Barney Barnato

Barney Barnato (born Barnett Isaacs) (5 July 1852 – 14 June 1897) was a South African Randlord, one of the entrepreneurs who gained control of diamond mining, and later gold mining, in South Africa from the 1870s.

Background

He was born in 1852 in a slum in Whitechapel in the East End of London, and was educated by Moses Angel at the Jews' Free School. It was a hard life, and a young Barnato is reputed to have begged pass outs from theatre leavers at the Garrick Theatre in Leman Street, to sell them on to others for a halfpenny. [ [http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=colvin&book=rhodes&story=barnato&PHPSESSID=8675b0a125391c6bd735a4fa57971f8d Rhodes and Barnato] in "Cecil Rhodes" by Ian D. Colvin. Accessed 4 March 2007] He joined his brother Harry in the Cape Colony in 1873 during the "diamond rush" which accompanied the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley. His brother had gone out in 1871 and had been working as a comedian and conjurer, and his younger brother wanted to join in, calling out, "And Barnett, too!" The oft repeated phrase evolved, to the point which Isaacs changed his name to Barney Barnato.

He formed the Barnato Diamond Mining Company and within ten years he had become a millionaire, primarily by buying worked-out diamond mines area and mining the abandoned blue ground heaps.

He competed with Cecil John Rhodes in taking over the diamond mining industry in Cape Colony by aggressive buying out of competitors, although in the end Rhodes succeeded in buying him and his brother out for around four million pounds, writing the single largest cheque in history at that point. Barnato subsequently became Kimberley's member of parliament in the Cape Parliament from 1889 until his death.

He died in 1897 in mysterious circumstances, officially lost overboard near the island of Maderia, whilst on a passage home to England [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/new-stories/esther-rantzen/ "Who do you think you are?" — Esther Rantzen] on BBC.co.uk. Accessed 3 September 2008] . Although some have wondered if this were suicide and suggested that the Jameson Raid had had a major impact on him and left him severely depressed; his family vigorously rejected that theory, saying that it was totally out of character for a man who had been a pioneer in the rough and ready days of emerging Southern Africa. [http://www.tokencoins.com/barnato.htm] His body was recovered from the sea and is buried at Willesden Jewish Cemetery, London.

His 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. [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/new-stories/esther-rantzen/ "Who do you think you are?" — Esther Rantzen] on BBC.co.uk. Accessed 3 September 2008] . Another beneficiary was his son, Woolf Barnato, who used part of the multi-million pound fortune he inherited at the age of two, to become a pioneer racing driver in the 1920s, one of the so-called "Bentley Boys".

ee also

* Joel family
* John Hays Hammond — A famous mining engineer, diplomat and philanthropist who Barnato brought to Africa.

References

* [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1464 Barney Barnato] , "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Accessed 28 April 2006
* [http://www.tokencoins.com/barnato.htm Brief biography of Barney Barnato]
* [http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=colvin&book=rhodes&story=barnato&PHPSESSID=8675b0a125391c6bd735a4fa57971f8d Rhodes and Barnato] in "Cecil Rhodes" by Ian D. Colvin

External links

* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=Barnett&LinkID=mp00260&rNo=0&role=sit Portrait of Barnett Isaacs Barnato] by Harry Furniss at the National Portrait Gallery