Baron Lionel Walter von Rothschild

   Has 17 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Lionel Walter von Rothschild
  Prefix	Baron
  Gender	Male
  Siblings	1 Sibling
  1. Baron Lionel Walter von Rothschild   2. Baron Nathaniel Charles von Rothschild   d. 1923
  Person ID	I303210	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	22 Sep 2001

  
  

  Father	Baron Nathaniel von Rothschild,   b. 1836   d. 1905 (Age 69 years)
  Family ID	F121639	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Established the great Tring Zoological Museum on the Family estate. Eventually the museum held---mounted, arrayed and captioned in exemplary fashion---more than a quarter of a million birds and over two million insects, including specimens not found in any other collection. Walter, a Cambridge-trained natural historian of the first rank, financed a number of expeditions; he published several important scientific papers as well as Novitates Zoologicae, a periodical highly regarded in the field. Still, it did not quite cover the stuffing of several hundred thousand animals. Hopefully he speculated on the market. But he did not know how to sell too soon. The money vanished. After that he knew only one resort---to borrow a large sum and secure it with a life-insurance policy for 200,000 pounds made out, secretly, on his father. Unfortunately his scientific ardor outran his commercial circumspection. He had forgotten that insurance companies often divide their large risks with other firms. In this case the other firm happened to be the Alliance Insurance Corporation, founded by N. M. Rothschild, with Lord Rothschild as chairman of the board. One day milord looked at recent accounts of the corporation, and discovered the munificent policy on his life, contracted by his own son. From that moment on, Walter was excused from all further work at New Court. Yet in the end The Family had reason to be proud of Walter's taxidermist career; he became the first of several important Rothschild scientists.