Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild

The Right Honourable
The Lord Rothschild
GCVO PC
Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire
In office
1889–1915
Monarch Victoria
Edward VII
George V
Preceded by The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
Succeeded by The Marquess of Lincolnshire
Member of Parliament for
Aylesbury
In office
1865–1885
Serving with Samuel George Smith 1865–1880
George W. E. Russell 1880–1885
Preceded by Thomas Tyringham Bernard
Samuel George Smith
Succeeded by Ferdinand James von Rothschild
Personal details
Born Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild
(1840-11-08)8 November 1840
London, United Kingdom
Died 31 March 1915(1915-03-31) (aged 74)
London, United Kingdom
Resting place Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Nationality British
Political party Liberal
then Liberal Unionist
then Conservative
Spouse(s)
Emma Louise von Rothschild (m. 1867)
Children Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild
Evelina Rothschild-Behrens
Charles Rothschild
Parents Lionel de Rothschild
Charlotte von Rothschild
Relatives Nathan Mayer Rothschild (grandfather)
Mayer Amschel Rothschild (great-grandfather)
Residence 148 Piccadilly, London
Education Trinity College, Cambridge
Occupation Banker

Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild,[1] GCVO, PC (8 November 1840 – 31 March 1915) was a British banker and politician from the wealthy international Rothschild family.

Early life

Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild, who was known as "Natty," was the eldest son of Baron Lionel de Rothschild (1808–1879) and Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild (née von Rothschild).

His paternal grandparents were Freiherr (or Baron) Nathan Mayer Rothschild, after whom he was named, and Hannah (née Barent-Cohen) Rothschild, the daughter of Levy Barent Cohen. His maternal grandparents were Freiherr Carl Mayer von Rothschild (1788–1855) and Adelheid Herz (1800–1853). Through both of his grandfathers, who were brothers, he was the great-grandson of Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), founder of the dynasty.

In his youth, Rothschild was a Captain in the Buckinghamshire Yeomanry.[2] Rothschild was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge,[3] where he was a friend of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), but left without taking a degree.

Career

Rothschild worked as a partner in the London branch of the family bank, N M Rothschild & Sons, and became head of the bank after his father's death in 1879. During his tenure, he also maintained its pre-eminent position in private venture finance and in issuing loans to the governments of the US, Russia and Austria. Following the Rothschilds' funding of the Suez Canal, a close relationship was maintained with Benjamin Disraeli and affairs in Egypt.

Rothschild also funded Cecil Rhodes in the development of the British South Africa Company and the De Beers diamond conglomerate. He later administered Rhodes' estate after Rhodes' death in 1902 and helped to set up the Rhodes Scholarship scheme at the University of Oxford. He was a prominent member of the Round Table movement, created in 1909.

A noted philanthropist, Rothschild was heavily involved with the foundation of the Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company, a model dwellings company whose aim was to provide decent housing, predominantly for the Jews of Spitalfields and Whitechapel.[4] He also served as a trustee of the London Mosque Fund until his death.[5] From 1889 until his death, he was Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire and was well known as an agriculturist.[6]

In the 1902 Coronation Honours list,[7] he was appointed a Privy Counsellor and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902.[8] On the same day, he was appointed to the Royal Victorian Order as a Knight Grand Cross (GCVO).[9][10]

House of Commons

From 1865 to 1885, Rothschild sat in the House of Commons as Liberal Member of Parliament for Aylesbury. He was elected at least four times before he was permitted to sit in the Commons. As a religious Jew, he was unable to enter public life. Benjamin Disraeli stood for equality for Jews before the law and, when asked to vote the Public Worship Bill, he rejected Tory Protectionism. When Rothschild finally entered the chamber, he moved to the Conservative benches to shake his opponent by the hand. One of the most important consequences for the emancipation of the Jews was that these freedoms were written into the Second Reform Act.

Baron Rothschild of Tring

In 1847, his uncle Anthony Nathan de Rothschild (1810–1876) was created 1st Baronet de Rothschild, of Tring Park. Since Sir Anthony had no male heirs, the baronetcy passed on his death to his nephew Nathan Mayer Rothschild.

In 1885, Rothschild became a member of the House of Lords when he was created Baron Rothschild, of Tring in the County of Hertford, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.[11] He also was Baron de Rothschild (Freiherr von Rothschild) in the Austrian Empire, a noble title he had inherited via his father. In 1838, Queen Victoria had authorized the use of this Austrian title in the United Kingdom.[1]

When he was raised to the peerage by Gladstone,[6] Rothschild was the first Jewish member of the House of Lords not to have previously converted to Christianity. (Disraeli had been created Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876, but was baptised into Anglicanism at age twelve).

