Quiz

UK-based book and newspaper publisher. He bought companies including Pergamon Press (in 1951) and Mirror Group Newspapers (in 1984).

Robert Maxwell with his wife Elisabeth Maxwell had 9 children: Michael (1946, died 1967 aged 15), Philip (1948), Ann (1949), twins Christine & Isabel Maxwell (Aug 16 1951), Karine (1954, died 1957), Ian (1956), Kevin Maxwell (1959) and Ghislaine Maxwell (Dec 25 1961). Karine died of leukemia aged 3, whilst Michael, his eldest son, died after nearly 7 years in a coma following a car accident in 1961 when he was severely injured, thereafter never regaining consciousness.

Maxwell's luxury yacht, "Lady Ghislaine," was named after his daughter Ghislaine Maxwell.

Frequently the subject of jokes in early episodes of satirical BBC news quiz Have I Got News for You (1990), as he had taken out several lawsuits against panelist Ian Hislop. In the first broadcast after his death, host Angus Deayton explained that the acronym OWLS meant a person who was "Older With Less Stress," cryptically adding, "Which is Ian this week." In a later episode, Deayton asked about Maxwell's fatal fall from his yacht, "Was he pushed? We may never care".

His entire family was murdered in the gas chambers to Auschwitz save for two sisters.

In 1991 he bought the New York Daily News.

During World War II he served in the British Army where he saw action in France and Germany.

His publishing empire was funded by MI6 who backed his company Pergamon in buying up a huge catalog of German scientific research for publication in English.

In 1984 he purchased Britain's Daily Mirror.

In addition to his birth language and Czech and Yiddish, he was fluent in Russian, English and French. This led to his work with the British Intelligence Service MI6 in postwar Berlin where he ran propaganda operations against the Soviets.