Brendan Bracken: The Man Behind Winston Churchill | Churchill's Secret Son | Timeline

June 1932 man walked purposely to the Palace of Westminster and then on the right of the picture is the most iconic British figure of the 20th century Winston Churchill the 29 year old man of left is the newly elected member of parliament for London's Paddington constituency in the dark early days of World War two with Norway and France falling under German invasions seemingly only days away Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain but he might never become Prime Minister at all without this man who is a Churchill side celebrating his moment of triumph in 1941 a desperate Winston Churchill asked for American aid to continue the war it was this man standing at his side that brokered the deal when the House of Commons was destroyed by German bombers in 1941 this man was by Churchill sight surveying the damage in the secret underground bunker from where Winston Churchill conducted the war this man had his own room right next door to Winston Churchill's so who was this man forgotten now his story was so unlikely it could be fiction but it wasn't by World War two this man was one of the most influential and powerful men in Britain yet his completely disappeared from history you have to look hard for his legacy because he ordered everything burn on his death and his ashes scattered the graves no worms and epitaphs this man's name was Brendan Bracken brilliant political fixer and at that he was made a brilliant contribution to Churchill's survival let alone his career Lord Longford who knew him said he was the most remarkable man he had ever met he was shunned in certain circles he was seen as a turncoat he was seen as anti Irish in particular he was seen as a man who lost his faith mystery man my name is Adrian Rackham and I've always been fascinated by history my own family history has it that Brendan Bracken was a cousin of my great-grandfather who emigrated to England from Ireland in the 1840s Brendan Bracken became Winston Churchill's right-hand man for over 30 years yet he was it was a man of mystery unmarried and secretive I wanted to find out who this man really was what drove him and and why the secrecy what I found was one of the most inspirational stories I've ever heard this is the story of Brendan Bracken sometimes known as Churchill's secret son others had been there before me notably Irishman Charles Edward licensed biography printed in the 1970s so I went to Dublin to meet him and he a mystic on the bracken story I was supposed of an Irish nationalist background and I felt it brought together two worlds in which I was interest at the world of his background of Irish nationalism and the great Churchillian world which of course had delivered us from the Nazi Menace and the Second World War ironically I think his memory survives more in Ireland than in England Irish people I think have a great interest in him because he's the archetype of the Irish man who sheds his identity for advancement or to become part of the great social world of England our story doesn't start in the halls of power of Westminster in the red seats of the House of Lords in the great newspaper offices of Fleet Street the story starts in a small town in the centre of Ireland in Tipperary to be precise [Music] Brendan Bracken was born here in Church Street temple more in the center of Ireland in February 1901 the third son of Joseph and Hannah Brackett Joseph Bracken was a Republican a staunch Fenian a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and one of the seven men of Phillies who in November 1884 started the Gaelic Athletic Association and that promoted our exported Irish culture and Irish language the bracken household was a working family was relatively well-off father Brock and Joseph had a Masons business but cancer the curse of the Bracken family carried his father off in 1984 when Brandon was only three Brenden was very difficult in his school years he he bored easily yet excelled at English and history and maths did he regularly played truant from the o'connell school here at Richmond Street in Dublin run by the very strict Christian brothers who supported all things Irish both nationalism and the language and yet it became apparent in his school years that he got very quick wits the ratios reader and a prodigious memory and one of his teachers brother William Allen said he had brains to burn Brenden bracken at 13 years old used those brains to create his first newspaper business he wrote about his school friends and masters created the stories colored the pictures but this wasn't for fun everybody paid one penny to read it and that included his family [Music] the young Bracken's business schemes moved up a gear went for a fee he would take in and look after other people's bicycles what the trusting owners didn't know was that once they were safely out of sight Brendan would hire those same bicycles out to somebody else for a further fee the young Bracken realized very early on that deceit could be very profitable even though it didn't endear himself to his fellow pupils by early 1915 Bracken's troublemaking was becoming a serious problem his constant currency is unpopularity with his school colleagues and it must be said his teachers caused his mother to be advised that a more disciplined school Devon for random this was tantamount to expulsion [Music] exasperated his family sent him here to Munger at college just outside LA murica a strictly Jesuit boarding school where he lasted just five months in that spring of 1915 he played truth he fought he read incessantly and yet he was unteachable he got great