It is most commonly associated with the first Baron, Maxwell Aitken, who was a prominent media owner and politician from the 1910s to the 1960s. When he died, his son immediately disclaimed the title, as he wished there to only be one Lord Beaverbrook in his lifetime.
Beaverbrook's elevation to government was at least in part due to his role in engineering Asquith's ousting as premier with Lloyd George as his replacement in December 1916.
Clever in his use of propaganda, Beaverbrook commissioned a series of poster campaigns designed by famed artists of the period, and encouraged successful authors to write pamphlets and newspaper articles; the latter group included such luminaries as Rudyard Kipling, H G Wells and Sir Henry Newbolt, as well as Buchan).
A dispute over jurisdiction with the Foreign Office prompted Beaverbrook's resignation in October 1918 (Beaverbrook was keen to arrange for the dropping of millions of leaflets designed by his department into enemy territories).
Aitken, William Maxwell, first BaronBeaverbrook 1879-1964, newspaper proprietor, was born 25 May 1879 at Vaughan, Maple, Ontario, the third son in the family of ten children of a Presbyterian minister, William Cuthbert Aitken, who had emigrated to Canada from Torpichen, West Lothian.
Beaverbrook impishly liked to pretend that he left his newspapers to run themselves, but it is evident that the chief shareholder's telephonic interventions were menacingly perpetual and his flair for informed gossipand maliceunexampled.
Beaverbrook, said Churchill, was at his very best when things are at their worst. Nothing that he did in his long life was as important as the part Beaverbrook played in winning the Battle of Britain.
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