Canadian  Press Baron & Statesman:

Lord Beaverbrook

Main Life Accomplishments:

Lord Beaverbrook – William Maxwell Aitken – was a self-made man who grew up the son of a Scottish Presbyterian preacher in Newcastle, N.B., and became a millionaire businessman, a press baron and a British politician. He had a reputation as a shrewd political figure and a pushy newspaper publisher, barking orders to the editors of his London papers down the telephone lines from his country mansion, Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead, Surrey.

 

Aitken had a large personality and was known to enjoy his reputation as a mischief-maker "par excellence" who kept his "Canadian drawl" as he moved about London's political circles. Novelist William Gerhardie once asked Aitken if his middle name was short for Maximillian, to which Aitken reportedly replied "No, Maximultimillion."

Almost everything about the man seems to have a mythical and a factual version. For example, his peerage name, Beaverbrook, has a romantic story attached to it that Aitken picked the name because it reminded him of a stream near his home in New Brunswick where he fished as a boy. The less colourful version reports that it was simply a place he found on a map.

It has been said that Aitken enjoyed his position as an outsider, but it seems he also enjoyed being an insider, playing a role in British politics for more than 50 years. Aitken was a confidant of Sir Winston Churchill – whose name is recorded over and over again in the guest book at Cherkley Court. Bonar Law, a right-hand man to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, was a regular guest who always celebrated Christmas there, and poet Rudyard Kipling not only signed in at Cherkley Court, he wrote a poem for the first guest book.

 

Basics:

Born: 25-May-1879 Maple, Ontario, Canada

Died:  9-Jun-1964 Leatherhead, Surrey, England

Nationality:  Canadian

Fields:   Business

Main Accomplishments:  A Canadian businessman and politician who left an indelible mark on politics and journalism on both sides of the Atlantic. Aitken rose to prominence as a merger king in Canada before gravitating into British politics and mass-circulation journalism. In 1916 he was elevated to the peerage as Lord Beaverbrook.

 

Chronology of Life Events:

May 25, 1879

Lord Beaverbrook born in Maple, Ontario Canada

 

1904

When Stairs opened his newly formed Royal Securities Corporation, Aitken became a minority shareholder and the firm's general manager.

 

Jan 29, 1906

Aitken married Gladys Henderson Drury, daughter of Major-General Charles William Drury CBE

 

1910

Aitken acquired many of the small regional cement plants in Eastern Canada and amalgamated them into Canada Cement.

 

1912

A. J. Nesbitt left Aitken's employ to form the Nesbitt, Thomson and Co. stock brokerage.

 

1917

He was granted a peerage in 1917 as the 1st Baron Beaverbrook.

 

1919

Aitken appointed employee Izaak Walton Killam as the new President of Royal Securities and sold the Canadian securities company to Killam.

 

1957

A bronze statue of Lord Beaverbrook was erected at the centre of Officers' Square in Fredericton, New Brunswick, paid for by money raised by children throughout the province.

 

Jun 9, 1964

He died in Leatherhead, Surrey, England

 

Early Life:

William Maxwell Aitken was born in Maple, Ontario, on May 25, 1879, the fifth of ten children of Jane and William Aitken. His father's itinerant career as a minister of the Church of Scotland left a moral and geographic imprint on young Max, who grew up in New Brunswick on Canada's Atlantic coast. He imbibed Presbyterian values in a region that was seeing its once strong prowess in the wood, wind, and water industries eroded by technological and regional shifts in the Canadian economy. Max's early personality displayed a bumptious opportunism brought on by the limited scope for advancement in Atlantic Canada; Aitken's entire career may be seen as a steady gravitation from the margins of economic, social, and political power to its center - from the Atlantic provinces to Montreal and ultimately to London, the seat of imperial political and financial power. Other New Brunswick "boys" would follow similar patterns: Louis B. Mayer to Hollywood and Richard Bedford Bennett to the Canadian prime ministership.

An apt student with a penchant for math and reading, Max cut his entrepreneurial teeth selling magazines and insurance door-to-door. The study of law briefly beckoned but did not overcome his restlessness, and in 1898 Aitken headed for Canada's "last best west," where in Calgary he joined his boyhood friend R.B. "Dick" Bennett in operating a bowling alley. Sensing that finance capitalism was the lifeblood of Canada's booming economy, Aitken returned east to use his persuasive personality in the possibilities of company promotion. As secretary to Halifax promoter John F. Stairs, Aitken quickly acquired a reputation and growing wealth as the seller of bonds in Canadian industrial and utility ventures, some of which extended south to Cuba and the Caribbean. The limited capital pool of the maritime provinces prompted Aitken to shift his focus in 1906 to Montreal, Canada's financial hub. Aitken's arrival in the Canadian business establishment was reinforced by his marriage that same year to Gladys Drury, daughter of a well-placed Halifax family; three children followed: Janet (1908), Max (1910), and Peter (1912).

