Margaret Aitken Margaret Aitken Margaret Aitken (July 3, 1908 – November 19, 1980) was a Canadian author, columnist, journalist, and politician. Aitken was born in Newcastle, New Brunswick. She attended Branksome Hall in Toronto. She was the daughter of J. Mauns Aitken and her uncle was Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook. Her brother, William Aitken and his son Jonathan Aitken (her nephew) were members of the British House of Commons. She started with the "Toronto Telegram" in 1938 and was a foreign correspondent. She was noted for covering the birth of Israel as a nation and she became a strong supporter of
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook his early political efforts: Aitken continued to grow his business interests while in Parliament and also began to build a British newspaper empire. After the death of Charles Rolls in 1910, Aitken bought his shares in Rolls-Royce Limited, and over the next two years gradually increased his holding in the company. However, Claude Johnson, Rolls-Royce's Commercial managing director, resisted Aitken's attempt to gain control of the company, and in October 1913 he sold his holding to James Buchanan Duke, of the American Tobacco Company. In January 1911, Aitken, secretly, invested £25,000 in the failing "Daily Express". An attempt to buy