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Eulogy by the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire for Baron Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1840-1915, British banker and politician from the international Rothschild financial dynasty. Known as "Natty", he was the son of Lionel de Rothschild (1808-1879) and Charlotte 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, 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. In 1847, his uncle Anthony Nathan de Rothschild (1810-1876) was created 1st Baronet de Rothschild, of Tring Park. Because Anthony had no male heirs, on his death the baronetcy passed to his nephew Nathan Mayer Rothschild. He was subsequently elevated to the House of Lords and created Baron Rothschild in 1885 with which title the baronetcy remains merged.
He was the first Jewish member of the House of Lords. (Benjamin Disraeli had been created Lord Beaconsfield nine years earlier in 1876, but though he had Jewish heritage, was a convert to Anglicanism.) He worked as a partner in the London branch of the family bank NM Rothschild and 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 Rothschild's 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 administered Rhodes's estate after his death in 1902 and helped to set up the Rhodes Scholarship scheme at Oxford University. He died on 31 March 1915. |
