Charles Edward Montague was born and raised in London, the son of an Irish Roman Catholic priest who had left the church to marry. He was educated at the City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1890 began writing for the Manchester Guardian, where he became a noted writer and critic. He also stood in as editor between 1895-1906 while the paper's editor, Scott, served as an M.P. In 1989, he married Scott's daughter Madeline. Although he opposed the First World War, he enlisted in 1914, having lied about his age. He began as a grenadier-sergeant, and rose to lieutenant and then captain of intelligence in 1915. Later in the war, he became an armed escort for VIPs visiting the battlefield. At the end of the war he returned to the Guardian, but felt that his role was diminishing as the years passed. He retired in 1925 and became a full-time writer. He died in 1928 at the age of 61.