Major Edmund Leopold ('Eddy') de Rothschild, CBE, TD was an English officer of the British Army who served during the Second World War.
He was born on 2 January 1916, in London, the eldest son of Lionel Nathan and French-born Marie Louise Eugenie de Rothschild (née Beer). After graduating from Trinity College, de Rothschild undertook an 18-month world tour at the behest of his father. On his return, he entered the family bank of N.M. Rothschild & Sons, with a particular focus on Jewish refugees from Germany.[1] While travelling, he had made efforts to identify places of sanctuary for them, with the choices on offer being British Guiana, Ecuador, and Madagascar.[2]
He was commissioned in November 1935,[3] in the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry, which had a traditional association with the Rothschild family.[1] The Bucks, equipped as a field artillery regiment, went to France in 1940, but a recurring Staphylococcus aureus infection precluded de Rothschild being involved in combat while in the country.[1] He afterwards transferred to 77 Field Regiment, serving with it firstly in North Africa, and at Cap Bon was tasked with gathering supplies to feed 10,000 prisoners. During the Italian Campaign, he was slightly wounded in the Battle of Monte Cassino.[1]
In late 1944, de Rothschild transferred to the newly-formed Jewish Infantry Brigade Group and assumed command of 604 Battery, 200 (Jewish) Field Regiment. His battery moved to the front in February, and provided support to a Free Italian Army brigade during the advance on Bologna.[4] After the war ended in Europe, 604 Battery made its way to Germany, headed by de Rothschild's truck displaying a Star of David painted on its side. When he entered Mannheim, passing beneath an archway bearing the sign 'Judenrein' ('Cleansed of Jews'), the sight reputedly elicited shouts of 'the Jews are coming' from its inhabitants.[5][4] In August, de Rothschild assumed command of a German engineering regiment to supervise them as they cleared mines at Venlo.[4]
After the war, with only limited knowledge of banking, he became a junior partner in the family firm and, in 1955, its de facto head when his uncle suffered a stroke. His bank pursued a number of investments in North America. For twenty years, he was central to the ultimately protracted development of a hydroelectric project in Canada's Churchill Falls.[1] In 1967, he proposed the construction of desalting plants in Israel, Jordan, and the Gaza Strip as a means of fostering peace in the Middle East. The plan was not adopted, but he continued to advocate for water as a potential solution to the conflict.[6][7]
A keen horticulturalist, de Rothschild produced numerous rhododendron hybrids and received the Victoria Medal of Honour from the Royal Horticultural Society.[1] He was involved in a number of charity organisations and was the long-term president of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women. He married in 1948, to Elizabeth Lenter, with whom he had four children. After her death in 1980, de Rothschild married the widow Anne Harrison.
He died on 17 January 2009, at the family home of Exbury, Hampshire.
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Edmund de Rothschild, telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ↑ Stevenson, William (2013), Spymistress: The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II.
- ↑ The London Gazette (34222), p. 7417. 22 November 1935, thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The Jewish Brigade in World War II, newwestend.org.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
- ↑ Ferguson, Niall (2000), The House of Rothschild: Volume 2: The World's Banker: 1849-1999.
- ↑ The Times (60186), p. 15: .Dec 14, 1977.
- ↑ Obituary: Edmund de Rothschild, thejc.com. Retrieved 9 July 2015.