In Montreal Aitken capitalized on the opportunities for industrial consolidation in the hothouse of national industrial development. He assembled integrated companies out of hitherto fragmented industries, the creation of Canada Cement in 1909 and the Steel Company of Canada in 1910 being the best examples. These activities had a two-fold outcome. They made Aitken very wealthy; he was by 1910 a millionaire with a reputation as a bold "money spinner" capable of remaking the Canadian industrial landscape. They also drew him deeper into the transatlantic web of financial dependence that underlay the Canadian economy. At the same time, Aitken's business methods - alleged stock watering and questionable promotional tactics - affixed a lifelong stigma to his name.

From his arrival in England in 1910 to his death in 1964, Aitken was principally concerned with British politics and journalism. Few abiding principles pervaded his activities in these years; as in business, he was interested in power and the deal-making that underlay it. Aitken understood the power of modern mass democracy - so evident in the sway of his mass-circulation daily newspapers - and the necessary accommodations that turned broad public sentiment into policy. His ventures into amateur history bespoke this instinct: titles such as Politicians and the Press (1925) and Men and Power, 1917-1918 (1956) were best-sellers.

In 1910 Aitken won election as a Conservative member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne; it would be his only elected office. While he excelled at the rhetoric of politics, he faded in the day-to-day practice of politics. Knighted in 1911, he drifted into back room political intrigue and began investing in the Daily Express, a profitable example of mass-circulation "new journalism." World War I gave scope to his charismatic qualities: he sensed the importance of "propaganda" on the home front. He extolled the exploits of Canadian troops in Flanders and later headed the Pictorial Propaganda Committee in England. He drew poets, writers (including Rudyard Kipling and Arnold Bennett) and filmmakers into the war effort. In 1918 he became Britain's minister of information. He played a role in the downfall of Prime Minister Asquith in 1916 and then served his successor, Lloyd George. In 1916 he received a peerage as Lord Beaverbrook, a move some alleged was designed by Lloyd George to forestall the bumptious Canadian from seeking his own job.

In the interwar years Beaverbrook continued to build his journalistic empire; he became a prototype of the modern "press lord." His control of the Daily Express was complemented by addition of the Sunday Express and the Evening Standard. The papers often reflected Beaverbrook's personal enthusiasms: empire free trade in the late 1920s and a fascination with Europe's totalitarian regimes. He visited both Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. When war came again in 1939, Beaverbrook quickly abandoned his inclination to appeasement and rallied to the cause of war, serving his friend Churchill as minister of aircraft production in 1940-1941 and then as an adviser in various guises, including a continued championing of Russia as an ally. Despite his penchant for organization and quick results, the "Beaver" proved a mercurial colleague, prone to egotism and intrigue.

Peace saw Beaverbrook devote his energies to his newspaper empire and to his philanthropic nostalgia for his New Brunswick birthplace. He relished his social eminence in England, in Canada, and at his holiday homes in Jamaica and the south of France. Widowed in 1927, Beaverbrook maintained a wide circle of amorous relationships, including friendships with novelist Rebecca West and actress Tallulah Bankhead. In 1963 he married the widow of his childhood chum Sir James Dunn (1874-1956), a millionaire steel maker. Within a year Beaverbrook died of cancer, on June 9, 1964, and was buried in Newcastle, New Brunswick.
 

Wife Background:

He married Gladys Henderson Drury, daughter of Major General Charles Drury. They had three children before her untimely passing in 1927. Beaverbrook remained a widower for many years until 1963 when he married Marcia Anastasia Christoforides (1910-1994), the widow of his friend Sir James Dunn.

 

Father Background:

His father, William Cuthbert Aitken, had emigrated from Scotland to pursue a ministerial career.

 

Mother Background:

His mother was Jane Noble, daughter of an Ulsterman who had become a prosperous farmer and storekeeper in Vaughan.

 
 
SuperAttainer

ANALYSIS SECTION:

 
 
1. Early Success
 

When did the SuperAttainer first display ability that was greatly above average and what were his accomplishments? 
 

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2. Contrarian

 
What actions did the SuperAttainer take that demonstrated a mindset that was very different from those around him?
 

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3. Conceited
 
What are the actions and documented statements that exhibit an elevated sense of self importance of the SuperAttainer? 
 
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4. Hard-Knocked 
 
During what events did the SuperAttainer experience personal misery and severe anxiety?
  

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5. Loner
 
Is there evidence of the SuperAttainer being comfortable spending time apart from others? 
 

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6. Mentored & Motivated
 
Who was vital to developing the SuperAttainer and guiding his career and what significant actions were taken?
 

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7. Discontent
 
What evidence is there that the SuperAttainer was unsatisfied with even great personal accomplishment?
 

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8. Promoted
 
What actions or events were responsible for publicizing the tremendous achievements and abilities of the SuperAttainer?
 

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Overall Score:

x out of 8 = xx% 

PASS

SuperAttainer Type:

Describe the factors in the SuperAttainer’s background to indicate whether he is a Come-From-Nothing or Aristocratic type..

Conclusion:

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