LORD ROTHSCHILD DEAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15884, 3 April 1915, Page 7

LORD ROTHSCHILD DEAD

CELEBRATED FINANCIER. FRIEND OF KING EDWARD. By 7clo;ranh— Tress Association—Copyright. London, March 31. Bvr.ov !>rrrviiun is dead. He recently ■c.nderwent a serious operation. It was apparently successful, but later ho collapsed. The late Baron Nathan Meyer de Rothschild, who was born on November 3, 1840, in -cadilly, was the eldest son of Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild and of Charlotte, daughter of Baron Charles de Rothsihild. of Naples. He was educated at Trinitv College, Cambridge, and had as one of his fellow students the late King Edward, with whom he formed a friendship that lasted throughout life. Bora into one of the greatest banking firms in the world, he wis nevertheless not permitted to confine his energies originally to financial operations. His father, Baron Lionel, had occupied a conspicuous part in the struggle for the removal of the civil disabilities of the Jews in England, in the middle of the last century. Although elected member of Parliament in tho Liberal interest for the City of London (together with Lord John Russel and two other members) in the general election of July, 1847, and repeatedly re-elected for the same division, he was not allowed to tak* his seat in the House until 1858. when the Jew.-,' Disabilities Bill was j-assed, which enabled Jews to take the >ath of loyalty without uttering the words "'on the true faith of a Christian.'' The right so hardly won by the father was soon enjoyed by the son. In 1866 Nathan Meyer de Rothschild was returned as Liberal member for Aylesbury, which he contwousJy represented till 1885, when he was raised to the peerage, as Baron Rothschild of Triug, Hertford.. Xithan Meyer de Rothschild married a cousin. Emma Louisa, daughter of Baron Carl von Rothschild, of Frankfort, in 1867. In the same year he sat as a member of the German Parliament, and thus presented the phenomenon of serving simultaneously in the Parliaments of two different countries. In 1876 he succeeded to the baronetcy of his uncle, Sir Anthony de Rothschild, by special remainder, and in 1879 he became heir to the Austrian barony of his father. Although a staunch Liberal during the 20 years that ho represented Aylesbury, Sir Nathan Meyer de Rothschild, as he then was, joined the Liberal Unionist Party in 1885, the year in which he entered the House of Lords. He was the first Jew to be promoted to the peerage, and the event was regarded as completing the political emancipation of the Jews in Great Britain. Lord Rothschild's was a life of busy and generous activity. The financial concerns in which he was engaged, and which were constantly attended by high political significance., did not trespass in the least upon bis devotion to works of philanthropy in various directions. His heir is the Hon. Lionel Walter Rothschild.