Low and Lord Beaverbrook: the case of a cartoonist's autonomy

'Freedom of the press belongs to the person who owns one.' '(Doug Marlette)

This thesis analyses Sir David Low's relationship with Lord Beaverbrook while the former worked for the Evening Standard between 1927 and 1950, and it argues that the relationship was different from that which has commonly been portrayed. Low and Beaverbrook made, in their own succinct ways, a substantial impact on the British political landscape throughout the inter-war period and the Second World War. Theirs was a relationship that has yet, rather surprisingly, not been thoroughly examined. During his lifetime, Beaverbrook was arguably the most politically active, hands-on, newspaper proprietor since Lord Northcliffe. Low was not only widely regarded as the greatest and most imaginative political cartoonist since possibly Gillray, but also, it has been claimed, the most independent cartoonist ever to have worked for a British newspaper up until the late 1950s. Low had a contract at the Evening Standard that gave him complete freedom in the selection and treatment of his subject matter. This was then a unique arrangement between a proprietor and a cartoonist. Low always maintained that Beaverbrook never interfered with his position of absolute independence. This thesis reveals that this was not the case. Whether, for example, in Low's treatment of Beaverbrook's friends, or the depiction of Beaverbrook himself, or the issue of Appeasement, the Monarchy, general elections etc., proprietorial constraint was administered when and where it was felt necessary. Low's independence in reality depended on how far Beaverbrook felt that freedom should go. Low on his part, it is argued, was not only prepared to ignore such blatant infringements to the terms of his contract, but also towed the line to suit his proprietor's political whims. Such behaviour was persistently and successfully disguised in order to enhance the reputations of both the cartoonist and the proprietor.