Brendan Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken

Brendan Bracken, 1947

Brendan Rendall Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken (born February 15, 1901 , † August 8, 1958 ), was a British statesman of Irish origin.

origin

For a long time Bracken's origins were in the dark; a situation that is due in particular to efforts to conceal himself by Bracken himself: during his lifetime he spread all sorts of rumors - even contradicting ones - about his past, and on his instructions his personal notes (correspondence, personal documents, etc.) were destroyed one day after his death.

Various authors who attempted to write a biography of Bracken had to refrain from doing this in view of the limited material available.

Career

In the early 1920s, Bracken claimed he was from Australia and that his parents were killed in a bush fire . It is likely that he told this story in order to hide his Irish roots. In the United Kingdom at that time there was great animosity towards Ireland, which had just gained independence.

In the following years Bracken made a remarkable career as a newspaper editor in Great Britain and amassed a considerable fortune which enabled him to be elected to the House of Commons for the Conservative Party in 1929 .

In the 1930s, Bracken was the only supporter of Churchill in the British Parliament alongside Harold Macmillan .

In 1940 Bracken served initially as Churchill's private parliamentary secretary and from 1941 to 1945 as British Minister of Information (i.e., Minister of Propaganda). In 1945 he took over the post of First Lord of the Admiralty for a few months , but had to resign from this post after the election of the Conservatives and the formation of the Labor Party under Clement Attlee in July. Bracken himself lost his seat in the North Paddington constituency, but returned to the House of Commons as a MP for Bournemouth in a November by-election.

In 1952 he was raised with the title Viscount Bracken , of Christchurch in the County of Southampton to a member of the House of Lords . Bracken died of tracheal cancer in 1958 . After his death, he was in the Golders Green Crematorium in London cremated , his ashes in the Romney Marshes scattered. His title expired on his death as he had no male descendants.

Web links

Newspaper article about Brendan Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

↑ Irish Times article on Bracken's origins
↑ A widespread rumor, particularly in the late 1920s and early 1930s, alleged paternity of his parliamentary colleague Winston Churchill . Neither Bracken nor Churchill ever officially denied this rumor. Bracken even went over to addressing Churchill as his father, which he happily put up with. When Churchill's wife, Clementine, confronted Churchill, however, he said that he had “compared the dates” (probably Bracken's date of birth and the date of any sexual contact with his mother during which he could have been conceived) and that she “did not fit together ”. This comment on the part of Churchill is in all probability no confirmation that, although he had contact with Bracken's mother, from a mathematical point of view, he cannot be his father. Rather, he is to be seen as a jokingly crude admission that he never had an affair with Bracken's mother and is therefore out of the question as his father. Churchill was keen all his life to maintain his image as the “bird of paradise” in British politics and supported this image with eye-catching props such as the ever-present cigars and a huge collection of hats. The idea that he was the illegitimate father of one of his parliamentary colleagues could therefore also have been consciously cultivated in order to preserve his unconventional reputation in parliament and in public.
↑ The London Gazette : No. 39435, p. 194 , January 8, 1952.

swell

Brendan Bracken at Hansard (English)
Brendan Bracken , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 44/1958 of October 20, 1958, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

predecessor	Office	successor
AV Alexander	First Lord of the Admiralty in 1945	AV Alexander

personal data
SURNAME	Bracken, Brendan, 1st Viscount Bracken
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bracken, Brendan Rendall Bracken, 1st Viscount
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH	February 15, 1901
DATE OF DEATH	August 8, 1958

[1] Irish Times article on Bracken's origins

[2] A widespread rumor, particularly in the late 1920s and early 1930s, alleged paternity of his parliamentary colleague Winston Churchill . Neither Bracken nor Churchill ever officially denied this rumor. Bracken even went over to addressing Churchill as his father, which he happily put up with. When Churchill's wife, Clementine, confronted Churchill, however, he said that he had “compared the dates” (probably Bracken's date of birth and the date of any sexual contact with his mother during which he could have been conceived) and that she “did not fit together ”. This comment on the part of Churchill is in all probability no confirmation that, although he had contact with Bracken's mother, from a mathematical point of view, he cannot be his father. Rather, he is to be seen as a jokingly crude admission that he never had an affair with Bracken's mother and is therefore out of the question as his father. Churchill was keen all his life to maintain his image as the “bird of paradise” in British politics and supported this image with eye-catching props such as the ever-present cigars and a huge collection of hats. The idea that he was the illegitimate father of one of his parliamentary colleagues could therefore also have been consciously cultivated in order to preserve his unconventional reputation in parliament and in public.

[3] The London Gazette : No. 39435, p. 194 , January 8, 1952.