Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, PC, ONB (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964) was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century. His base of power was the largest circulation newspaper in the world, the "Daily Express", which appealed to the conservative working class with intensely patriotic news and editorials. During the Second World War he played a major role in mobilising industrial resources as Winston Churchill's minister of aircraft production. The young Max Aitken had
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook Law School, but left after a short while. This was to be his only formal higher education. Aitken worked in a shop then borrowed some money to move to Chatham, New Brunswick where he worked as a local correspondent for the "Montreal Star", sold life insurance and also collected debts. Aitken attempted to train as a lawyer and worked for a short time in the law office of Richard Bedford Bennett, a future prime minister of Canada. Aitken managed Bennett's successful campaign for a place on Chatham Town Council. When Bennett left the law firm, Aitken moved to Saint John,