13 Facts About Charles Rothschild

Nathaniel Charles Rothschild was an English banker and entomologist and a member of the Rothschild family.

Nathaniel Charles Rothschild was born in London into the Jewish Rothschild family, a prominent family of bankers.

Charles Rothschild went to Rothschild's Bank every morning; despite all his interest in science and in natural history, he never missed a day.

Charles Rothschild was very interested in the gold refinery operated by Rothschild's, and invented a variety of devices for collecting gold, and working on gold from a scientific point of view.

Charles Rothschild is regarded as a pioneer of nature conservation in Britain, and is credited with establishing the UK's first nature reserve when he bought Wicken Fen, near Ely, in 1899.

Wicken Fen was presented to the National Trust but the Trust declined to take Woodwalton Fen, near Huntingdon, which Charles Rothschild bought in 1910, and this wetland, now a National Nature Reserve, was kept as a private nature reserve.

In 1911 Charles Rothschild built a bungalow at Woodwalton Fen as a base for fields trips, which still stands.

Charles Rothschild was concerned about the loss of wildlife habitats, and in 1912 set up the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves, the forerunner of the Wildlife Trusts partnership.

Charles Rothschild served as High Sheriff of Northamptonshire for 1905.

Charles Rothschild was born in 1870 at Nagyvarad, Hungary, the daughter of a retired army officer, Baron Alfred Edler von Wertheimstein.

Charles Rothschild, who worked in the family's banking business, was a dedicated naturalist in his spare time: the young couple had met on a butterfly-collecting trip in the Carpathian Mountains.

Charles Rothschild was found with his throat slit, locked alone inside his bathroom at his home, Ashton Wold.

Charles Rothschild's suicide, when he was 46 years old, was a severe shock to his wife and four children.