1st Baron Beaverbrook.
Aitken was born on 25th May 1879, the fifth child of 10 of William Cuthbert Aitken, a dignified and devout Presbyterian preacher of Scottish extraction. He spent his early childhood in the frontier town of Newcastle, New Brunswick, Canada. Later in life he would recall the hardship of his early years. But this was an undoubted exaggeration: though by no means rich, the Aitken family were able to live comfortably in their Canadian provincial backwater.
In 1927, Beaverbrook visited the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain, with his daughter, Janet Aitken Kidd, who provides an account of their experience of seeing important masterworks by Titian, Bartolomé Murillo, Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, and Rembrandt. In contrast to her own response, which she described as a "blinding revelation" of which "no words could express the excitement I felt," comparing it to "a child who discovers a bag of sweets," she notes that "on the surface he seemed unimpressed." However, she goes on to say that "It might have lit a spark in him too, for later on he spent much time and money establishing his own art gallery in Canada, fitting it with the best pictures he could acquire." It was perhaps a year later, in 1928, in reference to his loan of a William Orpen painting to Robert Borden, a former prime minister of Canada, that the embryonic idea of building an art gallery first surfaced, as he stated, "It is quite possible that I would want it [the painting] back — in connection with some public building
Key dates:
25 May 1879 Birth in Maple, Ontario
1910 to 1916 Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne
1917 Granted Peerage of the United Kingdom: Baron Beaverbrook
1918 Minister of Information
1918 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1940-1941 Minister of Aircraft Production
1941-1942 Minister of Supply
1942 Minister of War Production
1943-1945 Lord Privy Seal
9 June 1964 Death at Cherkley Court, Leatherhead, Surrey

Family:
Married twice:
Gladys Henderson Drury (1906-1927)
Marcia Anastasia Christoforides, Lady Dunn(1963-1964)

3 children w/ Gladys Henderson Drury
1 Janet Gladys Aitken m. 11317172 'Cappy' Kidd Major Thomas Edward Dealtry Nickname: Cappy
2 Sir John William Maxwell Aitken
3 Peter Rudyard Aitken

The post war years, with their combination of rigorous socialism and imperial decline, were an unpleasant reality for the aging Beaverbrook. To the outside world his legend continued: his editors still waited nervously for the call and the unmistakable bark: 'What's news?' But there seemed more of a sense of nostalgia about his conversation and his work, and certainly an embittered isolation from political affairs.

He found solace in travel – a tough yearly schedule that took him from Cherkley, to La Capponcina in the south of France, to the Bahamas, to New York, to Canada and back – and, of course, in writing. He turned out well written, if somewhat indulgent, accounts of his heroes and his own contribution to the First World War.

After the War, Beaverbrook served as Chancellor of the University of New Brunswick and became the university's greatest benefactor, fulfilling the same role for the city of Fredericton and the Province as a whole. He provided additions to the University, scholarship funds, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Beaverbrook Skating Rink, the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel, the Playhouse, and many other projects. He once estimated that he had given some $16 million to various causes in New Brunswick alone. He set up and chaired Foundations both in the UK and Canada to further his philanthropic aims. Lord Rosbery said of him: 'He used his wealth unostentatiously, sometimes not even letting his right hand know what his left hand did. He helped many in distress. I have known even his enemies, of whom he had many, to be helped by him anonymously when he heard that they were in an impoverished condition.'

In England, Beaverbrook lived at Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead, Surrey. He remained a widower until 1963 when he married Marcia Anastasia Christofrides, the widow of his friend Sir James Dunn.

By the early 1960s, however, it was clear that the curtain was falling. He was feted one last time at a dinner at the Dorchester for his eighty-fifth birthday in late May 1964. He died two weeks later on 9th June. He could show outwardly, at least, that there had been no decline.

His Coat of Arms is in the Canadian
Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges
April 15, 2016 Vol VI p.606
https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/k/o/s/Janice-Fuller-MA/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0331.html
https://beaverbrookfoundation.org Beaverbrook Foundation sponsored Vimy Ridge 100 celebration.
(1870)
Sister of William Maxwell Aitken
Ann Anderson (Annie) Aitken
b. 19 Apr 1870 Vaughn, York, Ontario, Canada
----
On 29 January 1906, in Halifax, Aitken married Gladys Henderson Drury, daughter of Major-General Charles William Drury CBE (a first cousin of Admiral Sir Charles Carter Drury) and Mary Louise Drury (née Henderson). They had three children before her death on 1 December 1927. Their son Max Aitken Jr. became a fighter pilot with 601 Squadron, rising to Wing Commander with 16 victories in World War II. Beaverbrook remained a widower for many years until 1963 when he married Marcia Anastasia Christoforides (1910–1994), the widow of his friend Sir James Dunn. Beaverbrook was rarely a faithful husband, and even in old age was often accused of treating women with disrespect. In Britain he established the then-married Jean Norton as his mistress at Cherkley. Aitken left Norton for a Jewish ballet dancer named Lily Ernst whom he had rescued from pre-war Austria

