Ferdinand James von Rothschild - Biography

Ferdinand James Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild (17 December 1839 – 17 December 1898) was an English art collector, and a member of the prominent Rothschild family of bankers. He was a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1898.

Although Ferdinand von Rothschild was born in Paris, France, he was from Vienna and a part of the Rothschild banking family of Austria. He was the second son of Baron Anselm von Rothschild (1803–1874) and Charlotte von Rothschild née Rothschild (1807–1859). He held the hereditary title Freiherr (Baron) in the Austrian nobility. He became a British subject and moved from Vienna to London. In Britain he used the style Ferdinand de Rothschild.

On 7 June 1865 he married his cousin Evelina de Rothschild (1839–1866), the daughter of Lionel de Rothschild (1808–1879). On 4 December 1866 their son was stillborn and Evelina died later the same day. In her memory, Ferdinand built, equipped and endowed the Evelina Hospital for Sick Children in Southwark, south London.

In 1874 he bought an estate near the village of Waddesdon in Buckinghamshire and between 1874 and 1889 built Waddesdon Manor, designed by Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur in an eclectic style based on 16th century French châteaux.

In 1883 Ferdinand de Rothschild was High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and in 1885 was elected as Liberal MP for Aylesbury, a seat he held until his death in 1898.

Ferdinand von Rothschild died at Waddesdon Manor at the age of 59 and was buried next to his wife in the elegant Rothschild Mausoleum mausoleum in the Jewish Cemetery at West Ham. His collection of Renaissance objets d'arts from the house was bequeathed to the British Museum as the "Waddesdon Bequest"; the Holy Thorn Reliquary was a highlight of the collection, though its distinguished provenance was still unknown. He willed the Manor to Alice Charlotte von Rothschild, his unmarried younger sister and thence to their nephew, James Armand de Rothschild, who in turn bequeathed it to the National Trust.

• Mrs James de Rothschild - Rothschilds at Waddesdon Manor (Collins, 1979) ISBN 0-00-216671-2

External links

• Waddesdon Manor
• The Waddesdon Bequest