Major Edmund Leopold de Rothschild (2 January 1916 – 17 January 2009) was an English financier, a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England, and a recipient of the Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH), given by the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

Life and career

Born in Westminster,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, he was the second child and first son of

Lionel Nathan de Rothschild Lionel Nathan de Rothschild, OBE (25 January 1882 – 28 January 1942), also Major Lionel de Rothschild, was a British banker and Conservative politician best remembered as the creator of Exbury Gardens by the New Forest in Hampshire. He wa ...

and Marie Louise Eugénie de Rothschild née Beer (1892–1975). Known as Eddy de Rothschild, he graduated from

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, after which he traveled the world. Returning home, he worked at the N M Rothschild & Sons bank but shortly thereafter

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

broke out and he joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

. An artillery officer in the

Buckinghamshire Yeomanry The Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry is an Operational Hygiene Squadron of the Royal Logistic Corps, originally formed as cavalry in 1794, and has also served in artillery and signals roles. The lineage is continued by 710 (Royal Buckinghamshire Hu ...

, he served with the British Expeditionary Force in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

then fought in the North African Campaign and in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

with the 77th Field (Highland) Regiment, then became a major in the newly formed Jewish Infantry Brigade. In May 1946 Rothschild was demobilised and once back home in England he returned to work at N M Rothschild & Sons. He became a partner, his father having died in 1942, but then had very little experience. Tutored by his uncle Anthony Gustav de Rothschild, he played a key role in the continuing success of the bank, and became its chairman from 1970 to 1975. An aggressive business developer, during his career Rothschild flew the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

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 , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

and to develop the Churchill Falls hydro-electric dam. Over the years he was involved in a number of philanthropic causes and in recognition of his services, the

New Year Honours 1997 The New Year Honours 1997 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countrie ...

made Rothschild a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

. Still active into his nineties, he was President of the

Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women The Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX; prior to 1939, the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen, and from 1928 to 1939, the Jewish Ex-Servicemen's Legion) is a non-political charitable organization that focuses on issues affecting ...

(AJEX). In 1998, he appeared in the Chuck Olin

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

titled ''

In Our Own Hands IN, In or in may refer to: Places * India (country code IN) * Indiana, United States (postal code IN) * Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN) * In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast Businesses and organizations * Independ ...

'' that told the story of the only all-Jewish fighting force in World War II. Like other members of the Rothschild family, he was an art collector, but the maintenance and development of the Exbury gardens was his most important pastime. From his father, Rothschild inherited Exbury Gardens in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

which had fallen into severe disrepair as a result of the War, and he set about restoring the gardens. Edmund's expertise became such that in the 1950s and 1960s he served on the Council of the

. In 2001, the American Rhododendron Society in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, ...

awarded him a citation in appreciation of his many services to the horticultural world. In 2005, the

bestowed on him the Victoria Medal of Honour, the highest accolade in the British gardening world. Rothschild established a charitable trust to manage Exbury Gardens with which his children are involved. In 1949 he published ''Window on the World'', an account of his world tour of 1937–39. His autobiography was published in 1998.

Private life

On 22 June 1948 Rothschild married Elizabeth Edith Lentner (1923–1980). The couple had the following children: # Katherine Juliette (b. 1949), who married

Marcus Agius Marcus Ambrose Paul Agius (; born 22 July 1946) is a British financier and former group chairman of Barclays. Early life and education Marcus Agius was born on 22 July 1946, the son of Ena Eleanora (née Hueffer) and Lieutenant Colonel Alfred ...

# Nicholas David (b. 1951) # David Lionel (b. 1955) (twin) # Charlotte Henriette (b. 1955) (twin) Elizabeth Lentner de Rothschild died in 1980 and Edmund remarried in 1982 to Anne Kitching (1921-2012). He died in 2009 at the age of 93.Bloomberg: Edmund de Rothschild, Ex-NM Rothschild Chairman, Dies at Age 93
/ref>

References

External links

Official site of the Rothschild Archive

N M Rothschild & Sons

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rothschild, Edmund Leopold de English bankers English gardeners English art collectors British Army personnel of World War II Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Edmund Leopold de Rothschild English Jews English people of German-Jewish descent Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 1916 births 2009 deaths Victoria Medal of Honour (Horticulture) recipients Royal Artillery officers Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry officers Mandatory Palestine military personnel of World War II Jewish Brigade personnel 20th-century English businesspeople