British Politician and Philanthropist.  The son of Edmond James de Rothschild of the French branch of the wealthy and prominent Jewish Rothschild family, he received his education Lycee Louis-le-Grand in Paris, France and at Trinity College, Cambridge, England.  When World War I broke out in July 1914, he served in the enlisted ranks of the French Army, then as an officer in The Royal Canadian Dragoons, and as a major in the 39th (Jewish) Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers, British Army, in Palestine when the war ended.  In 1920 he became a naturalized British citizen.  A member of the Liberal Party, he served in the British Parliament from the Isle of Ely, beginning in 1929 until he was defeated in the 1945 general election.  During World War II, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply during Winston Churchill’s coalition government from 1940 until 1945.  After Israel became a country in 1948, he donated six million Israeli pounds towards the construction of the Knesset (legislature) building in Jerusalem that was completed in 1966.  He died at the age of 78.  After his death, he bequeathed his Waddesdon Manor residence to the National Trust. (bio by: William Bjornstad)