12 Facts About Ernest Oppenheimer

Sir Ernest Oppenheimer was a South African diamond and gold mining entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist, who controlled De Beers and founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa.

Ernest Oppenheimer was born in Friedberg, German Empire, to a German-Jewish family.

Ernest Oppenheimer was the son of Edward Oppenheimer, a cigar merchant, and his wife, Nanette Oppenheimer.

Ernest Oppenheimer's efforts impressed his employer and in 1902, at the age of 22, he was sent to South Africa to represent the company as a buyer in Kimberley, of which he went on to become the mayor from 1912 to 1915.

Ernest Oppenheimer became great friends with William Lincoln Honnold, an American engineer and chairman of Transvaal Coal Trust, Brakpan Mines, Springs Mines and The New Era Company.

Ernest Oppenheimer would remain as a permanent director and its chairman until 1953.

In 1927, Ernest Oppenheimer managed to gain control of the late Cecil Rhodes' De Beers empire, building and consolidating the company's global monopoly over the world's diamond industry until his retirement.

Ernest Oppenheimer gained the chairmanship of De Beers in 1929.

Ernest Oppenheimer married Mary Lina Pollak in 1906 in a Jewish ceremony in London, with a marriage certificate issued by West London Synagogue, a prominent Reform synagogue.

Ernest Oppenheimer's ashes were interred in a niche of the columbarium at Parktown St George's Church, Parktown.

Ernest Oppenheimer was succeeded in the business by his son, Harry Oppenheimer.

In 1964, the Ernest Oppenheimer Diamond was named in his honour by its owner, Harry Winston, who donated the stone to the Smithsonian Institution as a memorial.