One of the Commonwealth's best-known publishers, politicians and philanthropists, William Maxwell Aitken, was born in Maple. The son of the Reverend William Aitken, a Presbyterian minister, he was educated in Newcastle, New Brunswick, to which his family moved in 1880. After a highly successful career in Canada as a financier he entered the British House of Commons in 1910 as a strong advocate of Imperial Preferences and was raised to the peerage in 1917 as Lord Beaverbrook. He later became the principal British publisher of mass circulation newspapers. During the Second World War Lord Beaverbrook was a member of the British War Cabinet and is best remembered as the Minister of Aircraft Production who organized the production of the fighter aircraft which won the Battle of Britain.

Location

At St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church to which he donated a carillon, 9860 Keele Street, Maple

Themes

• People
• Politics and law