Friends with Winston Churchill
In the New York Times
Lord Beaverbrook Dead at 85; Founder of Newspaper Empire; Member of Churchill's War Cabinet Guided Britain's Aircraft Production
June 10, 1964

Charlotte Susanna Aitken m.1982, div 1983 Charles Bowmont
Lord Beaverbrook's in the Newcastle Town Square that contains his ashes.
the ten children of William Cuthbert Aitken, a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister Jane Noble, the dau a prosperous local farmer and storekeeper.
Beaverbrook was born in Maple, Ontario, on May 25, 1879, the third son of Rev. William Aitken, a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister, and a middle child in a family of . The Aitkens moved to Newcastle, New Brunswick, in 1880. Beaverbrook had a reputation as a mischief-maker with a special talent and passion for making money, becoming a multi-millionaire before the age of thirty (or a "Maxi-millionaire," as he referred to himself). He got his start in the financial field in the early 1900s in Halifax, and he formed the Canada Cement Company in 1909 by merging several regional cement plants into one entity. Certain questionable irregularities in stock transfers from the sale of the cement monopoly resulted in the accumulation of a lavish personal profit that attracted criticism, and the cunning financier possibly avoided charges of securities fraud by moving to London, England. There, he became the largest newspaper baron in the United Kingdom and a highly influential figure in British society. Mentored by Richard Bedford Bennett (the only New Brunswick-born prime minister of Canada) and Andrew Bonar Law (another native of New Brunswick and Britain's only Canadian-born prime minister), he took advantage of the old boy network, which served him exceedingly well. He became a Conservative MP in 1910, and was one of only three British cabinet members to serve in both world wars. He was knighted in 1911 at age thirty-two by King George V. In 1916, he purchased the Daily Express and helped David Lloyd George supersede H. H. Asquith as prime minister of the United Kingdom. In 1917, at age thirty-eight, he was granted peerage as the 1st Baron Beaverbrook, the title "Beaverbrook" recalling his Canadian origins, a stream in the Miramichi region of New Brunswick where he lived and fished as a boy. He launched the Sunday Express in 1918, the same year he was appointed Minister of Information, and acquired the London Evening Standard in 1923. A prominent member of Churchill's wartime government, he served as Minister of Aircraft Production (1940-1941), Minister of Supply (1941-1942), Minister of War Production and Special Envoy to the United States on Supplies (1942), and Lord Privy Seal (1943-1945).

For more than half a century, Beaverbrook lived and moved among the rich and famous and some of the most powerful figures on the world stage. Among the guests he entertained at his late Victorian mansion, Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead, Surrey, were Winston Churchill, Andrew Bonar Law, Rebecca West, H. G. Wells, Harold Macmillan, and Rudyard Kipling. His social circle of artists, many of whom he frequently corresponded with and supported through his patronage, included Augustus John, William Orpen, Henry Tonks, John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert, and Graham Sutherland. He also befriended Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, and thought "he was a fine fellow . . . a very jovial man, full of fun . . . [who] made lots and lots of jokes." Beaverbrook left a profound impression on all those with whom he associated, and in his business dealings no one ever seemed to come away unscathed. Widely disliked and distrusted by the political elite, both his friends and enemies acknowledged his strong, if not difficult, personality.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141119041337-51282615-a-portrait-of-lord-beaverbrook-and-his-incomparable-gift
Canadian Public Register of Arms Flags and Badges
William Maxwell Aitken
Beaver Brook, New Brunswick
April 15, 2016
Vol VI pg606

Suggested edit: To be marked as a 'Famous Person', in my humble opinion, considering (especially) his role in ww2.
Contributor: Rob Vogels (47864570) • Jan 2022, tried and was refused twice!
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The following inscription on a statue erected in Beaverbrook's honor in Fredericton expresses the thanks of the public, and especially of the children of New Brunswick, to this most famous of all Miramichiers:

THROUGHOUT A CAREER REMARKABLE FOR ITS MANY ACHIEVEMENTS, INCLUDING VALUABLE SERVICES IN TWO WORLD WARS, HE ENRICHED THIS PROVINCE BY COUNTLESS BENEFACTIONS AND PROVIDED OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE YOUNG, ENABLING MANY TO ENJOY A FULLER LIFE. THIS MEMORIAL TO THEIR FRIEND AND BENEFACTOR IS PLACED HERE BY THE SCHOOL CHILDREN AND OTHERS THAT HE MAY KNOW THE GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION THEY FEEL FOR HIM.

Beaverbrook's first wife, Gladys H. Drury, who belonged to one of Canada's best-known military families, was only eighteen years old when they were married and not yet forty when she died, in 1927. They had two sons and a daughter, all three of whom were MPs in Britain. Beaverbrook's second wife, Lady Dunn, whom he married in 1961/3, was the widow of his old friend Sir James Hamet Dunn, the wealthy Canadian industrialist who was born in Bathurst, NB.