Sir Stephen Lewis Courtauld was an Englishphilanthropist associated with geographical exploration, the restoration of Eltham Palace in south-east London, and cultural and education causes, both in the UK and in Southern Rhodesia, where he and his wife also donated to organisations promoting racial equality.
Courtauld became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1920. He later became a member of the Council and was Vice President of the Society. He was chairman of the committee to raise the necessary funds to equip the British Arctic Air Route Expedition, led by Gino Watkins. Courtauld's first cousin Augustine Courtauld was a member both of the committee and of the expedition. He funded construction of an ice rink in Westminster, the London Ice Club, which opened on 13 January 1927. World War II forced the club's closure in 1940. Courtauld collaborated with Basil Dean and Reginald Baker and made a substantial financial contribution to the construction and development of Ealing Studios He was subsequently chairman of the Ealing Studios group of companies for 20 years and was instrumental in the appointment of Michael Balcon to take charge of the production programme in 1938. He was a trustee of the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, and provided financial support for the Courtauld Galleries in Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum. He funded a Scholarship for the Art of Engraving at the British School at Rome. He undertook the redevelopment of Eltham Palace in Eltham, south-east London with his wife during the 1930s. They employed architects John Seely and Paul Paget and fashionable Mayfair interior designer the Marchese Peter Malacrida to design a new private house in the Art Deco style to adjoin the existing Palace building, which was extensively restored. Malacrida also designed the interiors of the Courtauld's 712-ton luxury yacht, Virginia. The Courtaulds left Eltham Palace in May 1944 to live in Muckairn, Taynuilt, Scotland.
The Rhodesia years
In 1951, they moved again, to Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. They established a home at Penhalonga, near Mutare. The estate was named La Rochelle after the place of origin of his family. There they established an extensive botanic garden designed by an Italian landscape artist. The couple became Rhodesian citizens on 16 June 1954. Courtauld was a very active philanthropist in Southern Rhodesia. His achievements included the funding of the construction of buildings for the Courtauld Theatre and Queen’s Hall in Mutare. An obituary noted that "liberal in thought and open minded in his relations with people, it is said that when the question arose of racial segregation in his theatre he made it clear he would pull the building down before agreeing to such a measure." Stephen and Virginia Courtauld were leading donors to the Capricorn Africa Society, led by David Stirling, which promoted democratic and multi-racial development in East and Central Africa. He built a multi-racial residential club, the Rhodes Club, in Mutare, and founded and endowed the Kukwanisa Farm School in Nyanga for African boys in 1964. Stephen Courtauld was chairman of the board of trustees of the Rhodes National Gallery, which opened in 1957. An enthusiastic supporter, he contributed to the construction costs and provided a substantial endowment fund for the Gallery. He bequeathed 93 works of art to the gallery, including works by Rembrandt, Goya, Hogarth and Pissarro. These works are not on display in the gallery and their whereabouts has been described as a "mystery." He also funded construction of the auditorium of what is now the Zimbabwe College of Music in Harare. He was knighted in the 1958 New Year Honours. Sir Stephen died in Salisbury in 1967. Virginia moved to Jersey in 1970 where she died in 1972. The La Rochelle estate was bequeathed to the National Trust of Rhodesia in 1970.
