Autograph request
Postcard sent by Bray to Lord Montagu of Beaulieu on 20th January 1916 asking for his autograph.
John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu KCIE, CSI, DL (10 June 1866 - 30 March 1929), was a British Conservative politician and promoter of motoring.
During his first marriage Beaulieu had a daughter by his mistress and secretary Eleanor Thornton. Wanting an appropriate mascot for his Rolls-Royce, and using Eleanor Velasco Thornton as a model, the sculptor Charles Robinson Sykes was commissioned to design the precursor (called "The Whisper") of the Spirit of Ecstasy; the famous winged mascot that has adorned nearly every Rolls-Royce car since 1911. On 30 December 1915, with his mistress Eleanor Thornton, Montagu was on board the SS Persia sailing through the Mediterranean on the way to India when the ship was torpedoed without warning by the German U-boat U-38 commanded by Max Valentiner. Thornton drowned, along with hundreds of others, but Montagu survived the sinking.
