Lords of Fleet Street by Richard Bourne

Author:Richard Bourne [Bourne, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781317403876
Google: Yx4-CgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-07-24T05:59:21+00:00

PART III

Esmond Rothermere

The Son

9

From 1898 to 1937

Although his family was famous and affluent, there were various unhappinesses in Esmond’s childhood. In later life he did not talk much about it to friends. But it is likely that, as the youngest brother, he suffered most from the breakdown of his parents’ marriage which happened in his early teens. He was 16 and at Eton in the year the First World War started, which overshadowed the rest of his studies. His experience of schooling was not that these were the most marvellous days of his life: he was bullied, was severely ill with mastoiditis, had the disadvantage at Eton of following an eldest brother who was a star at everything, and was recalled afterwards as something of a martinet. There may also have been a down side to bearing the Harmsworth name, with a father who was ostentatious about his wealth and an uncle who was tending to irritate the establishment by his attacks on various aspects of the war effort. Above all, with his mother vanishing, there was little to protect him from a father who, though devoted, was extremely overbearing.

Growing up during the war, when his brothers were already fighting and the casualty lists were lengthening, must have made for a pressurised adolescence. A university education, which might have been automatic in peacetime, was out of the question. Instead, in 1917, he was commissioned in the Royal Marine Artillery. By that stage his brother Vere, who had been to Osborne, was dead; before the end of the year his brother Vyvyan would be severely wounded again, leading to his death in London. It was understandable that their father would not wish to put his last son at risk and prevented him from going overseas.

None the less, the war had a huge impact on Esmond’s life, catapulting him unexpectedly into a position where he was heir to both Northcliffe and his own father. It was a daunting responsibility, and the qualities of remoteness and suspicion that people sometimes noted in him later may have originated as a protective camouflage: to be associated with a man popularly seen as the most powerful Englishman outside the government, and an Air Minister who was one of the richest millionaires, could expose a young man to envy, hostility and the unwelcome attention of gold-diggers. The sudden burden also had another effect; when the war was over he sought release in practical jokes, pillow fights, and water fights with his family and friends. The fact that he had not served in the trenches or won gallantry medals was also embarrassing. During the 1920s his wife would sometimes go alone to court balls where medals would be worn, and he would send apologies.

With the end of the war Esmond became part of the great game which the Harmsworth brothers were playing with the Lloyd George coalition and the dictation of the peace terms. There was little chance of him being demobilised to go to university or to learn the newspaper business from the bottom up.

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