The following is based on Wikipedia:
Ewen Edward Samuel Montagu was born in 1901, the second son of Louis Samuel Montagu, 2nd Baron Swaythling and Gladys, Baroness Swaythling (née Goldsmid). Ewen Montagu married Iris, the daughter of the painter Solomon J. Solomon, in 1923. He was the brother of Stuart Albert Samuel, 3rd Baron Swaythling and Ivor Montagu.
He was educated at Westminster School before becoming a machine gun instructor during the First World War at a United States Naval Air Station. After the war he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and at Harvard University before he was called to the bar in 1924. One of his more celebrated cases as a junior barrister was the defence of Alma Rattenbury in 1935 against a charge of murdering her elderly husband at the Villa Madeira in Bournemouth.
The Sketch – Wednesday 30 August 1922
Montagu was a keen yachtsman, and enlisted in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in 1938. Because of his legal background he was reassigned to specialized study. From there he was assigned to the Royal Navy’s East Yorkshire headquarters at Hull as an assistant staff officer in intelligence. Montagu served in the Naval Intelligence Division of the British Admiralty, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander RNVR. He was the Naval Representative on the XX Committee, which oversaw the running of double agents.
Operation Mincemeat
While Commanding Officer Ewen Montagu and Squadron Leader Charles Cholmondeley conceived Operation Mincemeat, it was Montagu who developed the specific idea of having a corpse wash ashore in Spain. Dressed as a British officer, the body carried “secret” documents detailing a fabricated plan to invade Greece and Sardinia, intended to distract the Germans from the true Allied target: Sicily.
To ensure the deception was successful, the location was strategically chosen so that pro-German Spanish officials would discover the body and pass the documents to German intelligence agents. Montagu meticulously crafted a complete false identity for the deceased officer, planting personal items in his pockets to make the persona believable—including a military ID, theater ticket stubs, intimate love letters with a photo of a “fiancée,” and unpaid bills from a London tailor and jeweler.
The Germans were fooled completely. German documents found after the war showed that the false information went all the way to Hitler’s headquarters, and led to German forces being diverted to Greece. The invasion of Sicily was a success. Historian Hugh Trevor-Roper called it the best deception in the history of military deception. For his role in Operation Mincemeat, Montagu was appointed to the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire. In November 2021 the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, working with the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women and the London Borough of Hackney placed a memorial at the Hackney Mortuary.
Later career
From 1945 to 1973 Montagu held the position of Judge Advocate of the Fleet. He wrote The Man Who Never Was (1953), an account of Operation Mincemeat, which was made into a movie three years later. Montagu himself appeared in the film adaptation of The Man Who Never Was, playing an Air-Vice Marshal who had in real life disparaged his own character (played by Clifton Webb) in a briefing. Montagu also wrote Beyond Top Secret Ultra, which focused more on the information technology and espionage tactics used in World War II. He was a governor of a public health project, the Peckham Experiment, in 1949.[7]
Before the Courts Act 1971 Montagu was Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for the Middlesex area of Greater London and recorder in the County of Hampshire. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Southampton.
Montagu was president of the United Synagogue, 1954–62, and President of the Anglo-Jewish Association from December 1949.[9]
Family
Ewen Montagu married Iris, the daughter of the painter Solomon J. Solomon, in 1923. They had a son, Jeremy, who became an authority on musical instruments, and a daughter, Jennifer, who became an art historian. Montagu’s youngest brother Ivor Montagu was a film maker and Communist.
Montagu was a first cousin, once removed, of comedian Christopher Guest, through Montagu’s maternal grandparents.
Sunday Post – Sunday 18 June 1922
CHATTY GOSSIP OF THE DAY
Lord Swaythling’s second son, the Hon. Ewen Montagu, has just become engaged to Miss Rachael Solomon. The bride-to-be is very good-looking, and is the daughter of the portrait painter, Solomon J. Solomon, who was so much to the fore in camouflage work during the war. Mr Montagu went to Harvard University before he went to Cambridge. The Swaythlings hold to the international education theory, and the idea had the result of establishing many American friendships for their son.
MARRIAGES
THE HON. EWEN MONTAGU AND MISS IRIS SOLOMON.
The marriage took place yesterday, at the West End Synagogue, St. Petersburgh-place, Bayswater, of the Hon. Ewen E. S. Montagu, second son of Lord and Lady Swaythling, of 28, Kensington-court, W., and Iris Rachel, daughter of Mr. Solomon J. Solomon, R.A., of 18, Hyde Park-gate, W.
