Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild

The Right Honourable The Lord Rothschild Bt, 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	Nathan Mayer Rothschild 8 November 1840
Died	31 March 1915 (aged 74) London
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
Education	Trinity College, Cambridge
Religion	Ashkenazi Jew

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

Life and family

Known as "Natty," he was the eldest son of Baron Lionel de Rothschild (1808–1879) and Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild (née von Rothschild), grandson of Nathan Mayer Rothschild after whom he was named, and the great-grandson of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the dynasty.

He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge,^[2] where he was a friend of the Prince of Wales, but left without taking a degree.

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

• Lionel Walter (1868–1937)
• Evelina Rothschild-Behrens (1873–1947)
• Nathaniel Charles (1877–1923)

Baron

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.^[3] He also was Baron de Rothschild (Freiherr von Rothschild), of 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]

Rothschild sat in the House of Commons as Liberal Member of Parliament for Aylesbury from 1865 to 1885. Rothschild 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; 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.

When he was created a peer by Gladstone and raised to the House of Lords,^[4] Rothschild was the first Jewish member of the House of Lords not previously converted to Christianity (Disraeli had been created Lord 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 Conservatives. ^[5]

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'?"^[6]

Rothschild recommended the Lords reject the Parliament Bill which was, however, passed.^[7]

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, to a question as to what could be done to raise more money for the war effort, Rothschild reportedly answered: "Tax the rich, and tax them heavily."^[8]

The peerage was inherited by his son, Lionel Walter Rothschild.

Work

He 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 USA, Russia and Austria. Following the Rothschilds' funding of the Suez Canal, a close relationship was maintained with Benjamin Disraeli and affairs in Egypt.

Natty also funded Cecil Rhodes in the development of the British South Africa Company and the De Beers diamond conglomerate. He later administered Rhodes's estate after his death in 1902 and helped to set up the Rhodes Scholarship scheme at the University of Oxford.

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.^[9] He also served as a trustee of the London Mosque Fund until his death.^[10]

Rothschild in his youth was a Captain in the Buckinghamshire Yeomanry,^[11] was Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire from 1889 until his death, and was well known as an agriculturist.^[4]

He was made a Privy Counsellor and a member of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO), both in 1902.^[11]

Death

He died in London, five days after an operation, on 31 March 1915 and was buried at Willesden Jewish Cemetery.^[12]

See also

• History of the Jews in England

Cultural references

• Appears as a minor character in the historical-mystery novel Stone's Fall, by Iain Pears.

References

1. Bulletins of State Intelligence, 1838, p. 220
2. "Rothschild, Nathaniel Mayer (RTST859NM)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. The London Gazette: no. 25486. p. 3060. 3 July 1885.
4.  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Rothschild, Nathaniel Mayer, 1st Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York.
5. Roth, Cecil (1939). The Magnificent Rothschilds. Robert Hale. p. 128.
6. Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. p. 130.
7. Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. p. 131.
8. Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. pp. 275–276.
9. White, J. (1980) Rothschild Buildings: life in an East End tenement block, 1887–1920, p. 21.
10. East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre. History display at their premises at 46–92 Whitechapel Road, London as seen on 28 April 2011.
11. Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1913. Kelly's. p. 1487.
12. Roth, Cecil. The Magnificent Rothschilds. pp. 277–278.

• Joseph Valynseele & Henri-Claude Mars, Le Sang des Rothschild, L'Intermédiaire des Chercheurs et Curieux, Paris.
• See also the list of references at Rothschild banking family of England

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Nathan Rothschild