Montagu Ommanney


Sir Montagu Frederick Ommanney, was a British civil servant and Head of the Colonial Office 1900–1907.

Biography

Ommanney was born in East Sheen, Surrey, in 1842, the son of Francis Ommanney, of York House, Worcester Park. He was educated at Cheltenham College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
He was commissioned into the Royal Engineers, from which he retired as a captain in 1878.
He was Private Secretary to the Earl of Carnarvon, Secretary of State for the Colonies, from 1874-1878, and later served as a Crown Agent for the Colonies. In 1900 he was appointed Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and thus head of the Colonial Office. He resigned in 1907.
He was a Director of the North Borneo Company.

Honours

Ommanney was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the New Year Honours list 1890, and was promoted to a Knight Grand Cross of the order in the 1904 Birthday Honours list. He later served as a King of Arms of the Order of St Michael and St George 1909-1924. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1901 Birthday Honours list, and invested as such by King Edward VII at St James's Palace on 17 December 1901. He received the Imperial Service Order in 1903.

Family

He married, in 1866, Charlotte Helen Ommanney, daughter of his relative Octavius Ommanney. They had several children, including Dorothy Helen Ommanney, who married Douglas Champion Jones, of the Royal Engineers.