Vere Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere

The Viscount Rothermere
Born	(1925-04-27)27 April 1925
Died
Nationality	British
Education	Eton College, Eton, Berkshire, England Kent School, Kent, Connecticut, USA
Occupation	Publisher
Title	3rd Viscount Rothermere
Spouse(s)	Patricia Evelyn Beverley Matthews (1957–1992) Maiko Jeong Shun Lee (1993–1998)
Children	Geraldine Theodora Gabriel Harmsworth Camilla Patricia Caroline Harmsworth Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere
Parent(s)	Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere & Margaret Hunam Redhead

Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere (27 April 1925 – 1 September 1998), known as Vere Harmsworth until 1978, was a British newspaper magnate. He controlled large media interests in the United Kingdom and United States and may be considered the founder of The Mail on Sunday.

Business life

Rothermere became the Chairman of Associated Newspapers in 1971 and was responsible for the relaunch of the Daily Mail as a tabloid, after which its circulation increased greatly under editor Sir David English. After the death of his father, Esmond Cecil Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere, he also became chairman of parent Daily Mail and General Trust plc though he was unsuccessful in an attempt to combine the companies in a manner calculated to avoid taxation. An artifact of this plan was the ownership of Associated Newspapers being vested in Associated Newspapers Holdings, ownership of which was split 50.2%-49.8% between DMGT and its wholly owned subsidiary Daily Mail & General Holdings. (Since then DMGH's name has been transferred to ANH and the old DMGH become Derry Street Properties).

In 1992 English succeeded him as chairman of Associated Newspapers (but not of Associated Newspapers Holdings or the parent companies). When English died in mid-1998 Rothermere resumed the chairmanship of Associated Newspapers and replaced his protégé as president of the Commonwealth Press Union, only to die himself some months later, still chairman of DMGT, being fatally stricken with a heart attack, while dining with his son (and successor) Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere.

Vere Harmsworth was a member of the Founding Council of the Rothermere American Institute, which he helped establish alongside his sister Lady Cromer and Mr Vyvyan Harmsworth.

In politics he began as a Conservative, drifted to the cross-benches and shortly before his death not only began to sit on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, but pronounced himself a firm republican in an interview.

Family life

On 21 March 1957 Rothermere married actress Patricia Brooks. They had an open marriage. They had three children:

• Geraldine Theodora Gabriel Harmsworth (born 25 July 1957)
• Camilla Patricia Caroline Harmsworth (born 28 July 1964)
• Harold Jonathan Esmond Vere Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere (born 3 December 1967)

Following the death of his first wife on 12 August 1992, Rothermere married his longtime girlfriend, Maiko Jeong Shun Lee, in 1993.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Rothermere
• Lord Rothermere – BBC News
• Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere – thepeerage.com
• Rothermere American Institute

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Esmond Cecil Harmsworth	Viscount Rothermere 1978–1998	Succeeded by Harold Jonathan Esmond Vere Harmsworth