{{Short description|British politician (1906–1995)}} {{For|the admiral|Victor Montagu (Royal Navy officer)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Victor Montagu | image = Victor Montagu.png | caption = Victor, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, in 1943 | office1 = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[South Dorset (UK Parliament constituency)|South Dorset]] | term_start1 = 22 February 1941 | term_end1 = 15 June 1962 | predecessor1 = [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury|Viscount Cranborne]] | successor1 = [[Guy Barnett (British politician)|Guy Barnett]] | birth_name = Alexander Victor Edward Paulet Montagu | birth_date = {{Birth date |1906|05|22|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death-date and age|25 February 1995|22 May 1906}} | death_place = | party = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] | spouse = {{Plainlist| * {{marriage |[[Rosemary Peto]] |1934 |1958 |end=div}} * {{marriage |Lady Anne Holland-Martin |1962 |1965 |end=div }} }} | children = 7 | parents = [[George Montagu, 9th Earl of Sandwich]] (father)<br>[[Alberta Montagu, Countess of Sandwich|Alberta Sturges]] (mother) | education = [[Eton College]] | alma_mater = [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] }}
[[File:Coat of Arms of Earl of Sandwich.jpg|thumb|Coat of arms of the Earls of Sandwich]] '''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 Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (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 between 31 December 1970 and January 1972.<ref name=Guardian20150515>Laville, Sandra; Travis, Alan (15 May 2015).[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/15/tory-mp-victor-montagu-escaped-child-sex-abuse-trial-in-1970s "Tory MP Victor Montagu escaped child sex abuse trial in 1970s"]. ''The Guardian''. London.</ref>
==Early life== Montagu was the eldest son of [[George Montagu, 9th Earl of Sandwich|The 9th Earl of Sandwich]] and his wife, [[Alberta Montagu, Countess of Sandwich|Alberta Sturges]]. He was an older brother of [[Lady Mary Faith Montagu]] and the novelist [[Lady Elizabeth Montagu]]. He was educated at [[Eton College|Eton]] and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. In 1926, he joined the [[5th (Huntingdonshire) Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment]], as a [[Lieutenant]].
==Political career== A member of the Conservative Party, Lord Hinchingbrooke, as he then was, was Private Secretary to the [[Lord President of the Council]], [[Stanley Baldwin]], 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]]. A year later, he was elected MP for [[South Dorset (UK Parliament constituency)|South Dorset]], replacing [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury|Viscount Cranborne]], who was called up to the [[House of Lords]]. A radical [[backbencher]], Lord Hinchingbrooke set up the [[Tory Reform Committee]] 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 [[United Kingdom general elections|general 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 of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], 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 (UK Parliament constituency)|Accrington]] at the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Socialist Cotton Vote that Melted |newspaper=[[The Times]] |location= London |date=14 October 1964|page=15}}</ref> Although he did not sit in the House of Commons again, Montagu was President of the [[Anti Common Market and Free Trade Party|Anti-Common Market League]] from 1962 to 1984; he also joined the [[Conservative Monday Club]] in 1964 and wrote ''The Conservative Dilemma'' in 1970.
==Personal life== Victor, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, married the artist [[Rosemary Peto]] (1916–1998), only daughter of [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]] Ralph Peto and a goddaughter of [[Maud of Wales|Queen Maud of Norway]], on 27 July 1934; they were divorced in 1958, after they had seven children.
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".<ref name=Guardian20150515/>
Lord Hinchingbrooke was married a second time to [[Lady]] Anne Holland-Martin (née Cavendish), the youngest daughter of [[Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire|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]] 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]], MP, and the wife of [[Henry Hunloke]], MP.
Montagu died in 1995, aged 88.
==Sources== {{reflist}} *[http://www.burkes-peerage.net Burke's Peerage & Gentry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314223944/http://www.burkes-peerage.net/ |date=14 March 2007 }}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | viscount-hinchingbrooke-1 | Victor Montagu }} * {{cite news|title=Obituary: Victor Montagu|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-victor-montagu-1609643.html|work=[[The Independent]]|date=2 March 1995}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title=[[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[South Dorset (UK Parliament constituency)|South Dorset]] | before=[[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury|Viscount Cranborne]] | after=[[Guy Barnett (British politician)|Guy Barnett]] | years=1941–1962}} {{s-reg|en}} {{s-bef|before=[[George Montagu, 9th Earl of Sandwich|George Montagu]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Earl of Sandwich]]|years=1962–1964}} {{s-vac|disclaimed|next=[[John Montagu, 11th Earl of Sandwich|John Montagu]]}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Montagu, Victor}} [[Category:1906 births]] [[Category:1995 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century English criminals]] [[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]] [[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]] [[Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]] [[Category:Earls of Sandwich|10]] [[Category:English sex offenders]] [[Category:Montagu family|Victor]] [[Category:Northamptonshire Regiment officers]] [[Category:People educated at Eton College]] [[Category:People educated at West Downs School]] [[Category:UK MPs 1935–1945|Hinchingbrooke]] [[Category:UK MPs 1945–1950|Hinchingbrooke]] [[Category:UK MPs 1950–1951|Hinchingbrooke]] [[Category:UK MPs 1951–1955|Hinchingbrooke]] [[Category:UK MPs 1955–1959|Hinchingbrooke]] [[Category:UK MPs 1959–1964|Hinchingbrooke]] [[Category:UK MPs who inherited peerages|Sandwich, E10]] [[Category:Violence against men in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:People who disclaimed peerages|Sandwich]] [[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for South Dorset]]