Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere

Common card · No. 282079

Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (26 April 1868 – 26 November 1940), was a leading British newspaper proprietor who owned Associated Newspapers Ltd. He is best known, like his brother Alfred Harmsworth, later Viscount Northcliffe, for the development of the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror. Rothermere was a pioneer of popular tabloid journalism, and his descendants continue to control the Daily Mail and General Trust. Two of Rothermere's three sons were killed in action during the First World War and in the 1930s, he advocated peaceful relations between Germany and the United Kingdom, and used his media influence to that end. He became known for his open support for fascism and praise for Nazi Germany and the British Union of Fascists, which contributed to the popularity of those views in the 1930s. After seeing his hopes dashed by the outbreak of the Second World War, he died in Bermuda.

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