Lord Beaverbrook

"On the rock bound coast of New Brunswick the waves break incessantly. Every now and then comes a particularly dangerous wave that breaks viciously into the rock. It is called 'The Rage.' That's me."
– Lord Beaverbrook

Lord Beaverbrook – William Maxwell Aitken – was a self-made man who grew up the son of a Scottish Presbyterian preacher in Newcastle, N.B., and became a millionaire businessman, a press baron and a British politician. He had a reputation as a shrewd political figure and a pushy newspaper publisher, barking orders to the editors of his London papers down the telephone lines from his country mansion, Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead, Surrey.

Aitken had a large personality and was known to enjoy his reputation as a mischief-maker "par excellence" who kept his "Canadian drawl" as he moved about London's political circles. Novelist William Gerhardie once asked Aitken if his middle name was short for Maximillian, to which Aitken reportedly replied "No, Maximultimillion."

Almost everything about the man seems to have a mythical and a factual version. For example, his peerage name, Beaverbrook, has a romantic story attached to it that Aitken picked the name because it reminded him of a stream near his home in New Brunswick where he fished as a boy. The less colourful version reports that it was simply a place he found on a map.

It has been said that Aitken enjoyed his position as an outsider, but it seems he also enjoyed being an insider, playing a role in British politics for more than 50 years. Aitken was a confidant of Sir Winston Churchill – whose name is recorded over and over again in the guest book at Cherkley Court. Bonar Law, a right-hand man to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, was a regular guest who always celebrated Christmas there, and poet Rudyard Kipling not only signed in at Cherkley Court, he wrote a poem for the first guest book.

Aitken had a long political career that began shortly after he arrived in London in the spring of 1910. Aitken was one of only three British cabinet members to serve in both world wars. In Prime Minister Lloyd George's cabinet, Aitken was the first ever minister of information, and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. But Aitken was strong-minded and resigned from Lloyd George's government, leading him to promote his political views in his own newspapers.

Having delivered newspapers as a boy, Aitken went on to own two successful British newspapers – the Daily Express and the Evening Standard. He reportedly told a British foreign minister that he would always have "the loyal support of my newspapers." Aitken's papers were widely-read. The Daily Express sold 4,300,000 copies in 1960, making it the largest selling British newspaper.

In Canada, Aitken got into trouble as a young boy in school and tried but failed to get into Dalhousie University in Halifax, but he eventually studied law. And it was in Halifax that he started his business career, setting up companies with ties to the Caribbean and England.

Aitken helped Prime Minister R.B. Bennett in his bid to win a seat in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in Bennett's earlier days of politics. Aitken's press purchases began in Canada when he acquired the magazine Canadian Century, which didn't have much success since Aitken was a bit of an absentee publisher.

In later years, Aitken travelled widely and focused more on writing his books, which have been referred to as well-written but indulgent accounts of his heroes and his own war experiences.

Aitken spent his life trying to make a lot of money, but he also gave a lot away. He started the Beaverbrook Foundation in 1954 to hand out grants. He donated large sums of money, much of it to causes in his native New Brunswick. He set up the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton in 1959 and has funded ice rinks, a town hall and theatre, and has given money to the University of New Brunswick, where he was a chancellor.

Works by Beaverbrook

• Canada in Flanders (1916)
• Politicians and the Press (1925)
• Politicians and the War 2 Vols (1928, 1932)
• Men and Power (1956)
• Friends: Sixty years of Intimate personal relations with Richard Bedford Bennett (1959)
• Courage (1961)
• The decline and fall of Lloyd George (1962)
• The divine propagandist (1962)
• My Early Life (1962)
• Success (1962 2ed.)
• The Abdication of Edward VIII ed. A.J.P.Taylor (posthumous, 1966)

The battle for the Beaverbrook paintings

The Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, N.B., is fighting to hang on to paintings that the descendants of Lord Beaverbrook – the gallery's namesake and original patron – say belong to his estate. And they want them back. William Maxwell Aitken – Lord Beaverbrook – founded the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in 1958 and donated a number of high-profile paintings, including several by his friend, former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

Timothy Aitken, head of the Beaverbrook Foundation and Lord Beaverbrook's grandson, wants 175 artworks to be returned to the family foundation. Aitken wants to auction off some of the paintings and use the proceeds to continue renovations on Cherkley Court, his father's country estate in the English countryside.

Among the paintings in question are The Fountain of Indolence, by 19th-century British landscape artist J.M.W. Turner, which is expected to bring in $25 million, and Hotel Bedroom, by British portrait artist Lucian Freud, which could sell for $5 million.

The battle between the foundation and the art gallery board not only threatens the paintings in question, but it puts future funds from the Beaverbrook Foundation to the gallery at risk. In October 2006, an arbitration hearing began in New Brunswick, headed by retired Supreme Court justice Peter Cory. The hearing will resolve the battle.