Financier Lord Jacob Rothschild dies at 87
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Lord Jacob Rothschild, a prominent financier and supporter of the National Gallery, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, has passed away at the age of 87. He was a significant figure in British life, with his contributions to communities, the environment, education, and the arts. The Rothschild Foundation announced his passing, stating that he had changed many aspects of British life, including those in Buckinghamshire, Israel, Albania, Greece, and the US.
Rothschild’s early career as an investment banker led him to build 40 grand mansions in Buckinghamshire, including Mentmore, Ascott, Waddeson, and Halton. His great-grandfather, Nathaniel Rothschild, became the first Baron Rothschild in 1885. After leaving NM Rothschild in the 1970s, Jacob sold his bank shares in 1980 but continued to lead the Rothschild Investment Trust (RIT), which he had chaired since 1971. In 1988, RIT was split into J. Rothschild Assurance (later St. James’s Place Capital) and RIT Capital Partners, which Jacob chaired until 2019.
In 2005, London’s Evelina Hospital for Children opened as part of St. Thomas’s Hospital on the south bank of the Thames, with the NHS contributing £10m and the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity £50m to the £60m construction. The £10 million Evelina Children’s Hospital Appeal funded its cutting-edge equipment.
As trustee and chairman of the National Gallery in London, Rothschild had a major impact. He took the job in 1985 after the Prince of Wales called the winning gallery extension design by Ahrends, Burton, and Koralek (ABK) a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.” After months of public debate and royal involvement, the government-backed scheme was denied planning clearance.
Rothschild and the three Sainsbury brothers—John, Timothy, and Simon—developed a plan to replace the rejected design. In April 1985, the Sainsbury brothers said they would individually fund a £33 million enlargement and new design. In celebration of the gallery’s bicentennial, the Sainsbury Wing is being renovated and reopened in spring 2025.
The Rothschild Foundation leased Waddesdon Manor, a 19th-century French-style mansion in Buckinghamshire, entrusted by the family to the National Trust in the 1950s. He also let Spencer House in Mayfair, central London, be restored by Athenian Stuart. The RIT Capital Partners house is open for guided tours.
Rothschild made London’s Somerset House a public resource and home to the Courtauld Institute of Art. The Rothschild Foundation funded the reinstallation of the Waddesdon Bequest, Britain’s only wunderkammer, at the British Museum. Its crown jewel is the Holy Thorn Reliquary, made in Paris nearly 650 years ago for Jean, duc de Berry, and bought by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, the builder of Waddesdon Manor.
Jacob Rothschild, a prominent British financier and cultural patron, was born in 1936 in Berkshire. He lived in various locations, including Maida Vale, London, Stowell, Wiltshire, Corfu, and Eythrope Park, Buckinghamshire. His family had three daughters and one son. At his mother’s death in 1988, Dolly de Rothschild left him the majority of her £94 million estate, the largest in Britain at the time. Jimmy had bequeathed Waddesdon to the National Trust in 1957.
Rothschild inherited responsibility for Waddesdon and a large foundation that gave money to good causes in Israel. He has done a lot in education, conservation, and Arab-Israeli cooperation over the past 100 years. The National Library of Israel, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and funded by the Rothschild Foundation, was scheduled to open on October 22, 2023, but the Israel-Hamas war forced a cancellation. The library was unceremoniously opened to the public a week later.
Rothschild was a collector and cultural patron, commissioning works by Lucian Freud and David Hockney, as well as commissioned sculptures honoring his stepfather Ghika. In 2019, Odysseus and Nausicaa were produced to commemorate his 50th anniversary of locating the Corfu house with his mother and stepfather.
Rothschild was erudite in art history and family collecting, building a new archive for the Rothschild Foundation at Windmill Hill. He was modest about his accomplishments but was royal and professorial, with his Edwardian good manners and deep, patrician baritone drawl giving him authority. He was married to Serena Dunn in 1961 and died in Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, on February 26, 2024.
