A ROTHSCHILD LEGACY

Throughout his life, Lord Jacob Rothschild was a fervent supporter of the arts in Britain - now two masterpieces from his own collection are joining celebrated national institutions for everyone to enjoy, says Caroline Wheater

- Caroline Wheater

The Rothschild name is famous throughout Europe: a family renowned for banking, vast fortunes, sumptuous houses and philanthropic acts. Recently, Britain lost Rothschild legend, Jacob, 4th Baron Rothschild, a financier, chatelain of Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire and patron of the arts. Lord Rothschild was a descendent of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, who established the British branch of the family when he arrived in Manchester in 1798 to buy cloth, then founded a bank in 1811. Educated at Eton, then Oxford, Jacob gained a First in history, joining the bank, NM Rothschild & Sons, before leading the Rothschild Investment Trust. However, high finance was not the only thing he cared about, as Lord Rothschild was an unstinting supporter of the arts and gained impressive credentials over the years. From 1985-1991, he served as Chair of Trustees at The National Gallery, and from 1995-1998 chaired the Heritage Lottery Fund; he was also a trustee of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. In the 1980s, he headed up an iconic restoration of Spencer House in St James's, the gilded 18th-century residence of Princess Diana's ancestor, Earl Spencer, where generations of the family spent the London 'Season' from January to July. In 1988, on inheriting the management of Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire (the former country house of Ferdinand de Rothschild, now a National Trust property run by the Rothschild Foundation), he set about faithfully restoring it with his own money.