Max Beaverbrook
1879 – 1964
Canadian

Newspaper owner and public figure. He began in his native Canada by acquiring newspapers, then moved to Britain, where he became the owner of the Daily Express (the largest circulation newspaper), a member of parliament, and a member of the government during World War I and World War II. He loved being rich, but political influence and power meant even more to him, and he especially loved behind the scenes political maneuvering and intrigue. At a crucial moment in World War I, he successfully schemed to bring in the Lloyd George government, and was regarded as a potent kingmaker thereafter. In World War II, he held a variety of positions under his friend Winston Churchill, but is best remembered for throwing his prodigious force of personality into aircraft production. Often selfish, roguish, or impish, but always brilliant and sometimes indispensable, he was a short and physically unprepossessing man from humble origins who reached the pinnacle of wealth, power, and social position, through sheer irrepressibility of energy, verve, and ambition.

Contemporaries
1879–1962Vilhjalmur Stefansson
1844–1910Joshua Slocum
1860–1946Ernest Seton
1880–1960Mack Sennett
1860–1943Sir Charles Roberts
1932–2001David McTaggart
1911–1980Marshall McLuhan
1908–2006J. Kenneth Galbraith
1912–1991Northrop Frye
1891–1979Charles Coughlin
1894–1956William Bishop
1899–1939Norman Bethune
1891–1941Sir Frederick Grant Banting