the world of private banking

260
THE WORLD OF PRIVAtE BANKING
charities but also to local charities in the area around Windsor where he lived,
notably a gift of five acres of land to Egham District Council for the erection of an
isolation hospital. In recognition of his contributions to the welfare of the locality
he was presented with an illuminated address by the Corporation of Windsor
on the occasion of his Golden Wedding in 1900. John Henry Schroder was on
friendly terms with members of the Royal Family, without seeking to merge into
the English aristocracy as did members of other banking houses. In 1892 Queen
Victoria conferred a baronetcy upon him ‘as a mark of personal friendship and
esteem, and for the help he had given to the household on matters of finance and
accountancy’. 36
His partner Henry Tiarks was similarly active in his local community in Kent.
Though also Anglo-German by origin he became active in his local Anglican
church. He was president of the Chislehurst and Cray Valley Medical and
Surgical Aid Society, which administered a cottage hospital, the building of which
he initiated in the 1880s and generously endowed. He was also active in local
government and, like Schroder, in horticultural associations. 37
John Henry was succeeded by his nephew, Bruno Schroder, who was born in
Hamburg. He retained close links with Hamburg and was a generous benefactor to
Hamburg charities. His German connections made him one of the victims of virulent
anti-German sentiment in Britain during the First World War. This was intensified
by the nature of some of his benefactions: the endowment of a professorship of
German at Cambridge University in 1910 and his charitable contributions to the
relief of German internees and prisoners of war in England, as well as of British
prisoners of war in Germany. 38 To escape vituperation he retreated to his home
in Surrey for most of the war, resuming work in the City after the Armistice. He
remained active until the 1930s both in business and in philanthropy. In 1937, on
his 70th birthday, he was presented with an honorary doctorate of the Medical
Faculty of Hamburg in acknowledgment of his benefactions to the charities of
the city. His son and successor in the firm, Helmut, was the first of the family to
marry an Englishwoman, Meg Darell of Gloucestershire, in 1930. The wedding
was marked by the presentation of a radio set to every blind person in the county,
at a cost of £10,000. 39
Conclusion
These examples suggest the vast total sums flowing in charity from City
businessmen and their colleagues in other countries. Their more general impact
upon the recipients or upon social conditions – perhaps even upon politics
36
Ibid., p. 113.
37
Ibid., p. 113.
38
Ibid., p. 119.
39
Ibid., p. 263.