WWII Hero Gay, Says UK Biographer
The Washington
Blade, March 2, 2001
World Briefs
By Will O'Bryan
BRITAIN — World War II hero Field Marshal Bernard
"Monty" Montgomery was a repressed homosexual, according to a soon
to be published book, The Full Monty, written by his official biographer and
longtime friend, Nigel Hamilton, the Guardian newspaper reported.
"These were quasi love affairs," Hamilton told the Guardian
regarding his perception of Montgomery’s sexual orientation. "He became
really passionately involved with these young men and then, more and more,
boys, who he would call my sons. They were nothing of the kind, of course, but
in his own personality he would frame them in this way. I myself have more
than 100 very loving letters from him. My relationship with him wasn’t
sexual, in the sense that it wasn’t acted upon, but I had been through
enough years at British boarding schools to know what kind of enormous
affection and feeling he had for me. And I wasn’t alone. This was a
consistent pattern in Monty’s life."
Ironically, perhaps, Montgomery, while serving in the House of Lords,
argued in favor of maintaining laws against "buggery," during a 1967
debate.
Hamilton told the Guardian that Montgomery’s fierce opposition to
legalizing sex between men suggested "the law had been an essential
crutch in his struggle with his own homosexual feelings."
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