Biography Jaime Reynolds recounts the career of one of the Liberal Party’s most colourful MPs ‘Jimmy’‘Jimmy’ The career of James de Rothschild, MP ames Armand Edmond de Rothschild, known Alphonse and Gustave, Edmond inherited control of Juniversally as ‘Jimmy’, was by any reckoning the the Paris house. James’s mother was another most exotic figure to sit on the Liberal benches in Rothschild, Adelaide of Frankfurt. James’s already the years of the party’s decline. Fabulously rich, as ample inheritance was increased still further in much French as British, a leading figure in the Zion- by a legacy from his eccentric unmarried Aunt Alice ist movement, a devotee of horseracing and a major of Vienna, of whom he was the principal heir. This art collector, his appearance was striking. In his included the stupendous, seventy-room Waddesdon left eye had been knocked out by a stray golf ball Manor in Buckinghamshire. struck by the Duc de Gramont. He habitually wore He followed a classic French education at the a monocle in his weak right eye and dressed in top Lycée Louis le Grand by reading English at Trinity hat, frock coat and stiff collar. College, Cambridge where he distinguished himself Rothschild is remembered today chiefly for the by winning the Harkness Prize for an essay on key role he played with his father, Baron Edmond de ‘Shakespeare and His Day’. After he worked at Rothschild (–) in promoting the Jewish the Rothschild Bank in Paris but found this unsatis- settlement of Israel. There is a biography of father fying. Giving no notice and taking great pains to and son by the well-known historian, Simon evade any attempt by his family to dissuade him, he Schama, celebrating their contribution to the Zion- left for Australia without money or cheque-book. ist movement. Rothschild also appears in the various He lived there incognito for eighteen months, studies of the family as one of its more colourful working on a ranch and experiencing what it was characters. There are also a number of books on his like not to be a Rothschild. In the end he was traced, art collections. About his political career in the Lib- and with some reluctance, returned to France. In eral Party next to nothing has been published. he married an Anglo-Sephardi, Dorothy Pinto, Rothschild was one of the very small band of sur- seventeen years his junior. He enlisted in the French vivors who managed to hold on to their seats in the Army in and served on the Western Front. Fol- years of Liberal collapse. He sat as MP for the Isle of lowing an accident early in he had a prolonged Ely from –, winning three elections before fi- convalescence. He arranged his secondment to nally going under in the Labour landslide. While Allenby’s Army in Palestine in , serving as a ma- his Zionist activity took front stage and his public jor in the th Fusiliers. He joined the British Mili- profile in the party was low key, Rothschild was nev- tary Mission and helped to organise the Jewish Le- ertheless very much part of the small group of gion. In he was naturalised as British. wealthy and aristocratic grandees who ran the party at Rothschild’s father, Baron Edmond, had dedi- this time. He also had the distinction of being the last cated himself and his fortune to the cause of the Liberal to be appointed to government office. On Jewish homeland in Palestine from and became March he was appointed as Parliamentary Secre- its leading sponsor, working closely with Chaim tary to the Ministry of Supply in Churchill’s wartime Weizmann. In , convinced, incorrectly as it coalition. His ministerial career was short-lived. On turned out, that he was dying, Baron Edmond began May the Liberals and Labour withdrew from to hand over this role to James. In June James the coalition and Rothschild resigned. became president of a management committee set Rothschild was born on December . His up to promote Weizmann’s pet project of a Jewish father Edmond was the youngest son of Baron James University. During the First World War he was heav- Rothschild of Paris (–), the most brilliant ily involved in the Zionist work in Britain leading of the great banking dynasty. With his elder brothers, up to the Balfour Declaration of November , 24 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 32 Autumn 2001 working in harness with Weizmann and Herbert Samuel. It was James who led the celebrations of the Declaration held at the Hippodrome in Manchester, cra- dle of British Zionism. He was Presi- dent of the Palestine Jewish Colonisa- tion Association (PICA) from its foun- dation in until it was dissolved on his death. Rothschild’s Liberal activity began late, towards the end of the s when he was fifty years old. He had family