The bride, who was given away by her father, wore a white satin draped dress, with Brussels lace berthe and a cascade of Brussels lace at the side of the skirt, caught up with orange blossom. The train was of satin and Brussels lace, and the veil, lent by the bride’s grandmother, was of similar lace and was worn with a wreath of orange blossom. In attendance upon the bride were two train-bearers, Miss Jean Solomon (cousin of the bride) and Master Bryan Montagu (cousin of the bridegroom), the latter wearing a tunic suit of eau-de-Nil green. Miss Solomon and two other little girls, Miss Diana Van den Bergh and Miss Honor Lucas, wore eau-de-Nil green georgette frocks with pastel coloured flowered wreaths. The two grown-up bridesmaids, the Hon. Joyce Montagu (sister of the bridegroom) and Miss Averil Hansford (cousin of the bride) wore frocks of pale eau-de-Nil green georgette, with berthes of deep cream lace, and hats of cream crinoline, swathed with cream lace and ornamented on one side with a bunch of pastel flowers. They carried iris bouquets and wore jade pendants, the gifts of the bridegroom. The Hon. Stuart Montagu was best man to his brother.
Among the company at the synagogue were:— Lord and Lady Swaythling, Mrs. Solomon J. Solomon, the Hon. Gerald and Mrs. Montagu, the Hon. Lionel Montagu, the Hon. Edwin and Mrs. Montagu, the Hon. Mrs. D’Arcy Hart, the Finnish Minister and Mme. Donner, M. and Mme. Gennadius, Mme. Okamoto, Mme. Palmstierna, the Marchioness of Donegall, Viscountess Campden, Countess Soules and Miss Meakin, Lady Charnwood and the Hon. Antonia Benson, Lady Emmott, Lady Newnes, Lady Alexander, Lady Mond, Lady Bertha Dawkins and Miss Dawkins, Baroness Goldsmid, Lady Southwark, Lady Roxburgh, Lady Morant, Miss Morant, Lord Shaw of Dunfermline, Lady (James) Stevenson, Sir Herbert and Lady Cohen, Sir Isidore and Lady Spielmann, Lady Hart, Sir Anderson and Lady Critchett, Sir Herbert and Lady Leon, the Hon. Mrs. Franklin, the Hon. Mrs. Waley and the Misses Waley, Lady Nathan, Lady Barker, Lady Milner-White, Dame Louise Samuel, Lady Robertson, Lady Wyndham, Lady Blomfield, Sir Adolph and Lady Tuck, Mlle. Louise de St. Aulaire, Sir Frederic and Lady Cowen, Lady (Waley) Cohen, Lady Henry, Sir George and Lady Frampton, Lady Capel-Slaughter, Major Sir George and Lady Dolby, Mr. and Mrs. Asquith, Mr. Gordon Selfridge, Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Franklin, Mr. Alfred Drury, R.A., and Mrs. Drury, Mrs. H. Montagu, Mrs. Franklin, Mrs. Percy de Worms, Mrs. D. Van den Bergh, Mrs. Robert Solomon, Mrs. J. Solomon, Mrs. Arthur Franklin, Mr. and Mrs. A. Van den Bergh, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony de Worms, Mrs. d’A. Goldsmid, Mr. Van den Bergh, Miss E. Goldsmid, Mrs. Edward Montagu and Miss Montagu, Mrs. Sidney Montagu, Miss Ella Hepworth Dixon, Mr. Pritchard, Mrs. Rodocanachi, Mrs. Rodney Mundy, Mrs. and Miss Larkin, Mrs. Carrington Wilde, Madame Grouitch, Mrs. Ronald Campbell, Captain and Mrs. Hussey, Major and Mrs. George Goldsmid, Mrs. John Sebag Montefiore, Mrs. Runciman, Miss Angela Thynne, Mr. and Mrs. Vogel, Mrs. Hugh Watson, Major-General and Mrs. Cavaye, Mrs. and Miss Ansley, Mrs. Pollard, Mr. Erlick, Captain Caulfield, R.N., Mr. Guthrie, Mr. and Miss Dolby, Mrs. Lionel Harris, Mr. Elia Meyer and Miss Meyer, Colonel and Mrs. Fagside, Miss Barlow, Mrs. Edward Eyre and Miss Eyre, Mrs. Henry Beddington, Mr. and Mrs. Bentwich, Major and Mrs. Lewis Barnett, Mr. and Mrs. Leon, Miss Muriel Hey, Colonel and Mrs. Reece, Mrs. Castle, Mrs. L. Royd, Miss Emmanuel, Miss Millington Drake, Mrs. Leopold Harris, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph, Miss Bentwich, Mr. C. H. Gibbs, Mrs. and Miss Leslie Pyke, Mrs. Cecil Samuel, Mr. and Mrs. Simon, Mrs. F. E. Rossdale, Mr. Maddocks, Mr. and Mrs. Fox, Mrs. G. Joseph, and Dr. and Mrs. Salaman.
After a reception at 18, Hyde Park-gate, the bride and bridegroom left for the honeymoon, which will be spent in America. The bride travelled in a gown of pale grey crêpe de Chine with a small grey cloche hat trimmed with grey lace and blue and grey flowers.