Sir Thomas Cullinan

Thomas Cullinan (1862 - 23 August 1936) was a South African diamond magnate. He is renowned for giving his name to the Cullinan Diamond, the largest diamond ever discovered, as he was the owner of the Premier Mine (now renamed the Cullinan Mine) from which it was extracted on 26 January 1905. He also gave his name to the town of Cullinan in South Africa which lies around the mine itself.

Thomas Cullinan's career began in modest circumstances. He had been a bricklayer in Johannesburg; having made some money at this, he turned to prospecting. He discovered the Premier diamond fields in 1898. They lay a considerable distance from the existing diamond fields, but from the find of a diamond on the surface near a farm fence, he deduced that the diamond (found in alluvial soil) must have been washed from some higher diamond-bearing geological position. Such a position presented itself in the shape of a nearby koppie, which concealed a diamond-bearing blue ground pipe.

The owner of the mine, Joachim Prinsloo, having sold up to prospectors (first gold, then diamond) twice previously, would not sell; but Cullinan succeeded in purchasing the land from Prinsloo's daughter who inherited the farm after her father's death, and purchased the mine for £52,000. [ [http://www.farlang.com/diamonds/hahn-diamond/page_118/view?searchterm=Thomas%20Cullinan/ Hahn, Diamond, Chapter 4, p.125ff on Farlang.com] ]

He was the grandfather of Patrick Cullinan, a prominent South African poet.

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