British financier Evelyn de Rothschild dies aged 91

British banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, who expanded the family bank and advised the late Queen Elizabeth II on financial matters, has died aged 91.

“Sir Evelyn died peacefully [on Monday] at his home in London after a short illness,” the family said on Tuesday.

The businessman, who trained racehorses, dedicated 42 years of his career to his family’s bank. He chaired Rothschilds Continuation Holdings, the overall group, from 1982 until 2003.

In 1968, he was appointed a director of de Rothschild Frères, the French bank, and eight years later became chair and chief executive of London-based NM Rothschild, the international investment bank, until 2003, when he oversaw the merger of the family’s French and UK branches.

NM Rothschild, now the UK arm of Rothschild & Co, increased its total assets from £40mn to £4.6bn during his tenure, Tuesday’s statement said. He expanded the number of offices worldwide to more than 50, from 15.

Rothschild handed over the reins of the family business to his cousin, David, in 2004, and four years ago David’s son, Alexandre, became the seventh generation to lead the 200-year-old group.

Sir Evelyn was known for prioritising family control over expansion.

“The humanistic side of banking has gone out,” he told the Financial Times in 2017. “You know the name of your doctor but not the name of your bank manager. There are certain things in life where you have to have a human relationship.

“Maybe we should go back to the days of semaphore. Think how lovely a time it was, with horse and cart.”

After his retirement, he focused on philanthropy and EL Rothschild, the family investment company, with his wife Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who survives him. The pair counted Bill and Hillary Clinton among their friends and spent a night of their honeymoon at the White House.

Rothschild, who was knighted in 1989 by the Queen for services to banking and finance, has held numerous jobs in the private and public sectors.

A former chair of The Economist for more than 17 years, he served as the late monarch’s financial adviser and created the Eranda Rothschild Foundation to fund social welfare and medical research. He chaired St Mary’s Hospital medical school in London from 1977 to 1988.

A chocolate lover, Rothschild set up a shortlived luxury confectionery brand in later life.

He told the FT at the time that his sweet tooth could be traced back to being evacuated to Long Island, New York, during the second world war and working in his first job on a soda fountain at a Westhampton drugstore.

“I was paid a dime a day and could eat as much chocolate as I liked,” he recalled.

He was born in London in 1931 to Anthony de Rothschild and Yvonne Cahen d’Anvers of the Bischoffsheim banking family.

​Letter in response to this obituary:

Sir Evelyn’s quip about the NHS was so revealing / From Charles Mercey, Employee of NM Rothschild and Sons, 1985-2019, Tellisford, Somerset, UK