page_title: Stephen Courtauld
section_title: Philanthropic work
hierarchical_section_title: Stephen Courtauld / Philanthropic work
caption_attribution_description: English: Eltham Palace, London
context_page_description: Sir Stephen Lewis Courtauld MC FRS was an English philanthropist associated with geographical exploration, the restoration of Eltham Palace in south-east London, and cultural and education causes, both in the UK and in Southern Rhodesia, where he and his wife also donated to organisations promoting racial equality.
context_section_description: Courtauld became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1920. He later became a member of the Council and was Vice President of the Society (1944–1946). He was chairman of the committee to raise the necessary funds to equip the British Arctic Air Route Expedition (1930–1931), led by Gino Watkins. Courtauld's first cousin Augustine Courtauld was a member both of the committee and of the expedition.
  He funded construction of an ice rink in Westminster, the London Ice Club, which opened on 13 January 1927. World War II forced the club's closure in 1940.
  Courtauld collaborated with Basil Dean and Reginald Baker and made a substantial financial contribution to the construction and development of Ealing Studios He was subsequently chairman of the Ealing Studios group of companies for 20 years and was instrumental in the appointment of Michael Balcon to take charge of the production programme in 1938.  He was a trustee of the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, and provided financial support for the Courtauld Galleries in Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum. He funded a Scholarship for the Art of Engraving at the British School at Rome.
  He undertook the redevelopment of Eltham Palace in Eltham, south-east London with his wife during the 1930s. They employed architects John Seely and Paul Paget and fashionable Mayfair interior designer the Marchese Peter Malacrida (1889–1980) to design a new private house in the Art Deco style to adjoin the existing Palace building, which was extensively restored. Malacrida also designed the interiors of the Courtauld's 712-ton luxury yacht, Virginia (launched in 1930 at Dalmuir on the Upper Clyde in Scotland).
  The Courtaulds left Eltham Palace in May 1944 to live in Muckairn, Taynuilt, Scotland.
caption: Eltham Palace
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