Nathaniel Mayer (Victor) Rothschild (1910-1990)
Nathaniel Mayer (Victor) Rothschild, 3rd Lord Rothschild (1910-1990), was a biologist, a cricketer, a wartime officer for the UK Security Service (MI5), a senior executive with Royal Dutch Shell and N M Rothschild & Sons, and an advisor to the UK governments.
Early life
Known throughout his life as Victor, he was the third child and only son of Charles and Rozsika Rothschild. The family home was Tring Park. He had three sisters: Miriam (1908–2005) who became a distinguished entomologist; Nica (1913–1988), who became a patron of highly influential jazz musicians, and Elizabeth, known as Liberty (1909–1988).
Victor attended Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge, where he worked in the Zoology Department. He read Physiology, French and English, gaining a PhD in 1935. Victor enjoyed water-skiing in Monaco, driving fast cars, collecting art and rare books, and playing cricket for the University and Northamptonshire.
Victor married Barbara Judith Hutchinson (1911-1989) in 1933. The couple had three children: Sarah (1934-2018); Nathaniel Charles (Jacob), (1934-2024), and Miranda (b.1940). The couple divorced in 1946. In 1937 Victor became the third Lord Rothschild on the death of his uncle Walter (1868-1937). He sat as a Labour Party peer in the House of Lords, but spoke only twice there during his life. Both speeches given in 1946: one about the pasteurisation of milk, and another about the situation in Palestine.
Wartime service
In early 1939, he travelled to the United States where he visited the White House to discuss the issue of accepting Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Later that year he was recruited to work for MI5, where he remained for the duration of the War. He was attached to B division, under deputy director Guy Liddell who was responsible for counterespionage. In 1940 Victor produced a series of secret reports on German Espionage Under cover of Commerce and later founded section BI(c) at Wormwood Scrubs, the wartime home of MI5. BI(c) was responsible for counter-sabotage. Victor himself dismantled examples of German booby traps and disguised explosives, including a pair of time bombs concealed in boxes of Spanish onions. For this, he was awarded won the George Medal in 1944 for dangerous work in hazardous circumstances.
In 1946, Victor married Teresa Georgina Mayor (1915-1996) who had been his secretary at MI5. The couple had four children: Emma (b.1948); Benjamin (b.1952, who died in infancy); Victoria (b.1953) and Amschel Mayor (1955-1996).
Research and business
After the War, Victor combined his academic interests with work for industry, re-joining the Zoology Department at Cambridge University. For his work on fertilisation, he gained a DSc in 1950. He served as Chairman of the Agricultural Research Council from 1948 to 1958 and in 1961 he began work for Shell Research Ltd., serving as its Chairman from 1963 until his retirement in 1970. Victor was the first Director General of the Central Policy Review Staff from 1971 to 1974 (known popularly as the 'Think Tank'), a unit which researched policy specifically for the Government. In 1976 he chaired the Royal Commission on Gambling. In 1982 he published An Enquiry into the Social Science Research Council at the behest of Sir Keith Joseph. Throughout his life Victor was a valued adviser on intelligence and science to both Conservative and Labour Governments.
N M Rothschild & Sons Limited
Victor served briefly as Chairman of the family banking business N M Rothschild & Sons Limited from 1975-1976. Later that year, he was succeeded as Chairman by his cousin Evelyn de Rothschild. In 1981, Victor established Biotechnology Investments Limited which became one of Europe's leading specialist biotech investment companies. Victor remained active in the business until his death.
Later life
Victor's later years were marked by unsubstantiated suspicion. When Anthony Blunt was unmasked as a member of the Cambridge Spy ring in 1964, Victor was questioned by Special Branch; he was aware of suspicions that there was a ‘mole’ in MI5 but he felt himself to be above suspicion. These rumours again surfaced in the mid-1980s, and in 1986, Victor took the step of publishing a letter in The Daily Telegraph on 3 December 1986 to state that the "Director General of MI5 should state publicly that he has unequivocal, repeat, unequivocal, evidence, that I am not, and never have been a Soviet agent". In a written statement, to the House of Commons, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher confirmed that there was no evidence that he was ever a Soviet agent.
In later years golf took over from cricket as an active pursuit, and a love of jazz and the piano remained with him. In addition to his many scientific papers, reports and studies, Victor published an autobiography, Random Variables in 1984, and Meditations of a Broomstick, a collection of autobiographical notes and materials. Numerous honorary degrees and awards were conferred upon him in his lifetime. Victor and his sister Miriam, share the distinction of being the only brother and sister to have both been made Fellows of the Royal Society.
Victor, 3rd Lord Rothschild was Roy Plomley's guest on Desert Island Discs, on 7 July 1984. Listen to the broadcast on the BBC website here.
