George Merzbach

Merzbach was a senior lawyer in Egypt, and one of the guests invited by Sultan Hussein Kamel of Egypt to Abdeen Palace, for official banquets and advice. He had a distinctive legal experience and for that, he became one of the few advisors of Édouard Empain, Baron Empain during the foundation of the Heliopolis suburb. Also, he was one of the lawyers that King Fuad I of Egypt would resort to for legal matters. He was also one of the few lawyers that the Attorney General listened to and took advice from in order to resolve the constitutional crisis between King Fuad I of Egypt and Saad Zaghloul Pasha. Merzbach used to defend the interests of large Egyptian institutions and companies against the British occupants. Merzbach is the founder of the Faculty of Law at Cairo University, which was founded in 1925. And, he was a Professor of Law at Cairo University. Merzbach won the confidence of his fellow lawyers and was elected as the Head of Foreign Lawyers in Egypt in front of the Mixed Courts of Egypt.

Merzbach founded Zamalek SC on 5 January 1911 under the name of Qasr El Nile Club. The founding of the club was a way for Merzbach to strike back at the British occupants in Egypt, as they made the main club in Cairo, Gezira Sporting Club, exclusive for the British Army. The main idea of Zamalek SC was that it would be a club for all people. He then later moved it to the place of the High Court and changed its name to El Mokhtalat Club. Zamalek started out and continued under the presidency of Merzbach until 1915, he then left the presidency to fellow Belgian Nicolas Arfagi Bianchi, who played as a left-winger in the club's football team. Merzbach then did not involve himself in the field of sports again.

Merzbach was given many honorific orders and medals including the Order of the Noble (Egypt), the Order of the Medjidie, the Order of the Nile (highest degree of honour in Egypt), the Order of the Star of Ethiopia (highest degree of honour in Ethiopia), the Legion of Honour (highest degree of honour in France), the Order of Leopold (highest degree of honour in Belgium), the Order of the Crown, and the Order of the King given to him by Sultan Hussein Kamel of Egypt. On 24 January 1911, 19 days after founding Zamalek SC, and after his great success in the field of law, Merzbach was promoted by Khedive Abbas II of Egypt and given the honorific title of Bey, a rank lower than Pasha but higher than Effendi. Khedive Abbas II of Egypt was known for being anti-British occupation of Egypt, a stance that Merzbach shared with him. Merzbach was among the passengers on the first plane piloted by foreigners in Egypt which took place in Heliopolis in 1914. In 1922, the great archaeologist Howard Carter took Merzbach and his wife, Céline-Marie Piha, to Luxor during the discovery of the prominent and magnificent Tomb of Tutankhamun.