wits and charm he great intelligence he could charm the birds from the trees had one past teacher and yet one day he walked out of school at the age of fourteen never to return but it wasn't just the school he ran away from he ran away from his family weeks past and how did his family eventually find him he left a trail of unpaid hotel bills all over Southern Ireland including it a bill for us bowler hat on a suit in Limerick where his mother tracked him down he told him me working as a reporter on a local paper so dragged home to Dublin by his mother he was packed off to a relative and Australia her you'll like Australia she said it'll make a man of you but was this the mam the young Bracken wanted to be mother must have been a tough old bird because of 15 years of age she sent him off to Australia you know and what mother does Dutch and I think I'm not a psychologist I don't wonder this sort of rejection by the mother fueled a lot of his energies so in 1916 young Bracken arrived in Melbourne Australia Brendon was dispatched he yet another distant cousin this time on a new south wales sheep farm in a chook Amana he but grudgingly worked on the farm but spending all his spare time reading he visited the local Bridget II nuns where he managed to sweet-talk the Mother Superior sister Cecilia into allowing him free rein of the convent library and it was here at a chuga that Brendan Bracken developed his love of all things 18th century and English he wanted to be part of the country houses the Imperial Britain to be part of the legacy of Bourke Walpole and the Duke of Marlborough whose descendant Winston Churchill was the wartime First Lord of the Admiralty back in Britain instinctively bracken knew this was not something he burned it was something you were born into but this was not going to stop the young bracket he knew his particular talents of charm lies and high intelligence would stand him in very good stead in nineteen twenties England he worked in and around Sydney to earn enough money to travel back to England to pay for the next part of master plan arriving in Liverpool legend has it he went out on accosted the first man he saw wearing a bowler hat and asked him the name of a good school said boy he was told so he decided there and then to break with his Irish roots and reinvented himself as Brendan Rendell bracket after Montagu Rendell the then headmaster of one of England's greatest public schools Winchester [Music] he told them that his parents had died in a bushfire in Australia they left him enough money for his education and he told them that he was 16 not 19 but the plan the great bracken transition plan started right here [Music] the photographs exist at Brendan Bracken's time here at sobra but there isn't school records and details of his admission in September 1922 show me is Katie Iliff there was a school archivist what he got for me Katie well first of all we've got the school admissions register and as you can see here we have an entry for Brendan Rendell Bracken and this is in September 1920 he's given his date of birth at that point as the 14th of December 1904 and also he's given his parent or guardian as be Bracken when we know what his father was Joseph so in December 1920 Brendan Bracken left said bruh school after one term that he'd paid for himself he'd not told the truth about his age he was still supposed to be 16 when in fact he was 19 but said Berg gave him what he really wanted and that was the old school tie 20 year-old Brendan Bracken launched himself into 1920s England the England that was still finding its feet from the hardships of World War one covered with this with the troubles in his own land that had reached a critical mass with a civil war raging and atrocities on both sides not a good time to be a young Irishman from Republican groups but Bracken had done a perfect job in becoming the quintessentially English yet [Music] now he's gone his old school tie the question was what to do with it there a succession of teaching jobs and finally he came here to Bishop's Stortford College near London so Brendan Bracken took a teaching job here at Bishop's Stortford college as assistant master at grim waves house on 160 pounds a year teaching 11 heroes [Music] fellow masters introduced Bracken to London society Bracken started meeting social and political figures all of whom were impressed by this lively Australian and through these connections he got an invitation to visit the House of Commons the beating heart of Imperial Britain and this first visit set in motion a chain of events that would change Brendan Bracken's life forever Bracken saw his ultimate hero the living embodiment of the 18th century England the Krakens so revered and to Bracken's the light he saw Winston Churchill demolish his critics who challenged him on his middle-eastern policy bracken having immersed himself in all the political comings and goings of the day and with a sponge for a brain was able to talk knowledgeably about all the latest hot political topics but Churchill he could only admire from afar but at a dinner party one night with a group of Conservative MPs Brendan Bracken was going to make a very important connection Brackins unqualified admiration for Churchill Ames command of Middle Eastern politics so impressed his hosts that he introduced him to several of his parliamentary colleagues one of whom commander Oliver Locker Lampson invited him back to his house at North Street Westminster to discuss a new magazine that he wanted Bracken to get involved in and it was called the Empire Review school mastering had served its purpose time for a career change journalism for which he'd