The Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...

Elizabeth Susan Varley (née Douglas-Scott-Montagu; 26 September 1909 – 6 May 2002) was an actress and the daughter of

John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu John Walter Edward Montagu-Scott, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (10 June 1866 – 30 March 1929), was a British Conservative politician, soldier and promoter of motoring. He is the father of Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of B ...

. She pursued careers in the entertainment industry, literature and advertising.

Early life

Elizabeth Montagu was born at

Beaulieu Abbey Beaulieu Abbey, , was a Cistercian abbey in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1203–1204 by King John and (uniquely in Britain) populated by 30 monks sent from the abbey of Cîteaux in France, the mother house of the Cistercian order. Th ...

, Hampshire, on 26 September 1909, the second daughter of the

by his first wife Lady Cecil Kerr, the daughter of

Schomberg Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian Schomberg Henry Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian, (2 December 1833 – 17 January 1900), styled Lord Schomberg Kerr until 1870, was a British diplomat and Conservative politician. He served as Secretary for Scotland under Lord Salisbury betwee ...

. She was a direct descendant of Charles II and

Lucy Walter Lucy Walter (c. 1630 – 1658), also known as Lucy Barlow, was a Welsh noblewoman, the first mistress of King Charles II of England and mother of James, Duke of Monmouth. During the Exclusion Crisis, a Protestant faction wanted to make her son h ...

, through their son,

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch, KG, PC (9 April 1649 – 15 July 1685) was a Dutch-born English nobleman and military officer. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlan ...

. Her mother died in the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

. Montagu attended

St Margaret's School, Bushey St Margaret's School is an independent boarding and day school co-educational aged 2–18 in Bushey, Hertfordshire. As well as day places, the school offers boarding options for pupils from year 7 (age 11) and is situated in of countryside ...

and a finishing school at Lausanne, but she was not interested in society life and chose instead to train as an actress at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

from 1932.

Film and theatre

Varley began an acting career at the Newcastle Repertory Company and appeared in several West End stage productions and on

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

dramas. She was personal assistant to

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

while he was in London to conduct at the BBC's London Music Festivals in 1937–1938. She helped

Walter Legge Harry Walter Legge (1 June 1906 – 22 March 1979) was an English classical music record producer, most especially associated with EMI. His recordings include many sets later regarded as classics and reissued by EMI as "Great Recordings of the ...

found the

Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, W ...

. After the war, she worked on film scripts for directors such as

Alexander Korda Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956) In 1948 Montagu met

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

in Vienna. She showed him (and later

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

) some of its less reputable night clubs, while he worked on the script for ''

The Third Man ''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten), ...

''. She introduced Greene to Peter Smolka, the eastern European correspondent for ''The Times''. Smolka gave Greene stories about the black market in Vienna. She was a committee member of

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

's English Opera Group; she also wrote libretti for

Rolf Liebermann Rolf Liebermann (14 September 1910 – 2 January 1999), was a Swiss composer and music administrator. He served as the Artistic Director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1959 to 1973 and again from 1985 to 1988. He was also Artistic Director of ...

and

Paul Burkhard Paul Burkhard (21 December 1911, Zürich – 6 September 1977, Zell) was a Swiss composer. He primarily wrote oratorios, musicals and operettas. The contemporaneous and similarly named Swiss composer Willy Burkhard was no relation to him. Probab ...

European travels

She travelled extensively through Europe in 1935–1939, and studied at a piano school in Switzerland. When asked about her racial background while applying for a visa at the German consulate in

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

, she angrily swept items – including a portrait of

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

– from the desktop onto the floor. Her passport was confiscated. Elizabeth Susan Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 1939

Montagu was sent to France at the start of the Second World War as an ambulance driver. After her unit retreated to Bordeaux, she refused to leave and hid at a friend's home for several months. On a train to Switzerland she noticed she was under surveillance, and so asked two hat salesmen for help at the next station. She escaped while hidden under the boxes in their car. While working at the Political Intelligence Department at the British Embassy in Berne, Montagu translated material from within Germany, including information on what was happening at

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...

Advertising

In the 1960s she co-founded Francis-Montagu, a company that produced television advertising. Its clients included

Ryvita Ryvita is a rye-based crispbread originally manufactured by the Ryvita Company. The company was founded in Birmingham, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and S ...

and Black Magic chocolates.

Politics

Montagu's times in theatrical digs had created strong socialist leanings. She became involved in the women's committee of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...

Personal life

Having been the lover of the classical pianist Renata Borgatti (1894–1964), she became the fourth wife on 29 August 1962 of Colonel Arthur Noel Claude Varley CBE (mil., 1902–1985), founder of the advertising agency Colman, Prentis and Varley. There were no children of the marriage. She wrote an autobiography, ''Honourable Rebel: The Memoirs of Elizabeth Montagu (later Elizabeth Varley)'' (Beaulieu: Montagu Ventures, 2003), . A film of her life, ''Honourable Rebel'', appeared in 2015.

References

External links

National Portrait Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varley, Elizabeth Susan 1909 births 2002 deaths British advertising executives British debutantes Daughters of barons 20th-century English screenwriters 20th-century English actresses Clan Scott