Lord Beaverbrook

Beaverbrook, Lord (1879-1964). Newspaper proprietor. Born to a Scots-Canadian family in Ontario, William Aitken worked as a company negotiator, and became a millionaire. In 1910 he journeyed to England, where his fellow Scots-Canadian, Andrew Bonar Law, found him a seat as a Conservative MP. He cultivated the acquaintance of Lloyd George, played a murky part in Lloyd George's overthrow of Asquith, and was rewarded with a peerage (1916). Beaverbrook had, meanwhile, bought the Daily Express: by 1936 it had achieved a world-record circulation of 2.25 million copies per day. In 1923 he acquired control of the Evening Standard. In 1940 Churchill made him minister of aircraft production. The choice was inspired. Beaverbrook's ruthless methods helped ensure the victory of the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain.