Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere

The Viscount Rothermere
Lord Rothermere
Born	April 26, 1868(1868-04-26)
Died	November 26, 1940(1940-11-26) (aged 72)
Nationality	British
Occupation	Publisher
Title	1st Viscount Rothermere
Spouse	Mary Lilian Share
Children	Harold Alfred Vyvyan St. George Harmsworth (1894–1918) Vere Sidney Tudor Harmsworth (1895–1916) Esmond Cecil Harmsworth (1898–1978)
Parents	Alfred Harmsworth & Geraldine Mary
Relatives	Cecil Harmsworth (brother) Alfred Harmsworth (brother) Leicester Harmsworth (brother)

Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (26 April 1868 – 26 November 1940) was a highly successful British newspaper proprietor, owner of Associated Newspapers Ltd. He is known in particular, with his brother Alfred Harmsworth, the later Viscount Northcliffe, for the development of the London Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. He was a pioneer of popular journalism.

Background

Harmsworth was the son of Alfred Harmsworth, a barrister, and the brother of Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, Cecil Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth, Sir Leicester Harmsworth, 1st Baronet, and Sir Hildebrand Harmsworth, 1st Baronet.

Newspaper proprietor

Harmsworth founded the Glasgow Daily Record, and the Sunday Pictorial, but his greatest success came with the Daily Mirror, which had a circulation of three million by 1922. His elder brother died without an heir in that year, and he acquired control of the Daily Mail. Rothermere's descendants continue to control the Daily Mail and General Trust. Harmsworth was created a baronet, of Horsey in the County of Norfolk, in 1910, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Rothermere, of Hemsted in the County of Kent, in 1914.

Public life

Rothermere served as President of the Air Council in the government of David Lloyd George for a time during World War I, and was made Viscount Rothermere, of Hemsted in the County of Kent, in 1919. In 1921, he founded the Anti-Waste League to combat what he saw as excessive government spending.

In 1930, Rothermere purchased the freehold of the old site of the Bethlem Hospital in Southwark. He donated it to the London County Council to be made into a public open space, to be known as the Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park in memory of his mother, for the benefit of the "splendid struggling mothers of Southwark".

Revision of the post-WWI treaties

Rothermere strongly supported revision of the Treaty of Trianon in favour of Hungary. On 21 June 1927, he published in his Daily Mail an editorial titled Hungary's Place in the Sun, in which he supported a detailed plan to restore to Hungary large pieces of territory it lost at the end of the First World War. This boldly pro-Hungarian stance was greeted with ecstatic gratitude in Hungary. Many in England were caught off-guard by Rothermere's impassioned endorsement of the Hungarian cause; it was rumoured that the press baron had been convinced to support it by the charms of a Hungarian seductress (she turned out to be Austrian). Rothermere's son Esmond was received with royal pomp during a visit to Budapest, and some political actors in Hungary later went so far as to inquire about Rothermere's interest in being placed on the Hungarian throne. Rothermere later insisted he did not invite these overtures, and that he quietly deflected them. His private correspondence indicates otherwise. He did purchase estates in Hungary in case Britain should fall to a Soviet invasion. There is a memorial to Rothermere in Budapest.

Appeasement

In later life Rothermere used his newspaper ownership in attempts to influence British politics, notably being a strong supporter of appeasement towards Nazi Germany, in part—it is thought—because of a shattering experience during World War I when he had three sons reported killed or missing in the same week.^{[citation needed]} In the 1930s, he urged increased defence spending while being the owner of the only major newspapers to advocate an alliance with Germany. The Rothermere papers for a time in 1934 championed the British Union of Fascists (B.U.F), and were again the only major papers that did so. Rothermere famously wrote a Daily Mail editorial entitled "Hurrah for the Blackshirts", in January 1934, praising Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine".

Rothermere visited and corresponded with Hitler.. On 1 October 1938, Rothermere sent Hitler a telegram in support of Germany's invasion of the Sudetenland, and expressing the hope that 'Adolf the Great' would become a popular figure in Britain. However, this was tempered by an awareness of the military threat from the resurgent Germany, of which he warned J. C. Davidson. Secret British government papers released in 2005 show that Rothermere wrote to Adolf Hitler congratulating him for the annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, and encouraged him to march into Romania. He went on to note that Hitler's work was "great and superhuman". The MI5 papers also show that Rothermere paid a retainer of £5,000 per year to Stephanie Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, a glamorous Austrian princess and German spy, intending that she should bring him closer to Hitler's inner circle. She was known as "London's leading Nazi hostess". The secret services had been monitoring her since she came to Britain in the 1920s and regarded her as "an extremely dangerous person". As World War II loomed, Rothermere stopped the payments and their relationship deteriorated into threats and lawsuits.

Interest in aviation

In 1934, a Mercury-engined version of the Bristol Type 135 cabin monoplane was ordered by Rothermere for his own use as part of a campaign to popularise commercial aviation. First flying in 1935, the Bristol Type 142 caused great interest in Air Ministry circles because its top speed of 307 mph was higher than that of any Royal Air Force fighter in service. Lord Rothermere presented the aircraft (named "Britain First") to the nation for evaluation as a bomber and in early 1936 the modified design was taken into production as the Blenheim Mk.I

Grand Falls, Newfoundland

In 1904, on behalf of his elder brother Alfred, Harmsworth and Mayson Beeton, son of Isabella Beeton, the famed author of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, travelled to Newfoundland to search for a supply of lumber and to look for a site to build and operate a pulp and paper mill. While searching along the Exploits River they came across Grand Falls, named by John Cartwright in 1768. After purchasing the land a company town was built and today is known as Grand Falls-Windsor.

Family

Lord Rothermere married Lilian Share, daughter of George Wade Share, on 4 July 1893. They had three sons, the two elder of whom were killed in the First World War:

• Captain Hon. Harold Alfred Vyvyan St. George Harmsworth (born 2 August 1894, died 12 February 1918)
• Lt. Hon. Vere Sidney Tudor Harmsworth (born 25 September 1895, died 13 November 1916)
• Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere (29 May 1898–1978)

Lady Harmnsworth died on 16 March 1937.

Bibliography

Rothermere, Harold S.H., Warnings and Predictions, Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd., 1939

Further reading

• Boyce, D. George (May 2008). "Harmsworth, Harold Sidney, first Viscount Rothermere (1868–1940)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33718. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Rothermere
• Page at Spartacus

Political offices
Preceded by The Viscount Cowdray as President of the Air Board	President of the Air Council 1917–1918	Succeeded by The Lord Weir
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Rothermere 1919–1940	Succeeded by Esmond Harmsworth
New creation	Baron Rothermere 1914–1940
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baronet (of Hemsted)  1910–1940	Succeeded by Esmond Harmsworth