Barnato, Barney

Barney Barnato Barney Barnato (February 21, 1851, London - June 14, 1897, open sea near Madeira Island ) is an entrepreneur, owner of mines in South Africa, who made his fortune during the gold and diamond rush in the late XIX century.

Born under the name Barnett Isaacs in London's East End, son of a used clothes merchant. Together with his brother, he acted as an actor in cheap productions, then as a boxer, went with him to South Africa in 1873, where he settled in Kimberly and changed a number of professions: miner, diamond reseller and speculator, and, eventually, became the owner a large number of mines. During the creation of the business empire, his interests clashed with those of Cecil Rhodes , however, in the end, they entered into a merger agreement in 1888. Barney Barnato became president of De Beers Corporation for life.

From 1889 to 1897 he was a member of the Cape Provincial Parliament from Kimberly. After the discovery of gold deposits, he moved to Johannesburg and founded Johannesburg Consolidated Investment in 1889. He died under strange circumstances while swimming near Fr. Madeira - his body was found in the sea, which was regarded as suicide. His property was valued at 1,000,000 pounds.

He was married to Fanny Christina Bees, married three children: Wolf Barnato, a famous race car driver (1895-1948), Isaac “Jack” Henry Wolf Barnato (1894-1918) and daughter Leah Primrose Barnato (d. 1933 ) Wolfe's daughter, Diana Barnato Walker, in turn, became a famous pilot.