On this day in 1958, Templemore’s Brendan Bracken died. He lived a very colourful life but was perhaps best known for being Winston Churchill’s closest friend, and Minister for Information in Churchill’s wartime government.
He was born in February 1901 on Church Street, Templemore.As a child, he was quite mischievous. His mother sent him to boarding school in Limerick, but he ran away on several occasions. In 1915, he went to Australia at the age of 14. He tried to gain admission to Riverview, a fashionable Jesuit school in Sydney, claiming that he had been educated at Clongowes.Unfortunately for him, a priest who had just come out from Clongowes exposed him. Asa young man, he was opinionated and argumentative and he did not conceal his scepticism about the catholic religion.
After a short stint back in Ireland, Bracken moved to Liverpool in 1919/1920 and found employment as a teacher, falsely claiming he had attended the University of Sydney, and now giving his name as Brendan Rendall Bracken and stating that his parents had perished in a bushfire in Australia. He is said to have cut a flamboyant figure and dropped the names of famous acquaintances with gay abandon. He stood over 6ft and had a powerful presence and a domineering personality, his mop of red hair and pale freckled skin combined with black teeth to give him a bizarre appearance.
In 1922, Bracken’s life was to take an important turn. He moved to London and became editor of the Illustrated Review, affording Bracken the opportunity to meet prominent people, including J.L. Garvin, editor of the Observer. In 1923, Garvin introduced Bracken to Winston Churchill. Hitting it off quickly, Bracken offered his services to Churchill as campaign manager for the upcoming 1923 general election. The friendship between the two soon became so close that Bracken was rumoured to be Churchill’s son.
In the 1929 general election, Bracken himself stood in the general election, winning a seat as Conservative candidate for North Paddington. Bracken’s background was the subject of much speculation. In throwaway remarks, he gave different fictitious versions of it. Ireland didn’t feature in any of them. As an MP, he voiced right-wing views on economic issues and was an enthusiastic imperialist.During the 1930s, when Churchill was in the political wilderness, disagreeing with the party on India and what he viewed as appeasing of Hitler, Bracken was his only ally.
In September 1939, Churchill joined Chamberlain’s war cabinet and Bracken was appointed his parliamentary private secretary. In 1940,Churchill insisted that Bracken be made a privy councillor. Bracken moved to Churchill’s residence for the duration of the war. In 1941, he was persuaded by Churchill and Lord Beaverbrook to become Minister for Information, a role he was generally acclaimed for.
When Churchill returned for a second stint as Prime Minister in the 1950s, Bracken declined an invitation to serve as colonial secretary. Here signed his seat in the House of Commons and was created a peer, Viscount Bracken of Christchurch in Hampshire. Despite his retirement, he remained close to political events through his friendship with Churchill.
In his retirement, Bracken wrote a weekly column for the Financial Times, served as chairman of the Union Corporation mining house, and was a trustee of the National Gallery in London.
A lifelong smoker, Bracken was diagnosed with throat cancer and he died on this day in 1958. On his instructions, his papers were burnt by his chauffeur.
Sources:
https://www.dib.ie/biography/bracken-brendan-a0868
https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-113/brendan-bracken-the-fantasist-whose-dreams-came-true/
