Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild

Head of N M Rothschild & Sons after his father's death in 1879, Rothschild kept the bank at the center of international finance, arranging loans to the governments of the United States, Russia, and Austria and helping finance the Suez Canal and Cecil Rhodes's diamond and mining ventures in southern Africa. In 1885 he became the first Jewish member of the House of Lords without having converted to Christianity. He also built the Four Per Cent Industrial Dwellings Company, providing housing for Jewish immigrants in London's East End, and helped establish the Rhodes Scholarship after administering Rhodes's estate.