Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook

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Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook : biography

25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964

In addition to his ministerial role, Beaverbrook also accompanied Churchill to several wartime meetings with President Roosevelt. He was able to relate to Roosevelt in a different way to Churchill and became close to Roosevelt during these visits. This friendship sometimes irritated Churchill who felt that Beaverbrook was distracting Roosevelt from concentrating on the war effort. For his part Roosevelt seems to have enjoyed the distraction.

Later in 1941, Beaverbrook headed the British delegation to Moscow with American counterpart Averell Harriman. This made Beaverbrook the first senior British politician to meet Soviet leader Joseph Stalin since Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union. Much impressed by Stalin and the sacrifice of the Soviet people, he returned to London determined to persuade Churchill to launch a second front in Europe to help draw German resources away from the Eastern Front to aid the Soviets. Churchill was not to be persuaded and this led Beaverbrook to resign as Minister of War Production in 1942. During the remainder of the war (1943–1945), he occupied the role of Lord Privy Seal. Spartacus. Retrieved: 6 July 2011.

Despite this, throughout the war, Beaverbrook remained a close confidante of Churchill, and could regularly be found with Churchill until the early hours of the morning. Clement Attlee commented that "Churchill often listened to Beaverbrook’s advice but was too sensible to take it."

Beaverbrook gave his son Max The Daily Express and The Sunday Express as a birthday present in 1931. Max Aitken Jr. became a fighter pilot with 601 Squadron, rising to Wing Commander with 16 victories.

Family

On 29 January 1906, in Halifax, Aitken married Gladys Henderson Drury, daughter of Major-General Charles William Drury CBE (a first cousin of Admiral Sir Charles Carter Drury) and Mary Louise Drury (née Henderson). They had three children before her death in 1927:

Issue Marriage Issue (Grandchildren) Issue (Great-grandchildren)
Janet Gladys Aitken (1908–1988) Sir Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of ArgyllHon. William Drogo MontaguMajor Thomas Kidd Lady Jeanne Campbell (1928)William Montagu (1936)Jane Kidd (1943)John Kidd (1944) Kate Mailer (1962)Cusi Cram (1967)Michael Montagu (1968)Nicola Montagu (1971)Monette Montagu (1973)Jack Kidd (1973)Jemma Kidd (1974)Jodie Kidd (1978)
Sir John William Maxwell Aitken (1910–1985) Ursula Kenyon-SlaneyViolet de Trafford Hon. Kirsty Aitken (1947)Hon. Lynda Aitken (1948)Maxwell Aitken, 3rd Baron Beaverbrook (1951)Hon. Laura Aitken (1953) Dominic Morley (1967)Major Sebastian Morley (1969)Eleanor Smallwood (1982)Joshua Dickson (1977)Leo Maréchal (1981)Hon. Maxwell Aitken (1977)Hon. Alexander Aitken (1978)Hon. Charlotte Aitken (1982)Hon. Sophia Aitken (1985)Sonny Mallett (1984)Lucci Levi (1993)Louis Levi (1994)
Peter Rudyard Aitken (1912–1947) Janet Macneil (md. 1934, div. 1939) Marie Patricia Maguire (md. 1942)Peter Rudyard Aitken at Find a Grave.(St Michael Churchyard

Mickleham, Surrey)||Caroline Aitken (1935)Timothy Aitken (1944)Peter Aitken (1946)Peter Aitken married 2ndly 1980 (div 1985) Honourable Elizabeth Rees-Williams (), former wife of Richard Harris and Rex Harrison, and now wife of his second cousin Jonathan Aitken||William Baker (1958)Philip Baker (1960)Jonathan Baker (1967)Theodore Aitken (1976)Charles Aitken (1979)James AitkenJason Aitken

Early career in Canada

Aitken was born in Maple, Ontario, Canada, (near Keele Street and Major Mackenzie Drive) in 1879, the son of a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister. The following year, his family moved to Newcastle, New Brunswick, Canada, which he considered to be his hometown. It was here, at the age of 13, that he published his first newspaper.

Although Aitken wrote the entrance examinations for Dalhousie University and registered at the King’s College Law School, he did not attend either institution. His only formal higher education came when he briefly attended the University of New Brunswick. Aitken worked for a short time as an office boy in the law office of Richard Bedford Bennett, in the town of Chatham, New Brunswick. Bennett later became Prime Minister of Canada and a business associate.