Based in Brockenhurst

Rhinefield Probus Meeting Report March 2016

March Meeting

English history is a fascinating subject  which is taught and studied throughout the world and tales of kings and queens, crusades, wars and explorers were part of our schooldays.

We remember the larger than life figures of the past Henry VIIIth, Raleigh, Cromwell and so on, but do we ever hear about less flamboyant individuals who in their own dedicated way helped form the society we enjoy today yet remain virtually unknown even in the local area they represented.

One such figure was the subject of a most intriguing talk given to Rhinefield Probus in March by Shirley Critchley.

It covered the story of a local titled landowner who, in his life was deeply involved in the then new world of motoring and, amongst other things by becoming a member of Parliament, organised the registration system for that new invention, the motor car, doubled the speed limit for the drivers of cars (from five to ten miles per hour would you believe), created the first national motoring organisation and gave rise to an image defining quality which survives to this day.

His name was  John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu.

Like many of his contemporaries of the time he was educated at Eton and then went to New College, Oxford where he continued the rowing he had begun at Eton and helped his college to win the Head of the River.

After Oxford he spent a year working in the sheds of The London and South Western Railway where he became a practical engineer and a qualified steam train driver but it was the motor car to which became his true passion – apart that is, from The Spirit of Ecstasy – more of which later!

John Douglas-Scott-Montagu entered politics by becoming an MP for The New Forest constituency in 1895 and held the seat for the next ten years when, after the death of his father in 1905 he succeeded him in the barony and entered the House of Lords.

John, Lord Montagu, married Lady Cecil Kerr in 1889 with whom he had children but he became involved with Eleanor Velasco Thornton an actress and model.  

She became his mistress and bore him a daughter. He persuaded the sculptor Charles Robinson Sykes to create a mascot for his Rolls Royce using Eleanor as the model. This was originally called The Whisper and was precursor to The Spirit of Ecstasy that  was adopted by Rolls Royce and has adorned almost every Rolls Royce car since 1911.

On December 30th 1915 Lord Montagu was travelling on SS Persia through the Mediterranean with Eleanor Thornton when the ship was torpedoed and sank.

He survived but Eleanor was drowned along with hundreds of others.

John, 2nd Baron Montagu died in March 1929.

Skittles

On the social side many members and their wives enjoyed an evening of skittles at Hoburne Park near Christchurch on 8th of March