always had a passion was the obvious choice to propel him onwards and upwards and Bracken moved off to the next stage of his very eventful life [Music] bracken was a master at making and remembering connections everybody was charmed by this tall redheaded Australian who knew everybody and everything about everybody quite by chance he met Douglas gerald an editor at Aron Spottiswoode the Kings printers a centuries-old firm who made a steady if an exciting income from printing the bible and the parabola was in the summer of 1922 through his job at the empire review that Bracken was introduced to JL Garvin the 40 year old distinguished editor of The Observer newspaper Garvin was a sensitive romantic immensely well-read personality who had an eye for young men of talent and promise Garvin was taken with his brash newly-arrived firebrand with his flaming red hair and infectious personality bragging was learning firsthand that curious ways of the rich and the famous what he lacked in social graces he made up for with a mixture of bluff the usual lies and stories an immense charm Garvin proved the perfect mentor for a young man with a dreamy sense of history coupled with genuine political aspirations Garvin and Bracken will both consumed with a passion for the pastimes of Walpole and Pitt and the Duke of Marlborough and spent many weekends with Garvin discussing the past in their hopes for the future Brackins months of networking for fruit in the summer of 1923 a Sunday lunch invitation from his mentor JL Garvin provided Bracken with his passports to the inner circle Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was to be the guest of honor at Garvin's Bekins Fieldhouse and Bracken had been invited to all those frustrating rebellious and Irish school years all those lonely years and Australia dreamin of Regency Britain now left from the pages of history he was face to face with the Duke of Moore was living descendant born in Blenheim Palace Winston Churchill was at his imperial best but far from being tongue-tied and starstruck Brendan Bracken seized the opportunity and brought all his charm and conversational skills into play Bracken played it to perfection Churchill was hooked after lunch Churchill asked Garvin point-blank who is this extraordinary young friend you've been hiding away he strikes me as being very bright indeed I should like to see him again and later Garvin pull Bracken to one side and told him exactly what Churchill had said now Bracken realized he had his golden chance turning his fantasy into fact his path ahead was now clear with Winston Churchill the unknowing motive force of Brendan Bracken's ambitions the 22 year old Bracken wasted no time in telephoning and arranging a visit to Churchill's London home the year before in 1922 Church had had lost his parliamentary seat of dundee churchill was out in the cold he'd famously said he was without an office without a seat and without a party Bracken deeply resented the slight to what he considered to be his hero's honor like the faithful Squire in an earlier chivalrous era bracken pledged himself to be at Churchill's disposal and withal Bracken's power to restore churchill once more to high office the vitality that wit and the charisma of this redheaded australian were just the tonic that jaded older man needed there was however one obstacle mrs. churchill clementine churchill was Winston's wife of 20 years and was highly suspicious of Bracken's motives she thought Brendan Bracken a boy half a husband's age an interloper who'd appeared from nowhere loud brash and uncouth and she warned Winston to be very cautious that he called Clemmy by her first name as soon as he met her of course she was quite formal intended to put people in their place so she wasn't best pleased at that so the relationship got off to a very poor start Bracken was fantasizing that he was now part of the Churchill family he'd even stolen some churchill family photographs and put them on his own mayfair mantelpiece no wonder London society tongue started wanking that Brendan was in fact Winston Churchill's illegitimate son Clementine Churchill had to ask Winston if these stories that were the talk of London were true Winston merely said I checked the dates they don't coincide but in fact neither Brendan Bracken nor Winston Churchill ever denied the rumor he was part almost of the family life for many years Sunday was Brendan day he came and showered them all with gifts and of course they all had the suspicion he was their father's child there was the odd thing they all grew up wondering if this was so and of course later Randolph in his coarse way used to call him my brother the bastard Churchill's great affection for Brackett who fended Randolph who all who felt that Bracken was being treated as if he was his son and he felt edged out and he several times he protests and says how hurt he is by the way and Churchill places more reliance Churchill was out in the cold politically but desperate to get back into Parliament a December 1923 by election gave Bracken the opportunity to prove his worth to Churchill Churchill thought he saw a chance of winning the safe Labour stronghold of Leicester West 23 year-old Bracken who'd only known Winston Churchill for four months appointed himself Churchill's personal assistant and worked night and day for the Churchill campaign ham is almost unwinnable seaton Churchill with Bracken's help before two elections at best to West and Westminster Abbey as an independent but he lost them both despite these setbacks Bracken could always lift his friend from the black dog depression to plate Churchill all his life new Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin gave Winston the safe conservative seat of epoch which Winston one in the landslide of 1924 and Winston became Chancellor of the Exchequer bracken wrote to his mother whom he'd now forgiven for exiling him to Australia dearest mama I shall never be so happy as I was last week dear Winston became Chancellor after two years of enforced absence from Parliament and after a campaign of misrepresentation and abuse that seemed to blight his hopes and chances for a very long time he idealized his mother like why I don't know but something obviously in his psyche he transferred his his his his affection are his love to his mother and idealized her in a way that's that's quite strange really give him you know give him give him what she done Winston Churchill as a government minister now an army of secretaries and civil servants at his side 23 year old Brendan Bracken had become redundant but the success of his hero had left Bracken with a burning desire to join his idol and sit side by side with him and the mother of Parliament's but Bracken muted that was going to take influence and money so Bracken threw himself into his job at the publishing business of air and Spottiswoode he wasn't to everybody's taste at this sleepy old firm of London's Fleet Street but Bracken proved his worth by quickly increasing titles circulation and profits of the company Bracken took the business by the throat he renamed the empire review English life he commissioned articles from everybody including Churchill and even controversial figures like Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in giving people what they wanted to read Bratton was turning the Bible printer into a dynamic publishing house his success who soon recognized with the directorship but he was still only 24 years old in 1925 Bracken Sharpe business brain saw an opportunity in an area of vital to Britain's trade the banking community has long been without an independent voice and in January 1926 the banker was born still a major magazine with a worldwide circulation Bryan Caplan as the current editor but undoubtedly he was the founder of modern financial journalism he's the guy who really kind of put this style of journalism that you go out and investigate companies properly and banks properly and you have a financial debate he put that on the map you know and it's something we've been doing for the 83 years since the banker was founded never forgetting his ambition to join Winston Churchill in Parliament he persuaded air and spotters were to buy a half share in 80 year-old respected financial magazine The Economist the other half being owned by South African mining magnate se Henry's tracker in 1928 came the investors Chronicle the Pratt Tichina and after a tip that it was for sale the financial news with a smaller circulation to the rival pink-colored Financial Times in the pre Wall Street Crash bull market shares and profits like Bracken's social standing were only going one way upwards relationships between Brendan Bracken and Winston Churchill in this period 1925 to 1929 were reported to have been strained the truth I think was that in this period Bracken was very much involved in his business and Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer Bracken made a great deal of money in this period nobody's quite sure how he made so much wealth so quickly but it was enough to set up home here in North Street Westminster now the name North Street wasn't grand enough for Brendan Bracken so he had it changed to Lord North Street as befitted his gravitas and his huge ego he also employed James and Beatrice Costello as Butler and housekeeper and during dinner parties James Costello was primed to announce mr. Bracken the prime minister is on the telephone for you he also purchased a large Hispania suiza motorcar and employed Alex a Lee who was Churchill's old chauffeur and these three members of staff were with him for over 30 years indeed they all outlived him and to complete his collection he purchased a large country house in Woburn in Bedford by late 1928 and still in his twenties Bracken called in all his business and political favors he was going to use his wealth to make his mark politically he'd more than enough money to support a parliamentary campaign and he was offered the marginal conservative seat of Paddington in North London though he was still a man of mystery to most people even to those in his own party the May 1929 election was a tough and dirty campaign bracken even at one point having to deny that he was a Polish Jew Jewish immigration being a real issue in late nineteen twenties England Brackins aura of mystery worked against him for once and he was forced to send to Ireland for his birth certificate but the real truth about his Republican upbringing Brackins still kept him very close to his chest Bracken narrowly won the seat by only five hundred votes but here was his chance to sit alongside his idol the Labour Party had won the general election so he and Churchill were finally sitting neat in the in Parliament but in opposition immediately Churchill now a front bench spokesman created trouble for himself by opposing Conservative leader Baldwin's policy of granting India Britain's imperial jewel her bra Churchill resigned the front bench in processed and Bracken allied himself with Churchill and both were in the political wilderness for the next 10 years the 1931 general election was held in the middle of the Great Depression Baldwin's Conservatives won a landslide victory Brendan Bracken now found himself in government and alongside his hero Winston Churchill but there was a serious problem