H[arford] Montgomery Hyde

Life
1907-1989; b. 14 Aug., Belfast; son of James Johnstone Hyde, a linen merchant, and Isobel Montgomery, a distant relation of Henry James; ed. Sedburgh School and QUB; afterwards Magdalen Coll., Oxford; English Bar, 1934 (N.E. Circuit); m. Dorothy, April 1939; worked as Intelligence Officer during World War II; promoted to Lt.-Col. and travelled to America, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Sweden and Russia; appt. legal advisor to the British Lion Film Corp., 1947; MP for Belfast North, 1950-59; UK Delegate at the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, 1952-55; strenuously opposed death penalty; involved in legal reform regarding censorship, pornography and homosexual rights; chair of History and Political science at Punjab University, Pakistan, 1959-61;

his numerous legal and forensic works include The Rise of Castlereagh ( 1933), Air Defense and the Civil Population (1937), Mexican Empire (1946), Privacy and the Press (1947), The Trial of Oscar Wilde (1948), The Trial of Craig and Bentley (1954), Trial of Sir Roger Casement (1960), Oscar Wilde: The Aftermath (1963), A History of Pornography (1964), Henry James at Home (1969), The Love that Dared Not Speak Its Name (1970), Oscar Wilde: A Biography (1975), a life of Stanley Baldwin, Crime Has Its Heroes (1976), The Annotated Oscar Wilde (1982), and Secret Intelligence Agent (1982), Alfred Lord Douglas (1984), his 53rd book, and The Lady Chatterley’s Lover Trial (1990), his last; among those on Irish subjects are The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1948) and Trial of Sir Roger Casement (1960);

also ed. A Victorian Historian, Private Letters of W. E. H Lecky (1947) and ed. Wilde’s plays (1988); other biographical subjects incl. Catherine the Great, Maximillian of Mexico, Frank Harris, and Mrs Beeton; 6 boxes of his papers are held in the Harry Ransom Research Centre of Texas Univ., 5 of these being given over to research for A History of Pornogaphy. DIW

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Works
  • Trial of Christopher Craig and Derek William Bentley, ed. (1954).
  • ed., Thomas Lea, Privacy and the Press (1947).
  • , ed. with intro., Private Letters of W. E. H. Lecky, A Victorian Historian 1859-1878 (1947).
  • ed., with intro. The Trials of Oscar Wilde [Notable British Trials] ([London: Heinemann] 1948).
  • Martha Wilmot, The Russians Journals (1934), and More Letters (1935), both ed. with Marchioness of Londonderry; Carson: The Life of Sir Edward Carson, Lord Carson of Duncairn (London: Heinemann 1953), 515pp., ded. Lady Ruby Carson, ill.; Do., reiss. (London: Constable 1974, pb. 1987), 513pp.
  • Cases that Changed the Law (London: Heinemann 1951).
  • The Empress Catherine and Princess Sashkov (London: Chapman & Hall 1935).
  • John Law, History of an Honest Adventurer (London/Amstersdam: Hom & Van Thal 1948).
  • Judge Jeffreys (London: Harrap 1940).
  • Londonderry House and its Pictures (London: Cresset Press 1937).
  • Mexican Empire .. Maximilian and Carlotta (London: Macmillan 1946).
  • ed., A Victorian Historian: Private Letters of W. E. H. Lecky, 1859-1978 (London [q.pub.] 1947).
  • A History of Pornography (London: Heinemann 1946), 246pp.; Mrs and Mrs Beeton (London: Harrap 1951).
  • Princess Lieven (Harrap 1938).
  • The Rise of Castlereagh (London: Macmillan 1933).
  • United in Crime (London: Heinemann 1955) [famous trials]; with George Nuttall, Air Defence and the Civil Population (1937).
  • intro., Frank Harris, Mr and Mrs Daventry (1956).
  • ed., Trial of Sir Roger Casement ([1960] London: Hodge 1973).
  • ed., Trials of Oscar Wilde (1962 [rep. edn.]).
  • An International Casebook of Crime, ed. with John H. Kisch (London: Barrie & Rockliff 1962) [?Barnes]; Life of Norman Birkett of Ulverston (London: Hamish Hamilton 1964).
  • Roger Casement [Famous Trials 9, Penguin Crime] ([1964] Penguin 1995), 226pp. [includes homosexual extracts from diary for 1991]; Oscar Wilde, The Aftermath (London: Methuen 1964), xxi, 221pp. [var. 1963 BNB].
  • The Quiet Canadian: The Secret Service Story of Sir William Stevenson (London: Hamish Hamilton 1962), xii, 255pp.; Sir Patrick Hastings: His Life and Cases, with a foreword by Lord Birkett (London: Heinemann 1960).
  • The Strange Death of Lord Castlereagh (London: Heinemann 1960), x, 195pp.; Cynthia: The Spy Who Changed the Course of the War (London: Hamish Hamilton 1966, Mayflower 1969).
  • Their Good Names: Twelve Cases of Libel and Slander (London: Hamish Hamilton [?1970]).
  • Story of Comb House, Rye: Home of Henry James (Adams of Rye 1966), 83pp.; Henry at Home (London: Methuen 1969).
  • The Other Love: An Historical and Contemporary Survey of Homosexuality in Britain (London: Heinemann 1970), 323pp., and Do., rep. (London: Mayflower 1972).
  • Stalin, History of a Dictator (London: Peter Hart-Davis 1971).
  • Baldwin: The Unexpected Prime Minister (Hart-Davis & MacGibbon 1973) [see note].
  • The Cleveland Scandal (London: W.H. Allen 1976).
  • Chamberlain (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson 1976).
  • Oscar Wilde, A Biography (London: Eyre Methuen 1976).
  • Solitary in the Ranks: Lawrence of Arabia, Soldier and Airman] (London: Constable 1977).
  • Also, H. Montgomery Hyde, ed. and intro., The Complete Plays of Oscar Wilde (London: Methuen 1988), 606pp.; [Introduction, p.1-28; dated 1981].

Query Rufas Isaacs, Lord Ist Marquis of Reading (London: Heinemann 1967).

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References

Eric Stevens Books (Cat. 1992) lists The Other Love, an Historical and Contemporary Survey of Homosexuality in Britain (Heinemann 1970) [1st ed.], 323pp. [contains much about Wilde and Alfred Douglas [£10].

Library of Herbert Bell, Belfast, holds The Rise of Castlereagh (London 1933); The Strange Death of Lord Castlereagh (London 1959).

Belfast Public Library holdings incl. Carson (1953); The Rise of Castlereagh (1933); The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1949). Alfred Lord Douglas (1984.

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Notes
Gore Vidal, reviewing books on Charles Lindbergh (Times Literary Supplement, 30 Oct. 1998), remarks that the British ‘conspiracy’ to draw America into the World War II was advanced when one of three ‘enchanting ladies’, ‘wife to a British diplomat, code name “Cynthia”, was the heroine of an eponymous study by H. Montgomery Hyde in 1965 [sic]’. Viz., Cynthia: The Spy Who Changed the Course of the War (London: Hamish Hamilton 1966, Mayflower 1969).

Anthony Baldwin: Devision of Archives and Research Collections at McMaster Univ. (Canada) contains written and photographic materials relative to Hyde’s Baldwin: The Unexpected Prime Minister (1973), a study of Anthony Baldwin [online].

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