ROLLS-ROYCE ‘MAKERS OF THE MARQUE’: THE HONOURABLE JOHN DOUGLAS-SCOTT-MONTAGU, 2ND BARON MONTAGU OF BEAULIEU

THE HONOURABLE JOHN DOUGLAS-SCOTT-MONTAGU: 10 JUNE 1866 – 30 MARCH 1929

A brief overview of the life and career of The Hon. John
Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, born 10 June 1866

• Motoring pioneer, magazine proprietor, influential parliamentarian
  and devoted Rolls‑Royce owner, whose Silver Ghost was the first
  motor car in history to carry the Spirit of Ecstasy mascot –
  inspired by his assistant, Eleanor Velasco Thornton
• Fifth in a series profiling the principal characters in the
  Rolls-Royce Motor Cars foundation story as the marque celebrates its
  120th anniversary in 2024
• Insights into the people, personalities and intertwined
  relationships that indelibly shaped the marque’s creation,
  development and lasting legacy
• Each account underlines and celebrates the essential human
  dimension of ‘the best car in the world’

“Almost since its foundation, Rolls-Royce has been known as
‘the best car in the world’. It first received that accolade from
John Montagu, part of the small circle of highly influential
motoring pioneers who first brought Rolls-Royce into being, and then
to international prominence. As proprietor of one of the earliest
and most respected motor magazines, he was crucial in promoting the
marque; as an MP, he was instrumental in shaping motoring’s place
within wider society. And through the complex personal connections
that, are so central to the Rolls-Royce foundation story, he has an
enduring place at the heart of the brand to this day.”

Andrew Ball, Head of Corporate Relations and Heritage,
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu was born on
10 June 1866, the eldest son of Lord Henry Scott, later 1st Baron
Montagu of Beaulieu. Montagu was fascinated by engineering and, after
attending Eton and Oxbridge, briefly pursued a practical training on
the railways, precisely the path that the similarly aristocratic – and
equally Honourable – Charles Stewart Rolls, 11 years his junior, would
also follow.

Montagu’s prospects were as splendid as his full name suggests,
with a barony and the financial security of his father’s estate in
Hampshire awaiting him in due course. In the interim, he needed to
make a living and, in 1895, he became a Member of Parliament (MP) for
the New Forest constituency. But his life’s true passion was the motor
car. A successful competitive driver, he became one of the motor car’s
early political champions and greatly influenced the relaxation of the
restrictive motoring laws then in force.

In 1898, Montagu bought his first car – a Daimler – and
immediately joined the Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland
(ACGB&I), the forerunner of The Royal Automobile Club (RAC).
There, he met fellow member Charles Rolls and the Club’s
larger-than-life Permanent Secretary, Claude Johnson. The three soon
became close friends and enjoyed competing in the era’s major motoring
trials, frequently sharing the spoils between them. One such event was
the ‘One Thousand Mile Trial’ of April 1900, run by Johnson under the
ACGB&I’s auspices and sponsored by Alfred Harmsworth, later Lord
Northcliffe, who owned the Daily Mail newspaper. Montagu was
among the first entrants and the only MP to take part; he received a
bronze medal for completing the 20-day event with his Daimler, while
Rolls was awarded the gold medal as the winner.

In the early 20th Century, motoring was still an expensive hobby
that Montagu struggled to sustain on his MP’s salary. To supplement
his income, he took his friend Alfred Harmsworth’s advice and started
one of the country’s earliest dedicated motoring journals. First
published on 28 May 1902, it was called The Car Illustrated,
although its masthead bore the imperious and all-encompassing
banner ‘A Journal of Transport by Land, Sea and Air’.

By 1906 the magazine was well established, with Montagu acting
as commissioning editor, editor and contributor. Like every
self-respecting journalist, he was always looking for his next scoop,
and his close friendship with Rolls and Johnson meant he was kept
fully abreast of the latest products, innovations and competitive
successes at Rolls-Royce, founded two years earlier. For their part,
Rolls and Johnson had the inestimably valuable support of both the
country’s most prestigious car magazine and an influential member of
the legislature keenly interested in motoring matters.

This relationship was strengthened further in 1906 when Montagu,
who had succeeded his father to become 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
the previous year, bought a Rolls-Royce of his own, the ‘Light 20
H.P.’ model. Nevertheless, he was quite clear that journalistic
integrity trumped personal affiliations: Rolls-Royce could be assured
of positive coverage in his magazine, for as long as it continued to
produce the country’s finest motor cars.

Produce them it did, and in ever-increasing numbers, to the
extent that by 1907, it was obvious to the Rolls-Royce directors that
their existing works in Cooke Street, Manchester were not large enough
to satisfy demand. Accordingly, Henry Royce designed and oversaw the
construction of a new, purpose-built factory at Nightingale Road in
Derby, which was officially opened before an audience of dignitaries
on 9 July 1908.

Charles Rolls welcomed the guest of honour, announcing: “I now
have the honour and pleasure of introducing Lord Montagu of Beaulieu –
an introduction, however, which is merely a formality; for, as you
know, his is a name known to all as a pioneer motorist, one who has
educated both the House of Commons and the House of Lords to the
importance of the motor car as a factor of civilisation; one who may,
in fact, be regarded as one of the most important factors in motoring
politics. We therefore as a company, and I am sure all the rest of
those present, very greatly appreciate the compliment he has paid us
in coming here to perform this little ceremony.” 

But Montagu’s greatest and most enduring compliment would come
the following year. On 13 November 1908, an advertisement in The
Times newspaper stated: “In July, Lord Montagu declared that the
six-cylinder Rolls-Royce was the best car in the world”. This is the
earliest known use of the soubriquet, still rarely attributed
correctly, that remains synonymous with the marque to this day.

However, not everyone showed the same level of respect. In 1910,
Johnson became aware of a disturbing new fashion among Rolls-Royce
owners of attaching a comical mascot to the front of their motor car.
This, he rightly concluded, was detracting from the elegance of the
Rolls‑Royce radiator: how the high-minded and fastidious Royce reacted
to such frivolousness is easy to imagine.

Montagu’s own Rolls-Royce also sported a mascot, but this was of
an altogether different stamp. Named The Whisper, it was
sculpted by Charles Sykes, a well-known Royal Academician and
commercial artist who worked for Montagu’s magazine as an illustrator.
It depicted a young woman in flowing robes with a finger to her lips,
modelled on Sykes’s long-time muse, Eleanor Thornton. Impressed,
Johnson commissioned Sykes to design the official Rolls-Royce mascot,
known worldwide today as The Spirit of Ecstasy: fittingly, Montagu’s
second Silver Ghost was the first motor car in history to carry it.

Montagu remained an enthusiastic Rolls-Royce owner until his
death in 1929. He was a staunch friend of the marque for a quarter of
a century and one of the first in a long line of wealthy,
well-connected owners who have added lustre to the Rolls-Royce name
through the decades. In 1952, his son Edward, the 3rd Baron, founded
the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in tribute to him: a substantial
collection of Spirit of Ecstasy figurines, and Sykes’s original
The Whisper, are among its most popular and cherished exhibits.