{{Short description|British philanthropist (1838–1903)}} {{Use British English|date=July 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]] | name = The Lord Rowton | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCVO|CB|PC|DL}} | image = Portrait of Montagu Corry, 1st Baron Rowton.jpg | image_size = | caption = Lord Rowton | order1 = [[Private Secretary]] to the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] | term_start1 = 1868 | term_end1 = 1868 | monarch1 = | prime_minister1 = [[Benjamin Disraeli]] | predecessor1 = | successor1 = | term_start2 = 1874 | term_end2 = 1880 | monarch2 = | prime_minister2 = Benjamin Disraeli<br><small>(Earl of Beaconsfield from 1876)</small> | predecessor2 = | successor2 = | birth_name = Montagu William Lowry-Corry | birth_date = 8 October 1838 | birth_place = London | death_date = 9 November 1903 | death_place = | party = | alma_mater = [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] }} '''Montagu William Lowry-Corry, 1st Baron Rowton''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KCVO|CB|PC|DL}} (8 October 1838 – 9 November 1903), also known as "Monty", was a British philanthropist and public servant, best known for serving as [[Benjamin Disraeli|Benjamin Disraeli's]] private secretary from 1866 until the latter's death in 1881.
==Background and education== Born in Grosvenor Square, London,<ref name=CompPeerage>{{cite book|title=The Complete Peerage, Volume XI|year=1949|publisher=St Catherine Press, London|page=214}}</ref> Lowry-Corry was the second son of the Honourable [[Henry Lowry-Corry (1803–1873)|Henry Lowry-Corry]] by his wife Lady Harriet, daughter of [[Cropley Ashley-Cooper, 6th Earl of Shaftesbury|the 6th Earl of Shaftesbury]]. The social reformer, [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury|the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury]], was his maternal uncle.<ref name="thepeerage.com">[http://www.thepeerage.com/p24184.htm thepeerage.com Montagu William Lowry-Corry, 1st and last Baron Rowton]</ref> He was educated at [[Harrow School|Harrow]] and at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], and was [[Call to the Bar|called to the Bar]] in 1863.<ref>{{acad|id=CRY856MW|name=Corry <nowiki>[Lowry Corry]</nowiki>, Montagu William Lowry}}</ref> He practised for three years on the [[Oxford Circuit]].<ref name=SChron>{{cite news|date=13 November 1903|title='The Late Lord Rowton. A Distinguished Salopian|work=The Shrewsbury Chronicle|page=3}}</ref>
==Career== Lowry-Corry's father, a younger son of [[Somerset Lowry-Corry, 2nd Earl Belmore]], represented County Tyrone in [[British House of Commons|parliament]] continuously for forty-seven years (1826–1873), and was a member of [[Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|Lord Derby's]] [[Third Derby–Disraeli ministry|third ministry]] (1866–1868) as [[Vice-President of the Council]] and afterwards as [[First Lord of the Admiralty]]. Lowry-Corry was thus brought up in close touch with Conservative party politics, but it is said to have been his winning personality and social accomplishments rather than his political connections that recommended him to the favourable notice of [[Benjamin Disraeli]], who in 1866 made Lowry-Corry his private secretary. From this time till the statesman's death in 1881 Corry maintained his connection with Disraeli, the relations between the two men being more intimate and confidential than usually subsist between a private secretary and his political chief.
