Sir Carl Ferdinand Meyer, 1st Baronet (23 December 1851 – 18 December 1922) was a British banker and

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

magnate.

Personal life

Meyer was born in the

Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and 7th-largest in the European Union with a population of over 1.9 million. The Hamburg Metropolitan Region has a ...

, in a Jewish family, the second son of Siegmund Meyer and Elise Rosa, née Hahn, daughter of Reuben Hahn. He became a naturalised British subject in 1877. In 1883 he married Adèle Levis, daughter of Julius Levis of

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

by which he had a son

Frank Cecil Meyer Sir Frank Cecil Meyer, 2nd Baronet (7 May 1886 – 19 October 1935) was a British businessman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politician. Personal life The son of German-born businessman Sir Sir Carl Meyer 1st Baronet, Carl and ...

and a daughter. Adèle Levis was the subject of the portrait ''Mrs. Carl Meyer and her Children'', 1896, by

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil ...

Career

Meyer worked at first for the

Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt. The family's documented history starts in 16th-century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, ...

as their chief clerk and negotiator with the

De Beers The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pi ...

mining group. He then went on to work for De Beers and became deputy chairman of the company. He was also governor of the

National Bank of Egypt National Bank of Egypt (NBE; ) is a bank founded in Egypt in June 1898, and is the country's largest bank (2013) in terms of assets, deposits, loans, bank-capital, number of total branches, and employees.Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

(HSBC). He was given the title of

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in 1910. Meyer had a great interest in the arts, constantly showing support for opera, music and the theatre. In 1909 he donated 70,000 pounds to the Shakespeare National Memorial Theatre, now rebuilt as the

Royal Shakespeare Theatre The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) (originally called the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) is a Grade II* listed 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the English playwright and poet William Shakespea ...

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Meyer wrote to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' expressing his disapproval of the tactics used by the Germans in the war, including the sinking of the RMS ''Lusitania'', prompted by a suggestion by Sir

Arthur Wing Pinero Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (24 May 1855 – 23 November 1934) was an English playwright and, early in his career, actor. Pinero was drawn to the theatre from an early age, and became a professional actor at the age of 19. He gained experience as a ...

that Britons of German origin should speak out publicly.

Arms

Notes

External links

Portrait of Carl Meyer

Bridgeman Art Library Bridgeman Images, based in New York, London, Paris and Berlin, provides one of the largest archives for reproductions of works of art in the world. Bridgeman Art Library was founded in 1972 by Harriet Bridgeman and changed its name in 2014. Th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Carl 1851 births 1922 deaths British bankers British philanthropists British mining businesspeople De Beers people Emigrants from the German Empire to the United Kingdom Jews from Hamburg 1 Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Rothschild & Co people