Barney Barnato

Barney Barnato ( born July 5, 1852 in Whitechapel, London, † June 14, 1897, born Barnett Isaacs ) was a South African diamond magnate. He was first opponent of Cecil Rhodes, then with him and other owners of de Beers.

Growing up is Barney Barnato in the Whitechapel district, a poor neighborhood in the East End of London. He followed his brother Harry in the Cape Colony during the diamond rush that followed the discoveries in Kimberley. However, the lost its existence in 1871 and began working as a comedian and magician. His younger brother followed him first to the stage at that time but only spontaneously staged on pubs tables. During this time he changed his name to Barney Barnato.

How he really came to money, is not entirely clear, but within ten years, he was a millionaire. He founded the Barnato Diamond Mining Company and bought the worthless because of the ever increasing depth of the excavation for simple prospector rights in Kimberley on.

He competed with Cecil Rhodes, by aggressively buying up competitors. At the end won Rhodes by with a check for five million pounds he resigned him and his brother the mid-1880s, at which time the highest check the history. Barney Barnato, however, were promised a position as director for life (Life - Governor ) in the yet to be established De Beers & Co as well as shares in this company in return. Barnato was from 1889 until his death, a member of parliament of the Cape Colony.

He committed with almost 45 years suicide by 1897 in the afternoon before Madeira from Union -Castle liner Scot jumped on a trip to England in the ocean. His family always disagreed with this version as the character of Barney Barnato completely alien, who was a perennial pioneer of emerging South Africa. He is on the Willesden Jewish Cemetery in London buried. He left behind his wife, a daughter and two sons, including Woolf Barnato, who later became a racing driver, one of the so-called Bentley Boys. His granddaughter Diana Barnato Walker broke through as the first British woman the sound barrier.