Beaverbrook, William Maxwell (‘Max’) Aitken, first Baron

Beaverbrook, William Maxwell (‘Max’) Aitken, first Baron (1879–1964), newspaper proprietor, born in Canada, came to England in 1910, and embarked on a career in politics. In 1916 (the year in which he became Lord Beaverbrook) he bought the Daily Express, launched the Sunday Express in 1918, and in 1923 gained control of the Evening Standard, of which his friend Arnold Bennett became the influential reviewer. He became the most powerful figure in popular journalism; he enjoyed controversy, from the ‘Empire Crusade’ of his early years to the anti-Common Market of his old age. His own works include Politicians and the War (2 vols, 1928, 1932, which provided much of the background for Bennett's novel Lord Raingo, 1926), and The Decline and Fall of Lloyd George (1963).