In common with the rest of his family, Rothschild joined the breakaway Liberal Unionist Party, formed in 1886 by Joseph Chamberlain, which ultimately merged into the Conservative Party.[12]

In 1909, he was famously derided by then Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, over his opposition to the People's Budget, when the latter said, at a meeting at the Holborn Restaurant on 24 June that year: "I really think we are having too much Lord Rothschild. Are we to have all ways of reform, financial and social, blocked, simply by a notice-board; 'No Thoroughfare. By Order of Nathaniel Rothschild'?"[13] Rothschild recommended the Lords reject the Parliament Bill, which was, however, passed.[14]

In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, Rothschild was consulted for economic advice by Lloyd George. At his first invitation to confer at the Treasury, when asked what could be done to raise more money for the war effort, Rothschild reportedly answered: "Tax the rich, and tax them heavily."[15]

Personal life

On 16 April 1867, he married Emma Louise von Rothschild (1844–1935), a cousin from the Rothschild banking family of Germany in Frankfurt.[16] They had three children:

He died in London, five days after an operation, on 31 March 1915 and was buried at Willesden Jewish Cemetery.[18] Following his death, the peerage was inherited by his son, Lionel Walter Rothschild.

Styles of address

  • 1840–1865: Mr Nathan Rothschild
  • 1865–1876: Mr Nathan Rothschild MP
  • 1876–1885: Sir Nathan Rothschild Bt MP
  • 1885–1902: The Right Honourable The Lord Rothschild[lower-alpha 1]
  • 1902–1915: The Right Honourable The Lord Rothschild GCVO PC
  1. ↑ Although The Lord Rothschild was a baronet, by custom the post-nominal of "Bt" is omitted, as Peers of the Realm do not list subsidiary hereditary titles.

See also

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 Bulletins of State Intelligence, 1838, p. 220
  2. ↑ Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1913. Kelly's. p. 1487.
  3. ↑ "Rothschild, Nathaniel Mayer (RTST859NM)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ↑ White, J. (1980) Rothschild Buildings: life in an East End tenement block, 1887–1920, p. 21.
  5. ↑ East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre. History display at their premises at 46–92 Whitechapel Road, London as seen on 28 April 2011.
  6. 1 2 Wikisource Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Rothschild, Nathaniel Mayer, 1st Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York.
  7. ↑ "The Coronation Honours". The Times (36804). London. 26 June 1902. p. 5.
  8. ↑ "No. 27464". The London Gazette. 12 August 1902. p. 5173.
  9. ↑ "Court Circular". The Times (36844). London. 12 August 1902. p. 8.
  10. ↑ "No. 27467". The London Gazette. 22 August 1902. p. 5461.
  11. ↑ "No. 25486". The London Gazette. 3 July 1885. p. 3060.
  12. ↑ Roth, Cecil (1939). The Magnificent Rothschilds. Robert Hale. p. 128.
  13. ↑ Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. p. 130.
  14. ↑ Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. p. 131.
  15. ↑ Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. pp. 275–276.
  16. ↑ "Nathaniel Mayer (Natty) de Rothschild (1840-1915)| Rothschild Family". family.rothschildarchive.org. Retrieved 2017-07-31.
  17. ↑ Hannah Rothschild, "The Butterfly Effect", , pages 18-21.
  18. ↑ Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. pp. 277–278.
Sources
  • Valynseele, Joseph; Mars, Henri-Claude (2004). Le Sang des Rothschild (in French). Paris: ICC Editions. ISBN 978-2-908003-22-2.
  • See also the list of references at Rothschild banking family of England
  • Cooper, John (2015). The Unexpected Story of Nathaniel Rothschild. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781472917065.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Thomas Tyringham Bernard
Samuel George Smith		 Member of Parliament for Aylesbury
2-seat constituency until 1885
1865–1885
With: Samuel George Smith 1865–1880
George W. E. Russell 1880–1885		 Succeeded by
Ferdinand James von Rothschild
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos		 Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire
1889–1915		 Succeeded by
The Marquess of Lincolnshire
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New title Baron Rothschild
1885–1915		 Succeeded by
Walter Rothschild
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Anthony Nathan de Rothschild		 Baronet
(of Tring Park)
1876–1915		 Succeeded by
Walter Rothschild
Titles of nobility

of the Austrian Empire

Preceded by
Lionel de Rothschild		 Baron de Rothschild
1879–1915		 Succeeded by
Walter Rothschild
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