Media tycoon lands in Leeds

The print magnate took the opportunity to launch a scathing attack on government’s industrial relations legislation while visiting a Leeds printing works. He flew into Leeds by helicopter to open a new press at Petty & Sons, Whitehall Road, Leeds.

Mr Maxwell was born in Czechoslovakia as Jan Ludvik Hyman Binyamin Hoch and during the Second World War was awarded the Military Cross from Field Marshall Montgomery, after D-Day.

He went on to become a British media proprietor and Member of Parliament (1964-70). He was found dead in the sea in 1991, having fallen from his yacht. After his death, huge discrepancies in his companies’ finances were revealed, including his fraudulent misappropriation of the Mirror Group pension fund.

Maxwell attempted a hostile takeover of Waddington’s the same year but was frustrated by its management at the time.