George Montague rose to national and international prominence rather late in life when he took to his mobility scooter and appeared on the Brighton Pride Parade as the Oldest Gay in the Village.
The media took George to their hearts, promoting him to their front covers while the feature writers related his life story to a generation of young readers, about how he lived a double life in his early years.
George was born in 1923, and did not come out till he was 59. He lived his life against the backdrop of the gay rights movement’s campaign for equality.
He lived through bad times in the 1980s, epitomised by the AIDS epidemic and Section 28 and celebrated the good times with the delivery of civil partnerships and finally same-sex marriage in March 2014.
George served King and country during the Second World War, and fathered three children to Vera, who he married and shared with the secret of his sexuality. He remained married to Vera for 22 years and they kept close even after separating. Sadly Vera died in 2000.
George finally came out in 1982. In 1997 he met his partner Somchai who he entered into a civil partnership with in 2006 and finally married on the eve of Brighton Pride in 2015.
Along the way he somewhere found time to put pen to paper and recount his life story. The Oldest Gay in the Village is a riveting and at times brutally honest story about the double life that he led when he lived, like many other gay men at the time, his straight life in public and his gay life in secret.
George was elected one of the four Ambassadors for Brighton Pride in 2013 by the readers of Gscene magazine and he used the opportunity to keep issues affecting older gay men in the public eye.
Earlier this year he received one of the inaugural Attitude Pride Award and appeared on Pride Parades in Manchester, London and Brighton.
Despite being 92 years young George has the stamina of someone half his age and is keeping himself as busy as ever. He is sharp, articulate and for his age his memory is extraordinary and his attention to detail quite remarkable.
At the moment he is pressing for people with gross indecency convictions to have the convictions removed from their criminal records. He says: “I have lived my life with a conviction for gross indecency hanging over me. I see now they are giving pardons. I don’t want a pardon. I want my conviction to be squashed, struck off. I was entrapped by police at the time and pleaded guilty to avoid publicity. I just want to end the final days of my life having no criminal conviction and to see the majority of people in the country become gay-friendly.”
George’s other dream and his current passion is to see a top of the range care home for older gay people opened and he is presently working on a self financing proposal for gay men with finances to commit to the project.
It would not be cheap. Founders would need one million pounds to invest. No grants or subsidies would be required. A suitable property would be purchased and management team appointed. A waiting list would be created and as each original founder died or wished out, the next on the waiting list would replace him as a founder of the project. Only as many founders would be accepted as would be required to finance the project. They would not become residents in the home until they needed to, but would have priority when the need arose.
Once up and running, and well established, the care home would admit as many people as there were private bedrooms available, however, all potential residents would need to have an annuity to cover the £1,500 per week per person living costs.
In the meantime George and Somchai continue to live their lives to the full in their seafront flat in Brighton during the summer and spend the winter months in Thailand where they also have a home. George is the proud grandfather to three beautiful grand children and keeps fit by having a sauna every day at the gym.
The Oldest Gay in the Village is published by John Blake Publishing and available from Amazon.
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