Barney Barnato, born Barnet Isaacs, was a British Randlord, one of the entrepreneurs who gained control of diamond mining, and later, gold mining in South Africa from the 1870s up to World War I He is perhaps best remembered as being a rival of Cecil Rhodes.
21 Facts About Barney Barnato
2.
Barney Barnato was born Barnet Isaacs in Aldgate, London on 21 February 1851.
3.
Barney Barnato was educated by Moses Angel at the Jews' Free School and became a music hall entertainer and prizefighter.
4.
In 1873, Barney Barnato joined his brother Harry in the Cape Colony during the diamond rush which accompanied the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley, and they eventually bought four claims in Kimberley.
5.
Barney Barnato was a proponent of consolidating claims to alleviate production problems and to maintain the price of diamonds by stockpiling diamonds.
6.
In time this number dropped to under one hundred, and Barnato Brothers were among those.
7.
Barney Barnato aimed at complete consolidation of the Kimberley mine, but there were others players with similar goals.
8.
Barney Barnato got wind of the sale and telegraphed Porges asking for an opportunity to bid if a sale were imminent.
9.
Barney Barnato tried to keep control of his own company, but Rhodes outsmarted him, finally gaining control of Kimberley Central DMC a few months later.
10.
Barney Barnato emerged as the largest shareholder with 6,658 shares in the new company.
11.
Barney Barnato subsequently became Kimberley's member of parliament in the Cape Parliament from 1889 until his death.
12.
Rhodes and Barney Barnato planned to reduce the number of buyers for the rough diamonds to ten companies who would in turn sell to the diamond cutters and set up lines of distribution throughout the World.
13.
At the time of the initial discovery, Barney Barnato did not want to detract from his plan to take control of Kimberley Mine and rejected Harry and Woolf's urging to invest in gold mining.
14.
Barney Barnato ordered the necessary equipment to be shipped from England to set up a cyanide plant for each of his mines.
15.
Barney Barnato purchased land in the new town to build offices, shops and market stalls, including a new stock exchange.
16.
Early in 1889, Barney Barnato floated his first gold mining company on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges.
17.
Barney Barnato died in 1897 in mysterious circumstances; records state that he was lost overboard near the island of Madeira, whilst on a passage home to England.
18.
Barney Barnato's body was recovered from the sea and he was buried at Willesden Jewish Cemetery in London.
19.
The theory regarding the suicide of Barney Barnato has been tied to sinister later events.
20.
Barney Barnato's will divided up his considerable fortune between his family, amongst which was his sister Sarah and her husband Abraham Rantzen, great-grandparents of TV presenter Esther Rantzen.
21.
Barney Barnato was the first British woman to break the sound barrier.