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Four ALSs signed “B. L. Montgomery,” five total pages, 5.25 x 7, personal ‘No. 16 Bungalow, Staff College, Camberley’ letterhead, dated to August and September 1928. Handwritten during one of the happiest moments of Bernard Montgomery's personal life, these four letters document his correspondence with a life secretary with the Phoenix Assurance Company of London as Montgomery prepared for, celebrated, and made financial provision following the birth of his only child, David Bernard Montgomery, on August 18, 1928.
On August 16, anticipating the birth, Montgomery wrote in full: "Many thanks for your letter. We expect the event about 20th August, but of course it may be later. But you will see it in the 'Times' in any case."
Three days later, he happily announced: "A son was born yesterday. I shall be up in London tomorrow (Monday) and will call in and see you at about 12 noon." As the new insurance policy was processed, Montgomery explained the delay in obtaining one of the required references: "Colonel Paget is abroad & does not return till next week. So I have sent your form to Lieut.-Col. C. T. Tomes, D.S.O., M.C. who commands the 1st Bn. of my regiment at Woking."
His final letter addresses the mechanics of maintaining the policy through automatic bank payments: "I forward attached letter for you to see. I presume the Bank are doing this as a precaution. Are such communications usual? I presume that should the bank forget to make any payment one month, or any delay occur, that you would remind them, and that no damage to the policy would thereby accrue. Kindly return enclosed letter."
In overall very good to fine condition, with light creasing, and several pinholes to the upper left of each letter, some of which have resulted in small tears. Accompanied by a group of related Phoenix Assurance Company correspondence, internal memoranda, proposal forms, and administrative documents concerning Montgomery's life insurance policy.
David Bernard Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (1928–2020), was the only child of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery and Elizabeth Carver. Educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge, he pursued a business career with Shell, Yardley, and other companies, developing extensive commercial ties with Latin America. Upon his father's death in 1976, he succeeded as 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein and sat in the House of Lords, first as a Conservative hereditary peer and, from 2005 to 2015, as an elected Crossbench hereditary peer. He also co-authored, with Alistair Horne, The Lonely Leader: Monty 1944–45, a memoir and study of his father's wartime leadership interwoven with his own early recollections.
