The privileged child of Rothschild

In a former life, over 25 years ago, I was the Senior Warden at The University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. In this position, which I held in parallel to my academic role, I had overall responsibility for the pastoral care and discipline of around 3500 students living in our halls of residence.

Occasionally, Edinburgh being the first port of call for those not making the grade for Oxbridge, we had a ‘celeb’ on campus. When I was a house warden, we had the son of a famous actor staying with is (he died tragically so will remain nameless) and Countess Alexandra Tolstoy. In another house we had the gorgeous Rachel Stirling, daughter of 1970s sex bomb Diana Rigg and, while I never met her, one the Rothschilds, a granddaughter of the late Lord Jacob Rothschild who died in 2024.

One thousand students lived in ‘Outer Halls’ which were scattered across the city and 2500 lived on the Pollock Halls campus. As Senior Warden, I lived there with my family in the Senior Warden’s Lodge along with the wardens and assistant wardens who also lived on site.

To set the scene, the campus was a beautiful 20-acre site lying beneath the famous extinct volcano, Arthur’s Seat. The main administrative building, called St Leonard’s Hall had originally been a school called St Trinian’s and was the inspiration for the series of books by Ronald Searle about a fictional St Trinian’s school. In fact, in the early films, the former St Leonard’s Hall features in some scenes.

My responsibilities as Senior Warden applied only during the semester. During short breaks, students were relocated to a designated hall, while over the long summer break, they vacated completely to make way for conference guests. During the short breaks the students had to decant from their usual hall of residence and were accommodated in a single hall dedicated to this purpose. They continued to have access to their rooms for study.

However, over the long summer break all students had to vacate their rooms and clear their belongings as the halls were used for conferences and to accommodate visitors to Edinburgh during the famous Edinburgh Festival. Any remaining students were accommodated in the designated hall but had no access to the remaining halls. In fact, it was strictly forbidden for students to remain in their usual rooms, and they were unable to hire rooms elsewhere in the halls of residence other than in the designated hall, which brings me to the point of this article.

One summer, I noticed an unusual amount of evening noise coming from one of our better halls—an older building with more spacious rooms and communal areas. I had no responsibilities regarding rooms hired over the summer, but I took several evening walks to investigate, and the noise continued for a few weeks. This was very unusual as summer guest rarely stayed for more than a few days. A week at most.

Windows on the top floor of the hall were often open and, in addition to the music and loud voices I could see copious amounts of young people gathered in some of the rooms. One evening, as I observed the scene, a security staff member stopped for a chat. I asked if he knew what was happening on the top floor of the hall.

He told me that they had orders to leave them well alone, a student had been permitted to remain, had hired several rooms and regularly entertained guests there. These were mostly young people – “hooray henrys” he described them – visiting Edinburgh over summer. Many a party had taken place, apparently.

I asked, given the regulations, how this had been permitted. “Rothschilds” was his answer. The person renting the rooms was the granddaughter mentioned above. I asked the warden who lived in the hall, and he confirmed the story; it was not even going to be worth my trouble making a fuss.

I had not been told by the Director of Accommodation Services (and my immediate predecessor as Senior Warden) probably as I was well known for implementing the rules in fairness to those students who chose to comply with them. It may have been awkward if I had raised objections.

The privilege at play was unmistakable—this was clearly sanctioned at the highest levels of the university. Perhaps it was a quick call from the good lord himself to the Vice-Chancellor making clear his connections. Or, more likely, it was a call from one of those very connections. After all, Rothschild was a close friend, confidante and advisor to the late Duke of Edinburgh, the late Queen’s consort Prince Phillip who was Chancellor of The University of Edinburgh. He visited the university regularly.

I speculate, of course, on the precise route by which the young Rothschild was permitted to remain in residence over summer. I am sure no damage was done, and such a situation never arose again in my remaining time at Edinburgh. A minor incident, a storm in an academic teacup perhaps. But it is a clear demonstration of how the rich and powerful, those lacking a sense of humility at any rate, see the world and all that is in it as their playground and can simply overrule the rules when it suits them.

Such a life without obstacles must be quite a life to lead. Presumably the young Rothschild lady could have afforded to rent the top floor of the prestigious Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh. But that would have been an awful inconvenience for the poor girl. I wonder what rules she is bending to her advantage today?There is a famous ‘class sketch’ from the eponymous The Frost Report (David Frost who skewered Nixon after Watergate) in which three men look up and down at each other. The one in the middle looks down, in the sense of social class, at one of the men, but he looks up to the other. The one at the top of the heap looks down at ‘them’ – the other two. This is a typically British scenario and no matter how high up the tree you think you are, there is always someone looking down on you. In this country, as it is such a big family, it is likely to be a Rothschild.