Churchill was still opposed to the conservative policy of Home Rule for India Churchill was adamant that India the jewel of the British Empire should stay firmly under British rule and that Gandhi was a dangerous agitator that would lead the Indian people into nothing but trouble Brackins stood Foursquare beside Churchill whatever the political or personal cost to himself but there was another more dangerous cloud forming on the horizon this time much closer to home the emergence of Adolf Hitler in Germany the 1930s for Bracken now a member of parliament a successful businessman with a wealth of social connections were full of parties and nightclubs and country houses time for wife but not just any wife which suit our redheaded fantasies he needed a trophy wife and a friend's house Brendan Bracken saw a potential mrs. Bracken ten years younger than he was Penelope Dudley Ward was a 22 year old aspiring actress on the daughter of Freda Dudley Ward reputedly the mistress of the Prince of Wales [Music] Penelope grew fond of Brendan Bracken but couldn't understand why he couldn't relax and be at ease with himself when alone with her if he loved her she thought he had a very peculiar way of showing it [Music] Penelope had no intention of giving herself to a contrary friend whose inner self was firmly locked up and never to be revealed Penelope's mother Frida later said that no man could have been more generous or thoughtful to my daughter but perhaps he was pathetically shy or felt he was ugly or inadequate but never once did he offer the slightest gesture of affection to Penelope although Bracken claimed her refusal of his proposal of marriage was the reason he never later married Penelope claimed that he never actually proposed at all he was nervous of young nubile women he was far more comfortable with their mothers but he was I pick you a second an Irish celibate for one to the better world he he didn't he had a few high society lady friends and the turkeys but I often wonder was at your show just was part of the apparatus as part of the successful man the politician the publisher and yet ever is have a lady until whatever the truth this was the last time that any woman ever featured in Brendan Bracken's private life his close friends remained male [Music] in the spring of 1935 Hitler was rearming a chill with Bracken's support warned endlessly about the Gathering Storm as he called it in March 1936 Hitler took back the Rhineland in contravention of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 that had ended the first world war the European war drums were beating for the second time in a generation the improving economy however meant that the public had no taste for war mongers and no one in Parliament took neither Bracken regarded as a playboy of no account or Churchill who was finished seriously Bracken in particular was the court jester and the ventriloquist dummy and was a blowhard without a past and without a future they stood alone Bracken and Churchill like a party of two quarreling incessantly like a happily married couple in November 1935 Hitler's fascist ally Italian dictator Mussolini invaded Abyssinia and now Ethiopia and suddenly people took notice of Churchill's warnings bracken worked hard gathering conservative support for Churchill and Bracken's house at Lourdes North Street became the headquarters of the anti appeasement Lobby I think that among the the the networkers and spin-doctors that I've known that he was probably the best he had a broad range of of contacts he had a natural ability to make friends and this came from natural walks of character I think he did have a very good understanding of the more conspiratorial side of politics and that played a large a very helpful role when the appeasers were continually conspiring to get rid of Churchill as 1936 became 1937 the German threat grew ever stronger just as Churchill had predicted public opinion though derided by Bracken has a lot of butter slapping grocers was to keep the peace at any cost but public attention was taken with the Edward and mrs. Simpson affair and the subsequent application in May 1937 Stanley Baldwin resigned and Neville Chamberlain became prime minister seen as a peacemaker it was hoped that Chamberlain could divert the path from certain war to peace Brackins acid tongue announced that the Iron Monger and Baldwin had given way to the coroner Chamberlain neither he nor Churchill were impressed with either but Churchill as well as warning of Hitler's danger found another more personal problem right on his doorstep Churchill never good with money anyway was now reduced to a meager backbenchers salary all of which and more he was putting into his large country house chart well deep in the English countryside that he'd bought in 1922 the Churchill was not good at his personal finance sense and was reluctant to change his lifestyle and I think that Beckerman would have been the adviser who kept him out in financial trouble Bracken was always involved in Churchill's violent finances his great early service was to sell Churchill's articles the loss of Churchill's income came through articles and books Bracken arranged for Churchill to write for his papers and for his magazines and he placed and commissioned articles but Churchill was still short of funds so Bracken arranged secretly to help Churchill financially in 1938 things came to a head when Churchill put his beloved Chartwell on the market Brendan Bracken knew that he had to act he did what he did best he secretly fixed and arranged with Henry strakosh with whom he bought the Economist he created the Churchill thump strakosh himself paid off Churchill's