WHO WAS WHO

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

Born Jewish, but baptized at the age of twelve, Disraeli became a Tory MP in 1837. He served as Prime Minister in 1868 and between 1874 and 1880, moving to the House of Lords in 1876 upon being made Earl of Beaconsfield. Disraeli and his wife were close friends of the Rothschilds, and Lionel and his wife Charlotte appear to have been the inspiration for certain characters in his three novels Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845) and Tancred (1847).

Amongst the many occasions on which Disraeli appears in this exhibition is a letter from Disraeli to Lionel de Rothschild.

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