When he married the most famous woman of her era, Montagu Porch, an aristocrat, adventurer, archaeologist, and hero of the Boer and Great Wars, became stepfather to a man who would become Britain’s greatest ever Prime Minster – Winston Churchill.
Montagu – or Montie as he was known – wed Winston’s mother, Lady Randolph Churchill in 1918. He was her third husband. Aged 41, he was 23 years younger than Lady Churchill. Montie was three years younger than Winston who, at the time, was a rising star in British politics, serving as Minister of Munitions in Lloyd George’s coalition government in what turned out to be the final year of the Great War.
For the first time it can now be revealed that Montie – whose ancestors for many years owned the world-famous Glastonbury Abbey – was connected to my mother Sarah Helena Arscott’s family through marriage.
Jane Arscott (1751-1837) – my great-great-great-great aunt – married Okehampton surgeon Christopher Lethbridge on May 24, 1771 in Bideford.
Their grandson, Vicar Elford Copland Lethbridge (1830-1905), married Julia Porch (1838-1920) in Glastonbury on April 17, 1860.
Julia, the daughter of wealthy banker Thomas Porch, was the aunt of Montie, who was born on March 15, 1877 in Glastonbury and who, before and after the Great War, worked in the Civil Service in Nigeria.
He first met Lady Churchill in Rome in 1914.
Winston – who became Prime Minister in 1940, during the Second World War – was among those who witnessed their wedding at Paddington Register Office in London on June 1, 1918.
Lady Churchill died after a fall in 1921, aged 67.
Five years later, Montie married Donna Giulia Patrizi, the daughter of an Italian politician, and lived in Italy until she died in 1938.
He then returned to Glastonbury where he died in November 1964, aged 87.
Paul Roberts
- The full story of my family connection to Winston Churchill is told in my detailed research document: Jane Arscott’s extraordinary connection to Australian ‘royalty’ and Winston Churchill
Pictures below:
Lady Randolph Churchill, photographed in the 1880s by José María Mora (Royal Collection RCIN 2809285, Public Domain image) https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61632435
Winston Churchill, photographed on December 29, 1941 by Yousuf Karsh (Public domain image, Wikimedia Commons). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Winston_Churchill_-_19086236948.jpg
