01/07/2025
Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild,(8 November 1840 – 31 March 1915) was a British banker and politician from the wealthy international Rothschild family.
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.He also served as a trustee of the London Mosque Fund until his death.From 1889 until his death, he was Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire and was well known as an agriculturist.
In the 1902 Coronation Honours list,he was appointed a Privy Counsellor and was sworn a member of the council at Buckingham Palace on 11 August 1902.On the same day, he was appointed to the Royal Victorian Order as a Knight Grand Cross (GCVO).
