Frank Owen(1905-1979)
- Writer
After spending two years as an MP, he pursued a career in journalism,
working for Lord Beaverbrook as editor
of the Evening Standard in 1938. He was the first journalist to
discover how Adolf Hitler's name sold
newspapers; in the years of appeasement, he made a feature of rewriting
Mein Kampf week after week to sound the alarm and raise sales. During
the war, Louis Mountbatten requested
his services for SEAC, the paper that served the army in Burma. The two
men helped to shape the Burma campaign and Owen was rewarded with the
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Owen returned to Fleet Street after the
war, first as a contributor for the Daily Mail, and later as the
paper's editor.
