39 Facts About Beverley Baxter

Sir Arthur Beverley Baxter, FRSL was a journalist and politician.

Beverley Baxter was born in Toronto from James Bennett Baxter, a Yorkshire-born Methodist who had emigrated to Canada, and his wife Meribah Elizabeth Lawson, born in Toronto.

Beverley Baxter worked for the Nordheimer Piano and Music Company selling pianos, and became a sales manager.

Beverley Baxter had friends in the Canadian music world including Ernest MacMillan and the baritone Edmund Arbuckle Burke.

In 1915 Baxter enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force of World War I, becoming a signals lieutenant in the 122nd Battalion, CEF in France.

Beverley Baxter went to work at the Express, with some reluctance since he had ambitions to be an author, as a leader writer and reporter.

In 1922 Beverley Baxter was appointed the managing editor of the Sunday Express, launched in 1918 by Beaverbrook after he had failed to acquire the Sunday Times, and loss-making for a decade; the editor there was James Douglas.

Under the headline "Three Nights of Horror" Beverley Baxter reviewed for it in November 1922 a dramatisation of The Secret Agent, which he called "actionless and unmoving", and two other plays.

Beverley Baxter had a musical connection to the Sitwell circle: William Walton dedicated a piano arrangement of a piece from Facade to his wife Edith.

In 1929 Beverley Baxter went to work for the Daily Chronicle group, as editor-in-chief.

Beverley Baxter increased the circulation, which for the first time it exceeded 1,000,000 under his stewardship; in 1933 it topped 2,000,000.

Beverley Baxter left the Beaverbrook stable in 1933, replaced as editor of the Daily Express by Arthur Christiansen.

Beverley Baxter worked as Public Relations counsel for the Gaumont British Picture Corporation Ltd.

In 1935 Beverley Baxter was recruited by Allied Newspapers to be an Editorial Adviser by Lord Camrose; in 1937 he moved across to Kemsley Newspapers, controlled by Lord Kemsley, Camrose's brother.

Beverley Baxter wrote the "Atticus" gossip column in the Sunday Times and was commended for his journalism by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, as "a most loyal supporter of the Government".

Beverley Baxter drew a parallel between Germans and Britons, saying that the two had the same human ambitions and sense of destiny.

In 1942 Beverley Baxter was appointed by Lord Beaverbrook as theatre critic for the Evening Standard, a post which he held for the eight years, combining it with his duties as a Member of Parliament.

In Shulman's account, Gavin Lambert wrote an anonymous "sardonic knifing of all of Fleet Street's working theatre critics but was particularly derisive about the 'merciless volubility' of Beverley Baxter", published in an undergraduate magazine Panorama edited by Kenneth Tynan.

Beverley Baxter slammed the 1953 performance of Benjamin Britten's Gloriana, suggesting that Edward German's light opera Merrie England would have been more suitable for Elizabeth II's coronation.

Beverley Baxter was selected as Conservative Party candidate for Wood Green in London in 1935.

Beverley Baxter noted that, until the Suez crisis of 1956, Baxter consistently championed the British Empire and Canada's part in it, his views being in line with Beaverbrook's.

On 10 March 1940, Baxter published a piece in the Sunday Graphic, criticising Joseph P Kennedy Sr.

Beverley Baxter had been writing anti-German articles for the Sketch, in which he had been involved.

Beverley Baxter supported Neville Chamberlain in the Norway debate of May 1940, and the next morning protested vigorously about the attacks on Chamberlain's character, urging him not to regard the vote as one of censure but to show the courage of David Lloyd George.

In December 1945 Beverley Baxter was part of the large Conservative dissent from the proposed Anglo-American loan agreement.

Beverley Baxter opposed European integration, and in 1948 was one of eight Conservatives to vote against Marshall Aid.

Beverley Baxter was involved in the 1947 Budget leak that put an end to Hugh Dalton's time as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Beverley Baxter was made aware of the short budget summary that Dalton had given to the journalist John Carvel, by another journalist, Willie Allison of the Evening Standard.

Arthur Koestler cited in his campaign for abolition Beverley Baxter's statements, brought up by Lord Templewood as requiring a reply, while regarded by Lord Mancroft as rumours.

At the 1950 general election, Beverley Baxter moved constituencies to stand for the newly created Southgate constituency.

Beverley Baxter was given a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours list of 1954.

Beverley Baxter continued to support the abolition of capital punishment and acted as a sponsor of Bills to that effect brought in by the Labour MP Sydney Silverman, and spent a great deal of the late 1950s campaigning for a reduction in theatre tax.

In 1961 Beverley Baxter broke the whip to support a Conservative backbench amendment to restore corporal punishment for young offenders.

Beverley Baxter was very concerned at the Macmillan government's application to join the European Communities lest it damage ties with the Commonwealth, and abstained rather than support the government when it was put to the vote in August 1961.

In poor health, Beverley Baxter announced that that Parliament was to be his last.

Beverley Baxter was criticised in January 1963 by the television programme That Was The Week That Was for having made no speeches since the 1959 general election.

Beverley Baxter died in London before Parliament was dissolved, but no byelection to replace him was held due to the imminence of the general election.

In 1924 Beverley Baxter married Edith Christina Letson from Vancouver, sister of Harry Letson.

Clive Beverley Baxter, the son, was a journalist with the Financial Post, married to Cynthia Molson, sister of Eric Molson.