Esmond Cecil Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere (29 May 1898 – 12 July 1978), was a British Conservative politician and press magnate.
The Viscount Rothermere | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Philip de László, 1923 | |
| Member of the House of Lords | |
Lord Temporal | |
| In office 26 November 1940 – 12 July 1978 | |
| Preceded by | Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere |
| Succeeded by | Vere Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere |
| Member of Parliament for Isle of Thanet | |
| In office 15 November 1919 – 10 May 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Norman Craig |
| Succeeded by | Harold Balfour |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 May 1898 |
| Died | 12 July 1978 (aged 80) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouses | Margaret Hunam Redhead
(m. 1920; div. 1938)Mary Murchison (m. 1966) |
| Children | With Margaret: * Lorna Peggy Vyvyan Harmsworth (1920–2014) * Esmé Mary Gabrielle Harmsworth (1922–2011) * Vere Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere (1925–1998) With Mary: * Esmond Vyvyan Harmsworth (b. 1967) |
| Parent(s) | Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere Mary Lilian Share |
| Education | Eton College |
| Occupation | Politician, publisher |
Early life
editHarmsworth was the third son of Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, who had founded the Daily Mail in partnership with his brother Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe. He was educated at Eton College and commissioned into the Royal Marine Artillery in World War I. His two older brothers were both killed in action. Esmond served as aide-de-camp to the prime minister at the Paris Peace Conference. In 1919, he was elected as a Unionist Member of Parliament for the Isle of Thanet, one of the youngest MPs ever. He served until 1929.
Press career
editAfter 1922, the Daily Mail and General Trust company was created to control the newspapers that Lord Rothermere retained after Lord Northcliffe's death (The Times, for example, was sold). As his father dabbled in association with the Nazis and a flirtation with becoming King of Hungary, it fell to Harmsworth to manage the businesses. His father retired as chairman of Associated Newspapers in 1932 at the age of 64, and Harmsworth took over that role.[1] He served as chairman until 1971, after which he assumed the titles of president and director of group finance, and chairman of Daily Mail & General Trust Ltd, the parent company, from 1938 until his death.[citation needed]
Harmsworth also had a significant impact on the development of Memorial University of Newfoundland (the family has had a long-standing interest in Newfoundland, having built a paper mill in Grand Falls before the outbreak of the First World War). The university's first residence in Paton College, known as Rothermere House, is named after the Viscount. Harmsworth was the first Chancellor of Memorial University and the benefactor who provided the funds to construct Rothermere House.
Personal life and death
editLord Rothermere succeeded his father in the viscountcy in 1940. He married three times and had four children. His first marriage was to Margaret Hunnam Redhead, daughter of William Lancelot Redhead, on 12 January 1920 (divorced 1938). They had three children:
- Lorna Peggy Vyvyan Harmsworth (1920–2014), who married Neill Cooper-Key MP (1907–1981), and had issue, two sons and two daughters; her younger and only surviving son was the first husband of Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon (mother by later marriages of actress Isabella Calthorpe and society beauty Cressida Bonas).
- Esmé Mary Gabrielle Harmsworth (1922–2011), who married Rowland Baring, Viscount Errington (later 3rd Earl of Cromer), and had issue, two sons and one daughter, before his death in 1991. In 1993, she married secondly, to Captain Reinier Gerrit Anton van der Woude, whose first wife had been Lady Penelope Herbert (1925–1990), a daughter of the 6th Earl of Carnarvon.
- Vere Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere (1925–1998)
He married, secondly, Ann Geraldine Mary O'Neill (née Charteris), widow of Shane O'Neill, 3rd Baron O'Neill, who had been killed in action in 1944 in Italy. She was the daughter of Captain Guy Lawrence Charteris (second son of the 11th Earl of Wemyss) and Frances Lucy Tennant. They married on 28 June 1945 and divorced in 1952. She then married writer Ian Fleming in 1952.[2]
Lord Rothermere married, thirdly, Mary Murchison, daughter of Kenneth Murchison, on 28 March 1966, by whom he had a second son:[3]
- Esmond Vyvyan Harmsworth (b. 1967), who moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1993.[3]
Lord Rothermere died on 12 July 1978, aged 80, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Vere Harmsworth.
References
edit- ^ "A Newspaper Magnate Railway Service Fire Alarms Banditry in East and West". The Times of India. 21 October 1932.
- ^ Jennet Conant, The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington, 2008. p. 332.
- ^ a b "Viscountess Rothermere, Socialite, Is Dead". The New York Times. 7 April 1993. Retrieved 14 September 2018.