Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild

Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild (24 February 1868 – 30 June 1949), also known as Baron Édouard de Rothschild, was an aristocrat, French financier and a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of France.

Early life Born in Paris, Édouard de Rothschild was the only son of Baron Alphonse James de Rothschild. His mother was Leonora de Rothschild, the daughter of Lionel de Rothschild of the English branch of the family. In July 1940 Petain's French Government ordered the confiscation of the property of Baron Edouard de Rothschild and Louis Louis-Dreyfus. In 1939, Édouard's son Guy joined the French Army and his daughter Jacqueline escaped with her husband Gregor Piatigorsky to the United States. Before leaving, Édouard de Rothschild tried to hide as much of his valuable art collection as possible, on the grounds of the Haras de Meautry farm and at his Château de Reux. The Nazis confiscated his collection.

With his wife and second daughter Bethsabée, Edouard de Rothschild left France, escaping via Lisbon, Portugal to New York City. With the Allied liberation of France in 1944, Édouard de Rothschild and his wife returned home, Their children were: Édouard Alphonse Émile Lionel de Rothschild (1906–1911). He died at the age of five of appendicitis. According to the autobiography of his sister Jacqueline, the young English nurse of the two Rothschild boys had not told their mother that the boy had been ill and suffering for months before a doctor could diagnose appendicitis. The boy died shortly after the operation: "My parents set up an operating room in Ferrières which, of course, was not sterile, nor did it have the facilities of a hospital." Guy Édouard Alphonse Paul de Rothschild (1909–2007), who from 1937 to 1956 was married to Baroness Alix Hermine Jeanette Schey de Koromla (1911–1982), and who later married Baroness Marie-Hélène van Zuylen van Nyevelt (1927–1996) in 1957 Jacqueline Rebecca Louise de Rothschild (1911–2012), who from 1930 to 35 was married to Robert Calmann-Levy (1899–1982), and who later married renowned cellist Gregor Piatigorsky (1903–1976) in 1937. In her autobiography she explains her birth in Paris on November 11, 1911 (the year her brother Alphonse had died of appendicitis (see above) as follows: "My mother came home from the funeral [of my brother] and said, 'I want another child immediately.' Nine months later I was born. I came to replace a neglected and lost son. I was loved with guilt.I was treasured with fear. Yes, I was a Rothschild, but a girl. Were my parents disappointed? I wondered." Bethsabée Louise Émilie Béatrice de Rothschild (1914–1999), who from 1948 to 1951 was married to Donald Bloomingdale (1913–1954),