Beaverbrook, Maxwell Aitken, lst Baron

Beaverbrook (of Beaverbrook and of Cherkley), Maxwell Aitken, lst Baron

 orig. William Maxwell Aitken known as Lord Beaverbrook

Sir Maxwell Aitken Beaverbrook, 1941.

(credit: Robert Capa—Magnum)

(born May 25, 1879, Maple, Ont., Can.—died June 9, 1964, near Leatherhead, Surrey, Eng.) Canadian-British politician and newspaper proprietor. After making a fortune in Montreal as a financier, he moved to England and became active in politics as a Conservative. Beginning in 1916, he took over or founded newspapers, including the London Daily Express, Sunday Express, and Evening Standard. Idiosyncratic and very successful, he became a “press lord” and a champion of individual enterprise and British imperial interests. He held various high government appointments, including positions in the British Cabinet during both World Wars, but he never fully achieved the political power he sought.