stock broking debt which was around 18,000 pounds almost as much as Chartwell was worth war with Germany was seen as inevitable both sides of the Atlantic could see the situation in Europe was going towards war and Churchill was perceived as the only person who realistically could lead a wartime Britain but Churchill couldn't do that if he was bankrupt all through 1939 the preparations for war everywhere in Europe men were mobilized defenses dug country houses boarded up armies readied and in September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and Europe was at war once again bracken felt instinctively that Churchill's hour had come and Brattain was going to make sure that this Churchill his Churchill took his place in history as his predecessor John Church of a Duke of Marlborough had done 200 years before Prime Minister Chamberlain quickly appointed his advisors to help him fight the Nazi threat Winston's back was the message telegraphed around the fleet as Churchill was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and the War Cabinet and Brendan Bracken became his parliamentary private secretary this job was made for Bracken his natural talents for scheming and lies when out put to use with all his business political and social contacts Bracken was now the terrier at bulldog Churchill's Kimmel door Brandon Bracken along with Lord Beaverbrook now the minister of aircraft production with a men who saw Churchill after midnight the close advisers and friends who supported Churchill day and night but the defining moment in the bracken Churchill relationship came in 1940 [Music] Britain's war was not going well years of underinvestment in Britain's Armed Forces just as Churchill had in fact predicted ultimately would lead to the evacuation of Dunkirk the loss of France in the fall of Norway Britain stood alone in Europe the Conservative Party lost the support of the Labour Party he wanted a national government and absolutely refused to work one day more with Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister the Conservatives met in secret to elect a successor Lord Halifax the Foreign Secretary was the obvious next choice as Prime Minister Churchill was likely to support Halifax his election but in Bracken's great moment of power broking and with his ever sensitive antennae he knew that this was Winston Churchill's moment if he played it correctly Bracken told Churchill that if Halifax were proposed as Prime Minister and they asked for Churchill support Churchill had to promise Bracken to remain silent Churchill promised and when in the meeting it was proposed that Halifax become prime minister they looked at Churchill who kept his mouth firmly shut there then began what was later known as the great silence that saved England it lasted a full two minutes [Music] and at the end of the two minutes Lord Halifax said he he felt he could not be an efficient prime minister from the House of Lords the meeting looked to Churchill and he accepted so on the 10th of May 1940 Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain the great fantasies Brendan Bracken from his roots in Republican Ireland through dubious and highly coloured stories of his background and his unique relationship with Churchill now had become the power broker and quite possibly the second most powerful man in England after Churchill himself [Music] Britain's war was running short of supplies and so she turned to the old ally America for help [Music] Brendan Bracken had been to America in 1937 and had met many influential Americans including Harry Hopkins who was President Roosevelt's right-hand man so one in 1941 Harry Hopkins was sent by Roosevelt to assess Britain's prospects and whether the USA should help Britain it was his old friend Brendan Bracken who met Harry Hopkins on his arrival in southern England Hopkins immediately sounded Bracken out are you gonna let Hitler take over these fields the Alice Bracken with the full weight of Winston Churchill behind him answered no Hopkins handwritten letter to the President of January in 1941 dismissed the Foreign Secretary's around in Eden as a man of little importance it was really Bracken and Church of the persuaded Roosevelt to give them the much-needed supplies to continue the war I am sure that Hitler cannot defeat the British people determined they need our help they're depending on her now they deserve to get it there are great people I'm sure they're gonna win without these suppliers Britain could not have continued the war Britain was no longer alone [Music] by 1941 Britain cities were cowering and the constant bombardment from Hitler's Luftwaffe but there was another aerial battle going on the Battle of the airwaves the information you're tuned to the general overseas service of the BBC Bracken had always turned down a government post preferring to stay firmly at his master Churchill's side but Churchill needed an expert's to counter the Nazi propaganda machine Bracken was his man the Ministry of Information was the central government department that covered publicity propaganda censorship press relations and broadcasting from 1939 it did struggle under succession of ineffective ministers and Brendan Bracken took that government post that heats so long resisted as Churchill's Minister of Information his 1941 press conference on taking up his post is one of the very rare films of Brendan [Applause] Brenden Bracken's office was here in the cabinet war rooms below London's Whitehall his desk is still here his bed is still here his personal effects it was from here that he was able to act as mentor and go-between for Winston Churchill uniquely because he'd