BEAVERBROOK, WILLIAM MAXWELL AITKEN, 1ST BARON (1879- ), was born at Newcastle (N.B.), May 25, 1879, the son of the Rev. William Aitken, a Presbyterian minister at Newcastle. At an early age he started business in Halifax (N.S.), but later removed to the wider field of Montreal, where in 1907 he acquired a seat on the stock exchange.
In 1910 he was asked by the Bank of Montreal to investigate the prospects of an amalgamation of three Canadian cement mills. As a consequence of his examination he slipped almost by acci dent into a scheme for the amalgamation of all the Canadian mills, and made at a stroke an immense fortune. He found himself the object of an organized Press attack, and achieved a considerable unpopularity throughout Canada, but time has proved the finance of the Cement Trust to be sound.
At this point Aitken, having attained his predetermined aim of making f r,000,000, retired from business and entered English politics. He won a seat in parliament at Ashton-under-Lyne in Dec. 191o, and became private secretary to Bonar Law. His in fluence with that statesman, who, in 1911, became Leader of the Opposition, was suspect to many Conservative members. He was raised to the peerage in Jan. 1917 as Baron Beaverbrook of Beaverbrook (N.B.) and Cherkley, Surrey. He had been knighted in 1911 and created a baronet in 1916.
At the outbreak of the World War he had become Canadian "Eye-Witness" at the front. In 1915 he became a representative of the Canadian Government with the Expeditionary Force, taking charge later of the Canadian war records. In Feb. 1918 he joined the cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister of Information in charge of propaganda. Immedi ately after the Armistice he resigned from the cabinet and aban doned politics.
For some years before this date Lord Beaverbrook had possessed a financial interest in The Daily Express, but had taken no active part in its direction. He now took over entire control and gave the newspaper his whole attention. In 1921 he founded The Sun day Express, and after a prolonged struggle established it success fully as a popular Sunday journal. Later he secured a controlling interest in The Evening Standard—thus creating a kind of triple alliance. His published works are the first two volumes of Canada in Flanders; Success, a study of the ethics of business; Politicians and the Press (1925) ; and Politicians and the War (1928; vol. ii, 1932). Lord Beaverbrook married in 1906 Gladys Henderson (d. 1927), daughter of Brig.-Gen. C. W. Drury, of Halifax (N.S.).