Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, G. B. E., G. M., Third Baron Rothschild, 31 October 1910 - 20 March 1990

Abstract Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild was born in England on 31 October 1910, the only son of Nathaniel Charles Rothschild and Rozsika von Wertheimstein. He was a Scholar at Harrow School and in 1929 became a Pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1935 he was elected to a Prize Fellowship at Trinity and worked in the Department of Zoology. He was awarded his Ph.D. in 1937, and inherited his title from his uncle in the same year. During the war he joined the Intelligence Service and was awarded the George Medal for his work on bomb disposal. After the war, he returned to laboratory life in Cambridge where he continued to work on fertilization, gaining his Sc.D. in 1950. In 1948 he was appointed Chairman of the Agricultural Research Council. In 1953 he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society for his studies on the mechanism of fertilization of the egg and on the physiology of spermatozoa. In 1961 he was appointed Vice-Chairman of Shell Research Ltd., becoming its Chairman in 1963. He retired from Shell in 1970, and in 1971 the then Prime Minister, Edward Heath, appointed him to be the first Director General of the Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS) or ‘Think Tank’ as it was known. He held this post until the autumn of 1974. On leaving the CPRS he joined the family bank, becoming Chairman from 1975-76. In 1976 he was appointed Chairman of the Royal Commission on Gambling. In 1981 he established Biotechnology Investments Ltd. In 1982 he chaired an enquiry into the future of the then Social Science Research Council. He was made a GBE in 1975.