Sydney Stern, 1st Baron Wandsworth
Sydney James Stern, 1st Baron Wandsworth, was a British banker, Liberal Member of Parliament, philanthropist and member of the Stern banking family.
Background and education
Stern was born in London in 1844, the eldest son of Viscount David de Stern, the German-born senior partner of the merchant bank of Stern Brothers, and Sophia, daughter of Aaron Asher Goldsmid, brother of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. He was the elder brother of Sir Edward Stern and the first cousin of Lord Michelham. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and admitted to the Inner Temple in 1874.Career
For some time Stern worked in his father's firm of Stern Brothers. He unsuccessfully contested the Middle Division of Surrey in 1880 and 1884, Tiverton in 1885 and Ipswich in 1886 but was finally elected as MP for Stowmarket in a by-election in 1891. On 19 July 1895 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Wandsworth, of Wandsworth in the County of London. His elevation to the peerage was a quid pro quo for donations he had made to Gladstone. The then Liberal Prime Minister Lord Rosebery was only willing to fulfill that promise after receiving a written request from Gladstone that he honour the deal. He was one of the relatively small number of Liberal peers to identify themselves as Liberal Imperialists.He was a Justice of the Peace for Surrey and London, and served as vice-president of the London and Counties Radical Union. He was appointed the Honorary Colonel of the 4th Volunteer Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, on 16 February 1889 He provided the land for the battalion's new drill hall at 27 St John's Hill, Clapham Junction, opened in 1902.