When Disraeli resigned office in 1868 Lowry-Corry declined various offers of public employment to be free to continue his services, now unpaid, to the Conservative leader. When the latter returned to power in 1874, Corry resumed his position as official private secretary to the prime minister. He accompanied Disraeli (who in 1876 had been ennobled as Earl of Beaconsfield) to the [[Congress of Berlin]] in 1878, where he acted as one of the secretaries of the special embassy of Great Britain. In the latter year he was awarded the [[Companion of the Order of the Bath|CB]], in the Civil Division.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=24609 |date=30 July 1878 |page=4367}}</ref><ref name=CompPeerage />
On the defeat of the Conservatives in 1880, Corry was raised to the [[Peerages in the United Kingdom|peerage]] as '''Baron Rowton''', ''of [[Rowton Castle]] in the [[County of Shropshire]]'' on 6 May 1880,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=24840 |date=30 April 1880 |page=2786 }}</ref> which was then his country residence and ultimately inherited in 1889 from his maternal aunt, Lady Charlotte Barbara Lyster.<ref name=CompPeerage /> He was a [[Deputy Lieutenant|DL]] and [[Justice of the Peace|JP]] for the same county.<ref name=SChron />
Lord Rowton was in [[Algiers]] when Beaconsfield was stricken with his last illness in the spring of 1881; but returning post-haste across Europe, he was present at the death-bed of his old chief. Beaconsfield bequeathed to Rowton all his correspondence and other papers. In 1897 he was made [[Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order|KCVO]]<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=26871 |date=9 July 1897 |page=3819}}</ref><ref name=CompPeerage /> and in 1900 he was sworn of the [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Council]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27153 |date=12 January 1900 |page=221 }}</ref>
Lord Rowton is also well-remembered as a philanthropist as the originator of the [[Rowton Houses]], six large hostels for working men which were much better than existing [[lodging house]]s. He was inspired by projects of that kind founded by [[Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh|Lord Iveagh]] in [[Dublin]] and at the time of his death was chairman of both the Rowton Houses Company and the [[Guinness Trust]].<ref name=SChron /> In 1890 he served as treasurer of the [[Royal Salop Infirmary|Salop Infirmary]] in [[Shrewsbury]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Keeling-Roberts|first=Margaret|title=In Retrospect: A Short History of The Royal Salop Infirmary|year=1981|publisher=North Shropshire Printing Company|pages=xiii, 37|isbn=0-9507849-0-7}}</ref>
==Personal life== [[Image:Caricature of The Earl of Beaconsfield and Mr Montagu Corry.jpg|200px|thumb|Lord Rowton (right) with his master, [[Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield|Benjamin Disraeli]]]] Lord Rowton never married.<ref name="thepeerage.com"/> He is alleged to have had an affair with [[Violet Manners, Duchess of Rutland|Violet, Marchioness of Granby]], and also alleged to be the father of [[Violet Benson (English artist)|Lady Violet Manners]], legally the second daughter of her mother's husband, [[Henry Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland|the 8th Duke of Rutland]]. Lady Violet, known as Letty, married firstly Hugo Charteris, Lord Elcho (killed in action 1916), and was mother of two sons, [[David Charteris, 12th Earl of Wemyss|the 12th Earl of Wemyss]] and [[Martin Charteris|Lord Charteris of Amisfield]].<ref>Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (107th ed.) London, 2010</ref>
Lord Rowton died at his London home in Berkeley Square<ref name=CompPeerage /> in November 1903, aged 65.<ref name="thepeerage.com"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Death of Lord Rowton. He Was Beaconsfield's Private Secretary and, It Was Long Thought, Would Write That Statesman's Biography.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1903/11/10/archives/death-of-lord-rowton-he-was-beaconsfields-private-secre-tary-and-it.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=10 November 1903 |accessdate=12 May 2011 }}</ref> He was buried in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]], and is also commemorated by a plaque at St Michael's Parish Church, [[Alberbury]], in whose parish Rowton Castle lies.<ref name=CompPeerage />
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Montagu Corry, 1st Baron Rowton}}
{{S-start}} {{s-reg|uk}} {{s-new | creation}} {{s-ttl | title = [[Baron Rowton]] | years = 1880–1903 }} {{s-non | reason = Extinct }} {{s-end}}
{{Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowton, Montagu Corry}} [[Category:1838 births]] [[Category:1903 deaths]] [[Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order]] [[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]] [[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:People educated at Harrow School]] [[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Lowry-Corry family|Montagu]] [[Category:Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria]]