Konig Brothers

Frederick Adolphus Konig (1867–1940) was an American banker of German ancestry who emigrated to England at the end of the nineteenth century. He was the owner of Tyringham Hall in Buckinghamshire for which he commissioned works by the architect Edwin Lutyens.

Frederick Konig was born in College Point, Long Island, New York, in 1867, the second of three sons of Friedrick Konig (1826–1905) and Alette, daughter of Johannes Houtuyn Cramer. His father had made a fortune from patenting a process for the hardening of rubber. Frederick moved to England around 1890.

Konig and his brother Hans were partners in the banking firm of Konig Brothers in London. In 1923, at the behest of the governor of the Bank of England, the firm merged with Frederick Huth & Company which had been in an increasingly parlous state since the death of Frederick Huth Jackson in 1921. Frederick Konig became a partner in the merged firm.

Konig retired in 1936 when Frederick Huth & Company was transferred to the British Overseas Bank.

In 1907, Konig bought Tyringham Hall in Buckinghamshire, a house designed and built by Sir John Soane between 1792 and 1797 for the banker and member of Parliament William Praed.

In 1909, Konig commissioned the London architect Charles G.F. Rees, to add a copper dome to the hall, carry out refacing works, and redesign the principal rooms of the house in the French style.

In 1915–16, during the First World War, parts of Tyringham Hall were used as a convalescent centre for injured British soldiers.

Through his interest in theosophy, Konig came to know the architect Edwin Lutyens, whose wife, Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton, was also interested in the subject. As a result, Lutyens was commissioned in 1920 to design a classical-style temple of music and a bathing pavilion in the gardens of the house. He also designed a war memorial to the dead of the First World War at the Church of St Peter, Tyringham. The memorial was unveiled by Princess Marie Louise on 23 June 1921.

...
Wikipedia