Recent from talks
Ernest Cassel
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Ernest Cassel
Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel (3 March 1852 – 21 September 1921) was a British merchant banker and businessman. Born and raised in Prussia, he moved to England at the age of 17.
Cassel was born in Cologne, in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia (now part of Germany), the son of Amalia (née Rosenheim) and Jacob Cassel. His family were Ashkenazi Jews. His father owned a small bank, but the son Ernest arrived penniless in Liverpool, England in 1869. There he found employment with a firm of grain merchants. With an enormous capacity for hard work and a strong business sense, Cassel was soon in Paris working for a bank. Being of Prussian origin, the Franco-Prussian War forced him to move to a position in a London bank. He prospered, and was soon putting together his own financial deals.
His areas of interest were in mining, infrastructure and heavy industry. Turkey was an early area of business ventures, but he soon had large interests in Sweden, the United States, South America, South Africa, and Egypt. He was among the financiers of the Aswan Dam, built in Egypt between 1899 and 1902, and was present in Egypt at the opening of the dam in December 1902.
At the behest of the French and British governments, he reluctantly provided assistance for the establishment of the State Bank of Morocco, provided for in the terms of the 1906 Treaty of Algeciras.
In 1912 his close German friend Albert Ballin feared that the naval rivalry between Britain and Germany was getting out of hand and even threatened war. They approached their respective governments, who agreed to negotiate a compromise that would end the race through the Haldane Mission of 1912. Unfortunately, it proved a failure.
One of the wealthiest men of his day, Cassel was a good friend of King Edward VII (enough so that he was nicknamed "Windsor Cassel"), prime minister H. H. Asquith and Winston Churchill. As a foreign-born arriviste of Jewish background, he was less than popular with elements of the British upper classes.
Cassel retired from business in 1910. His philanthropic benefactions included £500,000 for educational purposes, £225,000 for a hospital for nervous diseases and £50,000 to King Edward's Hospital Fund in memory of his only child. He built and endowed an Anglo-German Institute in 1911 in memory of King Edward VII.
During the First World War Cassel made large financial gifts to the British Red Cross and other war time charitable entities working to ameliorate privation being suffered by British military casualties.
Hub AI
Ernest Cassel AI simulator
(@Ernest Cassel_simulator)
Ernest Cassel
Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel (3 March 1852 – 21 September 1921) was a British merchant banker and businessman. Born and raised in Prussia, he moved to England at the age of 17.
Cassel was born in Cologne, in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia (now part of Germany), the son of Amalia (née Rosenheim) and Jacob Cassel. His family were Ashkenazi Jews. His father owned a small bank, but the son Ernest arrived penniless in Liverpool, England in 1869. There he found employment with a firm of grain merchants. With an enormous capacity for hard work and a strong business sense, Cassel was soon in Paris working for a bank. Being of Prussian origin, the Franco-Prussian War forced him to move to a position in a London bank. He prospered, and was soon putting together his own financial deals.
His areas of interest were in mining, infrastructure and heavy industry. Turkey was an early area of business ventures, but he soon had large interests in Sweden, the United States, South America, South Africa, and Egypt. He was among the financiers of the Aswan Dam, built in Egypt between 1899 and 1902, and was present in Egypt at the opening of the dam in December 1902.
At the behest of the French and British governments, he reluctantly provided assistance for the establishment of the State Bank of Morocco, provided for in the terms of the 1906 Treaty of Algeciras.
In 1912 his close German friend Albert Ballin feared that the naval rivalry between Britain and Germany was getting out of hand and even threatened war. They approached their respective governments, who agreed to negotiate a compromise that would end the race through the Haldane Mission of 1912. Unfortunately, it proved a failure.
One of the wealthiest men of his day, Cassel was a good friend of King Edward VII (enough so that he was nicknamed "Windsor Cassel"), prime minister H. H. Asquith and Winston Churchill. As a foreign-born arriviste of Jewish background, he was less than popular with elements of the British upper classes.
Cassel retired from business in 1910. His philanthropic benefactions included £500,000 for educational purposes, £225,000 for a hospital for nervous diseases and £50,000 to King Edward's Hospital Fund in memory of his only child. He built and endowed an Anglo-German Institute in 1911 in memory of King Edward VII.
During the First World War Cassel made large financial gifts to the British Red Cross and other war time charitable entities working to ameliorate privation being suffered by British military casualties.
Recent media