connections to the Liberal Party elite. His second cousin, Hannah (–) had been the wife of the Liberal Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery. Margaret, their daughter, was the wife of the Earl of Crewe, Liberal Leader in the House of Lords from – and again from –. No doubt, as a Jew and a Zi- onist, Rothschild found the Liberals a more congenial home than the Con- at that general election. The Isle of Ely heavily agricultural seats in the s. servative Party. Although several and its pre- predecessor, the There was also a substantial noncon- Rothschilds had sat as Conservative Wisbech division of Cambridgeshire, formist vote, including a concentration MPs and there were a number of was a seat the Liberals could normally of Primitive Methodists amongst the staunch Tory Zionists – notably Balfour expect to win, albeit by smallish majori- smallholders in the Wisbech area. Pre- and Leo Amery – there were also vocal ties. In the s it remained a Liberal– sumably much of this vote went to anti-Semites in the Conservative Party. Conservative marginal with Labour Rothschild despite his being a Jew and The Liberal Party had a long record of making only limited inroads with about his associations with horse-racing. defending the rights of the Jewish com- % of the vote. The seat went Tory in By rising support for Labour munity and, under the leadership of the Liberal debacle of , but it was no had eclipsed the Liberal tradition even Lloyd George, Herbert Samuel and surprise when Rothschild regained it in the Isle of Ely. The Labour candidate Archibald Sinclair, was decidedly pro- with a majority of , (.%) in a won nearly % of the vote in the gen- Zionist. It seems highly likely that three-cornered fight in , a much eral election and Rothschild trailed in Herbert Samuel, who resumed activity better year for the party. The fact that he third with just %. The Conservatives in the party in and who had held it at the following two general elec- won, though with considerably less worked with Rothschild in the Zionist tions owed much to the absence of a than their vote. Thereafter the cause for many years, played a part in To ry candidate in and of a Labour Liberals largely disappeared from the persuading him to stand for Parliament. candidate in . In , as the only scene until Clement Freud’s by-elec- The association of the Liberal Party ‘National’ candidate, Rothschild tion victory in . with Zionism and the Jewish Commu- romped home with a majority of , In the – parliament Roths- nity, especially marked in the s, is (%) over an independent. In he child was in the vanguard of critics of an interesting and unexplored area. scraped in by only votes (.%) in a Lloyd George’s strategy of negotiating Jews were prominent in the leadership straight fight with a Tory. However it is an agreed programme with the minor- of the party. In addition to Samuel some tribute to Jimmy’s wide appeal that ity Labour Government in return for (leader –) and Rothschild, Lord a Rothschild could be elected thanks to continued Liberal support. This ranged Reading (Rufus Isaacs) led the party in the votes of Labour supporters. him alongside the future Liberal Na- the Lords (–). The Liberals also The key to the Liberal predominance tionals. In autumn he dined retained significant Jewish support in in the constituency was its strongly agri- weekly with two other dissidents, Leslie the East End of London into the s, cultural character. Before the rural Hore-Belisha and Geoffrey Shake- helping them to win seats in areas had provided the bulk of the Lib- speare, at Quaglino’s restaurant to ar- Whitechapel and Bethnal Green. Harry eral vote in Wisbech, while the towns of range concerted tactics. He spoke Nathan and Barnett Janner, both Jews, Wisbech and Ely were considered to be against Lloyd George at the marathon sat as Liberal MPs in the early s, strongly Conservative. In % of meeting of the Liberal Parliamentary later defecting to the Labour Party. male workers in the Isle of Ely were Party on March when thirty- Rothschild was MP for the Isle of Ely occupied in agriculture, the fourth high- three MPs supported Lloyd George and from to , when it provided est proportion in the country. The Liber- seventeen voted for withdrawing sup- one of the handful of Conservative gains als were particularly successful in such port from Labour. In May the Journal of Liberal Democrat History 32 Autumn 2001 25 down, though not before he told me tell you how much I regret the political that I had lived so long among Jews that axe which has removed me from your I was taking a Jewish point of view, and side. It has been for me a wonderful privilege to serve under you, even for could not see things in proportion.