Banker, Traitor, Scapegoat, Spy?

Sir Edgar Speyer was a conspicuous figure in the financial, cultural, social and political life of Edwardian London. Head of the syndicate which financed the construction of the deep 'tube lines' and 'King of the Underground', he was also a connoisseur and active patron of the arts who rescued the 'Proms' from collapse, enhanced the nation's musical and artistic life at his own expense and directed the funding of Captain Scott's Antarctic expeditions. Speyer and his wife, the concert violinist, Leonora Speyer lived in fabulously magnificent style. Early in the early summer of 1914 they stood at the peak of their success and celebrity in London society. Within weeks, on the outbreak of war, they became pariahs, objects of suspicion and aversion. Despite having been a naturalised British citizen for over 20 years and an ubiquitous public benefactor, Speyer found himself ostracised by society and mercilessly harried by the Northcliffe press. Under the Aliens Act of 1918, Speyer was summoned in 1921 before a judicial enquiry which found him guilty of disloyalty and disaffection and of communicating and trading with the enemy.He was stripped of his citizenship and membership of the Privy Council. Pilloried by The Times as a traitor, Speyer vehemently denied the charges, but he never returned to England thereafter and never forgot his ordeal.

'Using newly-released source documents, [the author] gives a well-written, astute and persuasive analysis which utterly refutes (although without completely destroying) the almost century-old orthodoxy on the case of Edgar Speyer.' 'It's a thoughtfully written account that makes the reader ponder how far governments today would go, if challenged with a crisis of similar magnitude.' '[I]nstructive and poignant study...' 'This short, clear, thoughtful biography is... an account of... Edwardian England with its toxic mixture of jingoism and extremes of wealth and poverty.' 'Antony Lentin has written a well-researched, compelling and balanced account of a remarkable life and explains clearly how a widely admired public figure was turned into an object of hatred and derision.' 'Lentin tells the story in a way that is sympathetic, but grounded in the sources.' '...well-researched book.'

Antony Lentin is the Senior Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and the author of Lloyd George and the Lost Peace (2001), The Last Political Law Lord: Lord Sumner (1859-1934) (2009) and The Makers of the Modern World: General Smuts, South Africa (2010).