New Court
Even for those far from the front, the experience of war was terrifying. Londoners lived in fear of German air raids. At the insistence of Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918), the Dividend Office gallery at New Court was packed with sandbags to protect the Bullion Room below, and an air raid shelter was built in the corner of the Drawn Bond Department. The Royal Mint Refinery, owned and run by the Rothschilds since 1852, was converted to munitions production, and a special system designed to relay air raid warnings to New Court.
The Rothschilds, along with many others, subscribed to charities and organisations sending parcels of food and luxuries to troops at the front. This Harrods receipt shows Alfred de Rothschild sending cases of Christmas turkeys and champagne to the Red Cross Hospital, British Expeditionary Forces, France in 1917.
Halton House at War
On the outbreak of hostilities, Alfred de Rothschild offered the parklands of his glorious estate at Halton, Bucks to the Army. The excellent communication links at Halton made it an ideal place for billeting large numbers of men, and within a few months, the 21st Yorkshire Division were billeted at Halton, the first of many units to pass through its gates. Natty, 1st Lord Rothschild offered his park at Tring for a training camp, and at Aston Clinton, the unoccupied house was volunteered as a headquarters.
In 1917, Alfred learned that the allies were short of pit props for the trenches, and offered the trees at Halton, an offer which was swiftly accepted and many trees were carried away.
'I am not an expert,' he wrote to the Prime Minister on 28 February 1917, 'as regards what sort of timber would be suitable for pit props, but I cannot help thinking that, as there are so many pine trees in my woods at Halton, some of them at least would be suitable for the purpose. May I ask you very kindly to send down your expert who would very easily be able to report fully on the subject, and I should indeed be proud if my offer should lead to any practical result.'
The exhibition ends here.
