Alfred Charles Freiherr de Rothschild, CVO, was the second son of Lionel Freiherr de Rothschild and Charlotte Freifrau von Rothschild of the Rothschild family.
At the age of 21, Alfred took up employment at the N.M. Rothschild Bank at New Court in London. It was there that he learnt the business of banking from his father and made valuable contacts in European banking circles. In 1868, at the age of 26, Alfred became a director of the Bank of England, a post he held for 20 years, until 1889. In 1892, he represented the British Government at the International Monetary Conference in Brussels. His career at the Bank of England was described in The Rothschilds: A Family of Fortune, by Virginia Cowles page 159:
Alfred was not only a partner at New Court but a Director of the Bank of England, an appointment he had been given in 1868 because the Governor felt it would not be a bad thing to keep in close touch with the Rothschilds. The relationship came to an abrupt end of 1889, however, over a slightly unorthodox situation. Alfred had paid a very high price for a French eighteenth-century painting after being assured by the dealer that he, too, had been forced to pay an excessive sum for it and was making only a marginal profit. A day or two later Alfred discovered that the dealer had an account with the Bank of England. He could not resist taking a peep to see what, in fact, the man had given for the painting. He was outraged when he discovered that he had been charged a price 'out of all proportion to decency!' He spread the story about London and, not surprisingly, got the sack from Threadneedle Street.
He was the first Jew to be a Director of the Bank of England, and, after his departure, no other Jew was on the directorate for more than fifty years. Upon the death of his father in 1879, Alfred inherited a estate centred on Halton in Buckinghamshire. As Alfred lacked a country retreat and the Halton estate did not provide one, Alfred set about building a house in the style of a French chateau. Work started around 1880 and Halton House was finished in July 1883. Alfred remained in residence at Seamore Place in London and only ever used Halton House for social purposes. In 1889, he was appointed as the inaugural High Sheriff of the County of London. His part in connection with diplomacy is described by T. G. Otte in "He interviews the Ambassadors": Alfred de Rothschild, High Finance and High Politics in Victorian Britain. After he had served as British delegate at an international conference on bimetallism in 1892, Alfred de Rothschild later facilitated a series of informal meetings between ministers and contacts at the German Embassy with a view to Anglo-German rapprochement. Before the First World War, he was Consul-General for Austria in London.
Alfred de Rothschild may have had an illegitimate child from a relationship with a Mrs. Maria Boyer Wombwell. The birth certificate states her father as "Frederick C. Wombwell", but Alfred always acted as her guardian, and the girl's name, Almina, suggests the combination of "Al" and "Mina". However, it has also been assumed that Alfred was primarily homosexual, and it has been suggested Alfred encouraged an illusion of paternity as a way of deflecting attention from his orientation. In 1895, at age 19, Almina married The 5th Earl of Carnarvon. She thus became The 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Alfred enabled the union by providing a £500,000 dowry that allowed her financially strapped husband to maintain the family estate, Highclere Castle. Beginning in 2010, the property became widely known as the location for the ITV series Downton Abbey. In later life, Alfred did not enjoy good health and he died after a short illness on 31 January 1918, aged 75. He was interred in the Willesden Jewish Cemetery in the North London suburb of Willesden.
