Sir Edgar Speyer was a conspicuous figure in the financial cultural social & political life of Edwardian London. Head of the syndicate which financed the construction of the deep 'tube lines' & ' King of the Underground' he was also a connoisseur & active patron of the arts who rescued the ' Proms' from collapse enhanced the nation's musical & artistic life at his own expense & directed the funding of Captain Scott's Antarctic expeditions. Speyer & 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 & celebrity in London society. Within weeks on the outbreak of war they became pariahs objects of suspicion & aversion. Despite having been a naturalised British citizen for over 20 years & an ubiquitous public benefactor Speyer found himself ostracised by society & 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 & disaffection & of communicating & trading with the enemy. He was stripped of his citizenship & membership of the Privy Council. Pilloried by The Times as a traitor Speyer vehemently denied the charges but he never returned to England thereafter & never forgot his ordeal.