Edwin Montagu

The Right Honourable Edwin Samuel Montagu


Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 3 February – 25 May 1915
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Herbert Henry Asquith
Preceded by	Charles Masterman
Succeeded by	Winston Churchill
In office 11 January – 9 July 1916
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Herbert Henry Asquith
Preceded by	Herbert Samuel
Succeeded by	Thomas McKinnon Wood
Secretary of State for India
In office 17 July 1917 – 19 March 1922
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Austen Chamberlain
Succeeded by	The Viscount Peel

Personal details
Born	(1879-02-06)6 February 1879
Died	15 November 1924(1924-11-15) (aged 45)
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Venetia Stanley (1887–1948)
Alma mater	University College London Trinity College, Cambridge

Edwin Samuel Montagu PC (6 February 1879 – 15 November 1924) was a British Liberal politician who served as Secretary of State for India between 1917 and 1922. Montagu was a "radical" Liberal and the third practising Jew (after Sir Herbert Samuel and Sir Rufus Isaacs) to serve in the British cabinet.

Montagu was the second son and sixth child of Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling, by his wife Ellen, daughter of Louis Cohen. He was educated at Clifton College, the City of London School, University College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was the first student president of the Cambridge University Liberal Club from 1902 to 1903. In 1902, he was also president of the Cambridge Union.

Montagu was elected Member of Parliament for Chesterton in 1906, a seat he held until 1918, and then represented Cambridgeshire until 1922. He served under H. H. Asquith as Under-Secretary of State for India from 1910 to 1914, as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1914 to 1915 and again from 1915 to 1916 and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (with a seat in the Cabinet) in 1915 and 1916. In 1915 he was sworn of the Privy Council. In 1916 he was promoted to Minister of Munitions.