Anthony Montague Browne

Sir Anthony Montague Browne
Born	Anthony Arthur Duncan Montague Browne 8 May 1923 United Kingdom
Died	1 April 2013(2013-04-01) (aged 89) Bucklebury, West Berkshire, England, UK
Nationality	British
Education	Stowe School
Alma mater	Magdalen College, Oxford
Occupation	Diplomat
Known for	Private secretary to Sir Winston Churchill
Children	Jane Hoare-Temple (born 1953) Justin Welby (born 1956)

Sir Anthony Arthur Duncan Montague Browne KCMG CBE DFC (8 May 1923 – 1 April 2013) was a British diplomat who was private secretary to Sir Winston Churchill for the last ten years of the latter's life.

Early life

Montague Browne was the son of Andrew Duncan Montague Browne (1878–1969), a British army colonel, by his marriage to Violet Evelyn Downes (1883–1969). He was educated in Switzerland, and then at Stowe School where he refused to join the OTC until World War II broke out in September 1939.^[1]

World War 2 and RAF

In September 1941 Montague Browne went up to Magdalen College, Oxford,^[1] but left in spring 1942 to join the Royal Air Force. After learning to fly in a de Havilland Tiger Moth with No. 9 Elementary Flying Training School at RAF Ansty near Coventry, he was sent to train in the United States via Canada. He graduated as a fighter pilot with the US Navy pilots school,^[1] and returned to the UK, training to fly the Bristol Beaufighter with the RAF.^[1] After assignment to squadrons flying in Egypt, Palestine and Cyprus, he was assigned to 211 Squadron RAF at Chiringa in Arakan, on the Burma-Bengal border.^[1] In 1945 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his skill and valour attacking Imperial Japanese Army lines of communication within occupied Burma.^[2][3] At the end of May 1945 he was promoted a flight lieutenant.^[4]

Foreign Office

After returning to Magdalen College, Oxford, for a year,^[1] Montague Browne entered the Foreign Office in 1946.^[5] His first post was as private secretary to the then Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Orme “Moley” Sargent. After a period as the Foreign Office resident clerk (the political night duty officer), he was then assigned to the Western Union Secretariat, which led the UK drafting of the North Atlantic Treaty.

In November 1949 he was posted to the British Embassy in Paris, France, in part due to his good French language skills which were developed during his schooling in Switzerland.^[1] Montague Browne was second secretary in the Chancery (political section), responsible for monitoring North Africa, covering Egypt to Tangier. With the French sceptical of Anglo-American intentions in North Africa, and French internal politics dominated at the time with the rise in electoral power of the French Communist Party, Montague Browne was chosen by the then British Ambassador to France, Sir Oliver Harvey, to do the internal political reporting of French concerns.^[1]

Churchill's private secretary

In September 1952, Montague Browne was chosen to be Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. When Churchill retired in 1955, Montague Browne briefly returned to the Foreign Office but in the same year was seconded to continue as Churchill's private secretary. He stayed with Churchill for the rest of Churchill's life. At first, Churchill was doubtful of him, observing, "I dare say we will get on very well together."^[1] As well as his duties as a chief of staff, Montague Browne lunched and dined with Churchill and provided an opponent for his favourite card game, rubicon (six pack bezique). He also accompanied him on his trips abroad.^[1][6] After Churchill's fall in Monaco in late 1964 when he broke his hip, Montague Browne arranged and accompanied him on the RAF flight back to London to assure, as Churchill wished, that he died in England. It was Montague Brown who signed as witness Churchill's death certificate on 24 January 1965 and then liaised between his family and the government regarding Churchill's funeral arrangements.^[1]

Post-Churchill

Following Churchill's death Montague Browne was seconded to the Royal Household (1965–67). He then worked for companies in the City of London, including International Life Insurance and Gerrard and National. He also served as a trustee of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust in the UK.

In 1988 he made an extended appearance on the television discussion programme After Dark alongside among others David Irving, Lord Hailsham and Jack Jones.

Personal life

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

Montague Browne married twice. His first marriage, in 1950 (dissolved 1970), took place in Cheltenham and was to Noel “Nonie” Arnold-Wallinger. He had one daughter from his first marriage. He married secondly, towards the end of 1970 in Wandsworth, Shelagh Macklin (née Mulligan), the former wife of racing driver Lance Macklin.

While working for Churchill, Montague Browne had an affair with Jane Gillian Portal (born 1929), one of Churchill's personal secretaries from 1949 until her marriage to Gavin Welby on 4 April 1955. (Jane Portal later married Charles Williams.) In 2016, DNA tests showed he was the biological father of her son, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was born on 6 January 1956.^[7]

Montague Browne died at his home in Bucklebury, West Berkshire, on 1 April 2013.^[1] A memorial service was held on 25 June 2013 at St Clement Danes Church on the Strand, London.

Ancestry

Montague Browne and Portal were 9th cousins once removed, both descending from John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1558–1634): Sir Anthony, by his second wife, Lady Mary Stewart (daughter of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox), and Jane, by his first wife, Anne Drummond.

They were also 11th cousins twice removed, by their shared descent from James V of Scotland: Sir Anthony by his mistress, Euphemia Elphinstone, and Jane by his second wife, Mary of Guise.

Honours

Montague Browne was appointed OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1955 after Churchill's retirement,^[8] CBE in 1965 after Churchill's death,^[9] and knighted KCMG in 2000 "for long and distinguished public service".^[10]

Publications

• Long Sunset: memoirs of Winston Churchill's last Private Secretary, Cassell, 1995. ISBN 0304344788

References and sources

References

Sources

• MONTAGUE BROWNE, Sir Anthony (Arthur Duncan), Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2013

External links

• Archive photo with daughter, Jane Montague-Browne, greeting Churchill upon his return from United States, 1959
• Online genealogy, first and second marriages, descendents