The Goldschmidt Family

Walter Rothschild was the eldest son and heir of Lord [Nathan] Rothschild, an immensely wealthy financier, of the international Rothschild financial dynasty, the first unconverted (to Christianity) Jewish peer in England.

The eldest of three children, Walter was deemed to have delicate health and was educated at home. As a young man he traveled in Europe, attending the university at Bonn for a year before entering Magdalene College at Cambridge. In 1889, leaving Cambridge after two years, he was required to go into the family banking business to study finance.

At the age of seven, he deClared that he would run a zoological museum. As a child, he collected insects, butterfLies, and animals. Among his pets at the family home in Tring Park were kangaroos and exotic birds. It was near Tring that Rothschild experienced a "Jew Hunt" as he was dragged off his horse and assaulted by workmen while on a hunting ride.

At 21, he reluctantly went to work at the family bank, N M Rothschild & Sons in London. He worked there from 1889 to 1908. Нe evidently lacked any interest or ability in the financial profession, but it was not until 1908 that he was finally allowed to give it up. However, his parents established a zoological museum as a compensation, and footed the bill for expeditions all over the world to seek out animals. Rothschild was 6' 3" tall, suffered from a speech impediment and was very shy, but he had his photograph taken riding on a giant tortoise, and drove a carriage harnessed to six zebras to Buckingham Palace to prove that zebras could be tamed.

Though he never married, Rothschild had two mistresses, one of whom bore him a daughter. In 1929 he bought one of the largest mansions in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York, at 70th Street, with over 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2).