MONTGOMERY B. L.: (1887-1976) British Field Marshal of World War II. A.L.S. in the scarcer from Monty, two pages, 8vo, Isington Mill, Hampshire, 20^th April 1949, to ‘My dear Ava’ [Anderson, Viscountess Waverley]. Montgomery sends his correspondent a copy of a speech (no longer present) that he is ‘going to make in Paris on Saturday night next: St. George’s Day’ and remarking that ‘It is an important occasion and I have taken a lot of trouble to produce a good speech’. The Field Marshal also refers to his son, David, who has returned to Cambridge, also reporting that ‘He did a lot of climbing in the vacation: in the Lake District and in Wales’. Two very small staple holes to the upper edge, not affecting the text or signature, VG

Ava Anderson (1895-1974) Viscountess Waverley, second wife of John Anderson (1882-1958) 1^st Viscount Waverley, British Civil Servant & Politician who served in the Cabinet during World War II. Viscountess Waverley was a noted political and society hostess during the war and it has been said that she had ‘more indirect influence than any woman of her generation’.

At the time of the present letter Montgomery was serving as Chairman of the Western Union Commanders-in-Chief Committee (1948-51) which had been created as a result of the Treaty of Brussels. The founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in April 1949 and the Council of Europe in May 1949, both close to the date of the present letter, left the Western Union devoid of much of its authority.