  made  under  secretary  of  state  for  India.

In  1912  Edwin  holidayed  in  Sicily  with  Asquith. The  PM  was  accompanied  by  his  daughter  Violet  who  brought  along  her  friend  Venetia. Both  men  became  obsessed  with  her. While  Asquith  channelled  his  desire  into  incessant  correspondence  Edwin  proposed  to  her  the  following  year. She  declined  partly  because  he  had  to  marry  into  the  Jewish  faith  to  keep  his  inheritance  and  she  was  unwilling  to  convert.

In  1914  Edwin  was  promoted  to  Financial  Secretary  to  the  Treasury. He  briefly  relinquished  it  when  promoted  to  the  Cabinet  as  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster  but  soon  took  it  up  again.

In  1915  Venetia  finally  accepted  Edwin's  proposal  and   converted  to  Judaism  before  they  were  married.

In  1916  Edwin  took  over  from  Lloyd  George  as  Minister  of  Munitions. When  Lloyd  George   became  Prime  Minister,  Edwin  was  in  a  difficult  position, wanting  to  continue  his  career  yet  not  happy  about  deserting  his  friend. Lloyd  George  initially  helped  him  out  by  not  considering  him  for  office  but  he  had  a  powerful  advocate  in  Maurice  Hankey, the  Cabinet   Secretary  and  in  1917  he  rejoined  the  Cabinet  as  Secretary  of  State  for  India.

Edwin  was  not  afraid  to  speak  his  mind  and  strongly  opposed  the  Balfour  Declaration  which  he  regarded  as  anti-semitic. In  a  memo  to  Cabinet  he  wrote  that  "Jews  will  hereafter  be  treated  as  foreigners  in  every  country but  Palestine". He  managed  to  modify  the  wording.

In  1918  Edwin  switched  to  Cambridgeshire  and  had  an  easy  victory  over  an  Independent  Labour  candidate.

Edwin  went  to  the  Paris  Peace  Conference  to  speak  for  India's  interests  and  opposed  plans  for  dismemberment  of  Turkey, fearing  the  effects  of  this  policy on  India's  Muslim  population.

Edwin  was  an  enlightened  administrator  and  dealt  with  the  rise  of  Gandhi  calmly. He  came  up  with  a  reform  plan  embodied  in  the  Government  of  India  Act  1919  leading  towards  dominion  status. He  was  viciously  attacked  in  anti-semitic  terms  by  his  supposed  Conservative  allies  in  the  Commons.

In  1922  Edwin   resigned  in  frustration  at  the  slow  pace  of  reform. In  the  election  that  year  he  came  third.

By  that  time,  Edwin's health  was  in  decline. He  died  in  1924  aged  45  possibly  from  encephalitis.