# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Rothschild, Nathan Meyer

Middle name Mayer in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​ROTHSCHILD, Sir NATHAN MEYER, second baronet, and first Baron Rothschild of Tring (1840–1915), banker and philanthropist, the eldest son of Lionel Nathan de Rothschild [q.v.], baron of the Austrian Empire, by his wife Charlotte, daughter of Baron Charles de Rothschild, of Naples, was born in London 8 November 1840. Destined for membership of the famous banking house of N. M. Rothschild and Sons, which had been established in London by his grandfather, Nathan Meyer Rothschild [q.v.], Nathan Rothschild was educated privately, at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a contemporary of King Edward VII, and afterwards in Germany. He left Cambridge without taking a degree.
Rothschild entered the House of Commons as liberal member for Aylesbury in 1865. He retained the representation of the borough and afterwards of the county division until his elevation to the peerage as a baron in 1885. He was the first professing Jew to become a member of the House of Lords. He had succeeded his uncle, Sir Anthony de Rothschild [q.v.], as second baronet in 1876, and his father as Austrian baron in 1879. On the introduction of the Home Rule Bill in 1886 Lord Rothschild joined the liberal unionists. Ranging himself behind the Marquess of Hartington (afterwards eighth Duke of Devonshire) [q.v.] on the Home Rule issue, he remained a loyal and, for the most part, silent member of the party. He gave the same statesman his support also when the questions of protection and imperial preference became a decisive issue in 1903. He served on several royal commissions, was created (1902) a privy councillor and G.C.V.O., and held the post of lord-lieutenant of Buckinghamshire from 1889 till his death.
Rothschild's support and advice, ​whenever sought, as well as the influence of his firm, were always at the disposal of the British government, quite independently of party, in international and also in financial affairs; and it was with the firm's assistance that Lord Beaconsfield acquired for Great Britain a controlling interest in the Suez Canal in 1875. It was four years after this, on the death of his father, that Nathan Rothschild succeeded to the headship of the firm. In 1882, when Egypt was on the verge of financial collapse, the firm came to her assistance and to that of the British government, and was largely instrumental in maintaining the financial stability of Egypt during the crisis. In the city of London Rothschild held a unique position as the personification of the best aspects of the City's finance, and the influence of his firm and himself have been compared with that of the Bank of England.
Lord Rothschild, however, stood out in the public eye as a philanthropist no less than as a financier. The generosity of himself and of his family was proverbial as well as princely. It is not known whether Lord Rothschild set out to observe strictly the Jewish law that a tithe of income be devoted to philanthropic and public purposes; but it is probable that a tithe of his firm's immense income, and possibly more, was devoted to the benefit of others. Under his headship one of the departments of the firm was devoted exclusively to the administration of the large amount set aside for charitable purposes, and it is certain that no deserving object of charity, the needs of which were known, was left unassisted. But Rothschild's charity did not consist merely in the distribution of relief to individuals or institutions. Every public subscription included a donation from his firm, and his assistance and advice were freely granted whenever a movement for the relief of any section of humanity arose in the city of London. It is not possible to give here a full list of the philanthropic offices which he held. He was president of three hospitals and treasurer of a fourth as well as of King Edward VII's hospital fund. He was also chairman of the council of the British Red Cross Society, and guided its destinies and controlled its finances during the early period of the European War. In the Anglo-Jewish community he was at one time or another officially connected with practically every institution of any consequence; and he was in later life regarded as the lay head of the community. He also showed himself a munificent benefactor of his fellow Jews in all parts of the world. The many funds for the relief of persecuted or distressed Jews abroad were always headed by a donation from the house of Rothschild. After the death in 1885 of Sir Moses Haim Montefiore [q.v.] Rothschild may almost be said to have been the generally acknowledged leader of the Jews of the world. His philanthropy even invaded the realm of business, for largely through his influence the doors of the city of London were closed to anti-Semitic powers seeking loans.
Lord Rothschild was for long out of sympathy with the Zionist movement; and although Theodor Herzl at the opening of his career endeavoured to secure Rothschild's support, he failed. Later, however, the two men came together in connexion with the royal commission on alien immigration (1902), of which Rothschild was a member, and the latter's views became somewhat modified. When the outbreak of the European War and the participation of Turkey made Zionism a matter of practical politics it is said that Rothschild's views underwent further modification, and that when he died he was no longer antipathetic to the Zionist ideals as they had in the meanwhile developed. His death took place in London 31 March 1915.
Lord Rothschild married in 1867 Emma Louisa, daughter of Baron Karl von Rothschild, of Frankfort, by whom he had two sons and one daughter. He was survived by his wife and was succeeded by his elder son, Lionel Walter, second Baron Rothschild (born 1868).
A portrait of Lord Rothschild was painted by W. W. Ouless in 1917 (Royal Academy Pictures, 1917).
[The Times, 1 April 1915; Jewish Encyclopaedia; Jewish Chronicle, 2 April 1915.]
A. M. H.