A part of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England, he was educated at Harrow School and the University of Cambridge where he secured a Double First in history.

The Anthony de Rothschild Lecture Theatre, at St Mary's Campus, Imperial College School of Medicine in London is named in his honour.

During World War II he helped organize a safe place for Edvard Beneš to live at The Abbey, Aston Abbotts.

Like his father, Anthony de Rothschild liked Thoroughbred horse racing and inherited the Southcourt Stud breeding farm at Ascott House.

[2] Anthony de Rothschild inherited the works of art at Ascott House from his father and added to the collections with the acquisition of a vast array of books, English furniture, paintings, and more than 400 pieces of Chinese ceramics.

In 1937, in memory of his mother, who died that year, he donated the Anthony van Dyck painting, Abbé Scaglia adoring the Virgin and Child to the National Gallery.