35 Facts About Harry Oakes

Sir Harry Oakes, 1st Baronet was a British gold mine owner, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist.

Harry Oakes earned his fortune in Canada and moved to the Bahamas in the 1930s for tax purposes.

Harry Oakes was born in Sangerville, Maine, one of five children of William Pitt Harry Oakes and Edith Nancy Lewis.

Harry Oakes graduated from Foxcroft Academy and went on to Bowdoin College in 1896, and he spent two years at the Syracuse University Medical School.

One of his sisters, Gertrude Harry Oakes, died in the 1935 sinking of the ocean liner SS Mohawk off the New Jersey coast.

In 1898, Harry Oakes left medical school before graduation and made his way to Alaska, at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, in hopes of making his fortune as a prospector.

Harry Oakes arrived in Kirkland Lake in Northern Ontario, Canada, on 19 June 1911.

Harry Oakes became a British subject, and he lived in the Bahamas for tax reasons from 1935 until his death.

Harry Oakes was invited to the British colony by Sir Harold Christie, a prominent Bahamian real estate developer and legislator, who became a close business associate and friend.

In 1939, Harry Oakes was created a baronet by King George VI as a reward for his philanthropic endeavours in the Bahamas, Canada and Britain.

Harry Oakes donated US$500,000 in two bequests to St George's Hospital in London, and he gave US$1 million to charities in the Bahamas.

Harry Oakes became a member of the colony's House of Assembly.

Harry Oakes soon proved to be a dynamic investor, entrepreneur and developer in the Bahamas.

Harry Oakes had a major role in expanding the airport, Oakes Field, in the capital Nassau; bought the British Colonial Hilton Nassau; built a golf course and country club; and developed farming and new housing.

Harry Oakes had become the colony's wealthiest, most powerful, and most important resident by the early 1940s.

On 30 June 1923, Harry Oakes married Eunice Myrtle McIntyre in Sydney, Australia.

Harry Oakes was murdered sometime after midnight on July 8,1943.

Harry Oakes was struck four times behind the left ear with a miner's hand pick, to disguise the wounds from a silver ice pick, and was then burned all over his body using insecticide, with the flames being concentrated around the eyes.

Harry Oakes's body was then sprinkled with feathers from a mattress.

When Harry Oakes was discovered, the feathers were still being gently blown over his body by the bedroom fan.

Etienne Dupuch, the colony's foremost newspaper publisher and a close friend of Harry Oakes, ensured constant coverage of the case for the several months which followed.

Harry Oakes then travelled to Bar Harbor, Maine, the family's summer home, to join her mother, at her husband's request.

Harry Oakes was convinced that de Marigny was innocent and stood by him when many others, including her family, believed him guilty.

Immediately after Harry Oakes' funeral had been held in Bar Harbor, Maine, Captain Barker, visiting by invitation, told Nancy and Lady Harry Oakes that he had already positively identified de Marigny's fingerprints on the Chinese screen, justifying de Marigny's status as the main suspect.

Harry Oakes' murderer has never been found, and there were no court proceedings in the case after de Marigny's acquittal.

Harry Oakes moved to Canada in 1945 and served for a time in the Canadian Army, but was later deported from Canada.

Harry Oakes married his fourth wife, settled in Central America, and died in 1998.

Harry Oakes remained close friends with Greene until his death in 1985.

Harry Oakes was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

Harry Oakes was portrayed by Scott Hylands in "Rex v De Marigny", a 1993 dramatization of the murder trial for the Canadian drama anthology series Scales of Justice.

Harry Oakes funded a make-work project and supplied tools to build a park at the location.

Harry Oakes constructed a 37-room Tudor- style mansion, where he and his wife lived from 1928 to 1935, known as Oak Hall.

Harry Oakes moved to the Bahamas afterwards, due to what he felt was excessive taxation by the Canadian government - the Bahamas were virtually tax-free.

Lady Eunice Harry Oakes gave it to Bowdoin College in 1958 and operated it as the Harry Oakes Center, a conference center, till the early 1970s when it was sold to brothers James and Sonny Cough.

Harry Oakes graduated from Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, founded in 1823, three years after statehood, one of the very few public high school "academies" left in Maine.