Monique Charlotte Thérèse de Rothschild (1925-2018)

Monique Charlotte Thérèse de Rothschild was the daughter of James Nathaniel Charles Léopold de Rothschild (1896-1984) and Claude Andrée Stéphanie Marie de Rothschild (née Dupont) (1904-1964). 

She spent her childhood in Paris, later moving to Compiègne, where father was mayor from 1935 to 1940. In 1942, she crossed the Pyrenees on foot with her mother and her sister, to Spain and Portugal, to join the Free French Forces in England.

After the war, she returned to France, settling in Compiègne, where her father was again mayor from 1945-1947. She married Jean-Francois Drach (1924-2012) in 1945, with whom she had two children, Bettina and Alain. She was married a second time, to the art collector Georges Jules Samuel Robert Halphen (1913-2003) in 1950.

An accomplished rider and passionate about hunting, she established the Futaie des amis hunt in 1961, which took over from the Vaux et Forêts, established by her father in 1926. She served as master of the Hunt until 2001, when "Mrs. Monique" as she was known, passed the baton to her son.

She died, aged 93 in Compiègne in 2018.

Note: The photograph on this page is not in the collection of The Rothschild Archive.