worked for Churchill for so many years for the good and the bad times he was the prop upon which Winston Churchill so often relied but there was one area where Bracken and Churchill differed and that was the role of the British Broadcasting Corporation of the BBC in the 1930s Churchill had been refused ere time to warn of the Nazis upcoming threat many people believed that the BBC was a branch of government the BBC was and still is an organization that fiercely guarded independence from government interference the BBC governance were very apprehensive because they knew that Churchill wanted to take over the BBC in 1940 he'd accused them of unrelieved pessimism and called them the enemy within the gates Churchill was still wary of the BBC but Brendan Bracken as a Pressman believed that a free country needed a free press he persuaded Churchill not to follow the German example of constant government propaganda but to allow him as an information minister to advise on rather than control what was broadcast Bracken knew he was treading a thin line between censorship and freedom of information but Churchill once again trusted his old friends judgments and left the BBC's future in Bracken's hands and to this day the BBC is a huge vote of thanks to Brendan Bracken for their independence from government [Music] as Minister of Information Brendon Bracken was in charge of giving his fellow newsmen the stories they wanted just as he promised on the day of his appointment he employed several leading writers of the day including Eric Blair who later as George Orwell satirized his time there in the novel 1984 Brendan Bracken or Bibi as he was known around the ministry along with Churchill believed the truth was so important and it must be protected by a bodyguard of lies became Big Brother and along with Rob 101 and the Ministry of Truth have all passed into modern English language in 1945 the war in Europe had been won Bracken had seen as he rose through the dark times the financial crises the derision of the 1930s and seen him with his help become one of England's most iconic men Brendan Bracken felt he had played his part in history because his Churchill Winston Churchill had surpassed his ancestor John Churchill the Duke of Marlborough his heroes place in history was assured his workers Minister of Information was done so Winston Churchill in the post victory government gave Brandon Bracken the job Churchill had twice held himself that of First Lord of the Admiralty in the July 1945 election Churchill prepared to be a peacetime Prime Minister but in an unexpected turn around labour was given a massive overall majority Churchill was out as Prime Minister Clement Attlee was the new man in Downing Street and Bracken even lost his own Paddington parliamentary seat Winston Churchill turned his family for support for Brendan Bracken Parliament had been his family for nearly 20 years but the pre-war Bracken the fans assist the fighter for Chargers honor had now mellowed in 1946 the older more mature Bracken but still only forty-five years old stood for Parliament again but this time for Bournemouth on England's south coast now Bracken saw himself as a man of the people and all the energy and drive that had but Churchill and a POW were now directed towards his new voters he'd missed helping constituents during the frantic war years now he had a chance in a time of peace to represent and help ordinary people with whom he felt a great affinity perhaps he felt deep down a need to redeem his soul which he felt it mortgaged to realize those boyhood dreams of the grand life in Imperial England his old school said Bern where the one term spent in 1928 given him his passport the old school I had made him chairman of the board of governors and now received a new library but typically at Bracken it was dedicated to Winston Churchill remember Winston Churchill it says over the door he regularly attended governor's meetings and the late Michael Thornley headmaster in the 1950s knew him well occasionally I'm told that he had to face the fact that somebody in his employ not here but paper or something you know it was not pulling his weight he had to be sacked the Brendan would go to the most extraordinary extremes to always get somebody to wield the X and he himself from the background would be working away to see how he could find another job for that chair without telling you look boss so the man the victim we usually ended up very bewildered and quite um incapable of telling whether it'd been sacked or promoted Bracken unmarried with no close family of his own had spent most of his life denying his Irish past and his own family he only came back to Ireland twice once in 1928 he came to bury his mother here at the pretty cemetery of Glen Keane in borås and Lee but he was too late for the funeral mass he came from London to Dublin by boat and from Dublin straight here by taxi and he stood over there tears streaming down his face while his family buried his mother just here without a word to his family he got back into the taxi back to Dublin and back to London the family remember him with great affection the family remember him who a man who kept his distance but kept in touch a man who looked after his family in times when help was needed in terms of the educators all of us it did by his family but right by his family and the second time was in 1943 on the way to the Canada conference Brackins flying boats are put into Limerick for repairs and they were grounded for two days come on let me show you where I was born he said where I grew up and he took his colleagues including surrounding Eden on a tour of the local area temple Moreland