Sir Montagu Sharpe

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

DL (28 October 1857 – 23 August 1942) was an English politician, lawyer, amateur archaeologist, antiquarian, and ornithologist. He came from an old Middlesex family that owned Hanwell Park. He was a member of the Middlesex County Council from its founding in 1889 and a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

for Middlesex. He was knighted in 1922 and also became a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex. Sharpe served as chairman of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds from 1896 to 1942. He was very active in the introduction of the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Bill and involved in framing initial drafts, see Plume hunting. Sharpe was born at Hanwell to Lt Cmdr Benjamin Sharpe of the Royal Navy and his wife Marianne Fanny Montagu. Marianne was the daughter of the Rev. Montague of Swaffam, Norfolk. Sharpe studied law and was called to the bar, Gray's Inn, in 1889. Sharpe wrote a local history, ''Middlesex in British, Roman and Saxon Times'' (1919), in which he suggested that the Roman system of '' centuriation'' could be seen in the layout of old manors, but his idea was viewed skeptically by other historians of the period. Later studies have pointed out that his evidence was weak. Sharpe was a

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, serving as Grand Deacon of the United Grand Lodge of England. He was the founder of Haven Lodge in Ealing, Horsa Dun Lodge in Middlesex and Hanwell Lodge, Ealing.

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Middlesex in British, Roman, and Saxon times (1919)
{{Authority control Deputy Lieutenants of Middlesex Members of Middlesex County Council