the world of private banking

PRIVAtE BANKERS AND PHILANtHROpy 257
certainly with some truth, as ‘an ideal type of the rich Jew. He gathered his vast
wealth by means at which the sternest moralist could set no cavil, he took a pride
and a pleasure in distributing huge amounts of it with an unsparing hand, an
example to Jews of what a rich Jew should be – an example to the world of what
a rich Jew can be’. 28
Ernest Cassel (1852–1921)
Another ‘rich Jew’ whose philanthropic activities were more popularly known than
his business dealings was Ernest Cassel. Of course, not all City philanthropists
were Jewish, but the patterns of philanthropy did not differ substantially between
Jews and non-Jews, though the objects might. Cassel, in any case, had converted
secretly to Roman Catholicism on the early death of his wife and rarely identified
publicly with Jewish causes, though this did not protect him from anti-Semitism.
Cassel came from a modestly successful banking family in the Rhineland. He
migrated to Liverpool at the age of seventeen with few resources. He obtained
a clerkship with Bischoffsheim and Goldschmidt. This move was probably
facilitated by an introduction from de Hirsch. Cassell was closely associated with
Hirsch until the latter’s death, but as with much in the lives of both men the details
of their transactions remain mysterious.
Cassel achieved rapid financial success. When he married, in 1878, aged
26, he was able to put aside capital of £150,000. His wife died of tuberculosis
three years later. They had one daughter, Maud. Cassel was a devoted father. He
never remarried. His fortune and the scale of his international activities grew. He
was an active member of Edward VII’s social set, an owner of racehorses with
some success, mixed in theatrical and artistic circles and amassed an impressive
collection of paintings and other valuable items. He was an active donor to charity,
and not only to those patronized by Edward. He made much profit in the 1890s
through financing the Aswan dam, also from the development of sugar production,
of agriculture and railways in Egypt. In 1903, Cassel also donated £341,000 to
equip and operate travelling eye hospitals in Egypt. This may have been motivated
at least partly by a desire to mollify opposition to his business ventures. Whatever
the motive, the outcome was a major contribution to combating the ravages of
such eye diseases as trachoma in poverty-stricken rural Egypt.
In 1910–11 came a turning point in Cassel’s life, for a mixture of personal and
political reasons. He felt great personal grief at the death of Edward VII. With his
friend, he also lost much of his social and political influence, to the undisguised
and often openly anti-Semitic glee of certain members of high society. The
friendship between Edward and ‘Windsor-Cassel’ was close and strong. They met
at the racecourse around 1896, possibly introduced by Hirsch, and were friends
thereafter. Even more tragically, in 1911 his only daughter died after a long battle
28
Ibid.