George Montagu, 8th Duke of Manchester

George Victor Drogo Montagu, 8th Duke of Manchester (Kimbolton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, 17 June 1853 – Tandragee Castle, County Armagh, 18 August 1892), styled Lord Kimbolton from 1853 to 1855 and Viscount Mandeville from 1855 to 1890, was a British peer and Member of Parliament.

Background

Montagu was the son of William Drogo Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester, and Countess Louise von Alten.

Political career

In 1877 Montagu was elected to the House of Commons for Huntingdonshire, a seat he held until 1880. Apart from his political career he also achieved the rank of Captain in the Royal Irish Fusiliers. In 1890 succeeded his father in the dukedom and took his seat in the House of Lords. He was declared bankrupt the same year.

Family

On 22 May 1876, Manchester married Consuelo Yznaga, the daughter of a wealthy Cuban plantation owner and a renowned beauty. It was widely accepted that he had married her for her money and she him for his titles. One of Consuelo Yznaga's closest friends, Edith Wharton, was said to have incorporated certain aspects of her friend's marriage in her unfinished novel, The Buccaneers. Their union produced a son and twin daughters:

• William Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester (3 March 1877 – 9 February 1947)
• Lady Jaqueline Mary Alva Montagu (27 November 1879 – 15 March 1895)
• Lady Alice Eleanor Louise Montagu (27 November 1879 – 10 January 1900).

Prior to his marriage, Manchester had been considered an inebriate, and was shunned by respectable society.

Manchester died in August 1892, aged only 39, and was succeeded in his titles by his son William.