Montgomery Belgion

Montgomery (‘Monty’) Belgion (1892–1973), author, was born in Paris of British parents and grew up with a deep feeling for the culture of France. In 1915–16 he was editor-in-charge of the European edition of the New York Herald; and for the remainder of WW1 he served in the British Army, first in the Honourable Artillery Company, 1916–18, and was then commissioned in the Dorsetshire Regiment. Between the wars he worked briefly for the Paris review This Quarter and for newspapers including the Daily Mail, Westminster Gazette and Daily Mirror, and for a while he was an editor for Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York. In WW2 he became a captain in the Royal Engineers, and he spent two years in prison camps in Germany. In 1929 F&F brought out (on TSE’s recommendation) his first book, Our Present Philosophy of Life. Later works include Reading for Profit (1945) and booklets on H. G. Wells and David Hume.