Limerick but the great irony was he was such a compulsive liar his colleagues never actually believed this one true story when Bracken told Bracken now turned his attention to the only things that he had left his businesses and specifically his newspapers [Music] so in this period after the war paper was short it was austerity but they were profitable bracken managed to merge his paper the financial news with its pink competitor the Financial Times I spoke to Financial Times historian David Kinnison and asked him about the merger well I think he was one of the makers of the modern Financial Times but has become one of the in the last 20 or 30 years one of the world's great newspapers and specifically in the sense that in 1945 at the end of the war it still was essentially a City newspaper relatively small circulation relatively narrow focus and under bracken of course other people were involved but nevertheless bracken as the guiding light the paper transformed itself into one but looked at a much wider at a much wider remit looking at Britain as a whole industry as a whole of interest of policymakers influential people and so on and then subsequently in the 1960s after after Bracken's death took on an international dimension and became something like the modern FT but we now recognize but I think the 30 share index became the footsie 100 and to this day as the definitive measure of share performance and has been successfully copied around the world now printed worldwide the Irish edition of the Financial Times today ironically is printed and BER not 20 miles from Temple Moor where Bracken was born Brandon Bracken started one more niche publication history today the title suggested by Winston Churchill himself history today launched in 1951 and was always drawn together the best to the latest history writers ever since over 60 years later history today still thrives in the spring of 1958 Bracken was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer years of cigarette smoking having its inevitable result but on the 8th of August 1958 Brendan Bracken died he was 57 years old when Churchill learned of Bracken's death in the South of France great tears welled up in Churchill's eyes and poured down the old man's face poor dear Brendan he said but he was too ill to attend the funeral dying himself seven years later at the age of 90 [Music] Clementine judge'll Winston's wife had now forgiven the redheaded journalist who used to sleep on her sofa with his boots on indeed she came to appreciate all that Brendan Bracken had done for a husband she sometimes thought that Winston had not appreciated him fully during the war like many other people he came round to him because he thought that his he was himself seeking what Churchill was concerned he was only anxious to help and when Churchill was difficult he'd he'd act as an intermediary and tried to get Churchill to behave sensibly about things so she began in a rational way to see him as as as a benevolent force in Churchill's life she was embarrassed I think that he gave so much and asked so little everything he does you know he seems to have been with a great gusto and great energy and a determination to succeed against the odds because he came from a rather poor and humble background but he elevated himself to you know a big player in the mainstream of society in the upper level of politics Churchill was the great leader but he was the vital adviser to Churchill during the periods when Churchill was still politically quite weak sadly he was not a happy man and his life was great lessons because he achieved everything he set out to achieve and he found that empty in the end if great admiration for it for the man I'm I'm very proud of and I liked him very very much and I'm very proud to bear his name in his will he left money to Churchill College at Cambridge University which was to open in 1960 and generations of scholars have found Bracken library to be the focal point of Churchill College just as Brendan Bracken would have wished brendan Bracken's legacy is all around us in our newspapers our broadcasting and in our literature but most importantly in his unswerving support for the 20th century's most iconic figure Winston Churchill without whose triumph we might all be telling a very different story Brendan Bracken would have hated this his story being told he gave instructions there were to be no memorial services there were to be no biographies but his papers were to be destroyed after he died and it took Alex Haley his show for eight days to burn all his papers in the grace that Lord North Street there were only three people at the crematorium for Bracken's funeral after which his chauffeur Alex Haley took Brendan Bracken's ashes and scattered them on the Romney marshes behind the Cinque Ports of which his master Winston Churchill was then the Lord warden I shall die young and be forgotten was Brendan Bracken's oft-quoted remark in that Winston Churchill's devoted servant and some would say his secret son was wrong

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 330,562

Rating: 4.8177676 out of 5

Keywords: History, Prime Minister, Darkest Hour, advisor, real, WWII, WW2, Clementine Churchill, World War 2, stories, Churchill's Secret Son, BBC documentary, history documentary, Documentaries, Full Documentary, Full length Documentaries, 2017 documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic, Channel 4 documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Winston Churchill, documentary history, Brendan Bracken, Documentary

Id: f_YXxDqndZo

Length: 57min 43sec (3463 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 23 2018