Edmund de Rothschild
Edmund de Rothschild
Edmund de Rothschild and France’s first lady, Bernadette Chirac.
Edmund de Rothschild
Edmund de Rothschild and France’s first lady, Bernadette Chirac.
Edmund de Rothschild
https://www.amazon.com/Window-world-Edmund-Leopold-Rothschild/dp/B0007J2NPE/?tag=2022091-20
1949
(Born in London during WWI, Edmund de Rothschild is the el...)
Born in London during WWI, Edmund de Rothschild is the eldest surviving direct male descendant of N.M. Rothschild. This work covers his life, from his service in France during WWII, his development of Churchill Falls in Labrador in the 1950s, to his presidency of Rothschild Bank.
https://www.amazon.com/Edmund-Rothschild-Gilt-Edged-Life/dp/0719554713/?tag=2022091-20
1998
banker Financier horticulturist
Edmund de Rothschild was born on January 2, 1916, in London, England. He was the son of Lionel de Rothschild, a merchant banker, and Marie Louise Beer. Edmund was the great-great-grandson of Nathan Meyer Rothschild, who founded Rothschild's banking institution in London in 1798. Nathan amassed great wealth, reputedly becoming Europe's richest man. Edmund's father both headed the family firm and developed an intense interest in plants and flowers, particularly rhododendron and azalea.
As a boy, Edmund attended Lockers Park preparatory school and Harrow, before going to Trinity College, Cambridge.
After Cambridge, Edmund spent a year and a half travelling around the world, taking in the Andes and Africa, Afghanistan and Burma. The Rothschild name opened many doors, giving him access to eminent personages such as Mahatma Gandhi.
Returning to England in 1939 Rothschild's gave him the task of working on the affairs of Jewish families who had fled Germany, but barely had he got his feet under a desk when war broke out. Having already served with the Territorials, he rose to the rank of major, serving with the Royal Artillery and later with the army's Jewish Brigade. His war took him to France, North Africa, Holland and Italy, where he was slightly wounded. After the liberation of Rome he had an audience with the Pope, saying of the occasion that "as a Jew I felt doubly proud".
Edmund's father died in 1942. In 1946 he rejoined the family bank where he was to spend three decades of his life, working at first under his uncle Anthony. Edmund was a senior partner during the 1960s and, after Anthony fell ill, was chairman from 1970 to 1975. During his career he flew the Atlantic Ocean more than four hundred times playing a key role in developing British interests in postwar Japan and was a significant part of the Rothschild syndicate that formed the British Newfoundland Development Corporation to undertake mineral exploration in Labrador, Canada and to develop the Churchill Falls hydro-electric dam.
After some initial hesitation, Edmund had after the war decided to restore the gardens of Exbury. The estate had taken a battering during the conflict, having been requisitioned by the Navy in 1942 at just 48 hours' notice and suffering neglect as horticulture took second place to warfare. Edmund recalled: "When I came back from the war the garden was still very beautiful – but often I wouldn't go into it because it was too beautiful after all the horrors I had seen." But eventually he made the decision to undertake a complete restoration and spent the following decades doing so. In the years that followed Exbury would attract many visitors and many horticultural awards.
(Born in London during WWI, Edmund de Rothschild is the el...)
1998Edmund's charity work included causes such as the Queen's Nursing Institute, the Not Forgotten Association for disabled ex-service personnel, the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women, and the Council of Christians and Jews.
It was said of Edmund, as had been said of his father, Lionel, whom he followed into both banking and horticulture, that he was "a banker by hobby and a gardener by profession."
On June 22, 1948, Rothschild married Elizabeth Edith Lentner. They had four children. Elizabeth died in 1980 and Edmund remarried in 1982 to Anne Kitching.
