BAILEY, ABE

Sir Abe Bailey (November 6, 1864-August 10, 1940) was a South African financier and politician. He was born in Cape Town, son of a wool merchant who was a member of the Cape Colony’s legislature. He laid the foundations of his fortune on the Witwatersrand as a claims broker, and ultimately acquired great wealth through his interests in the Witwatersrand townships, in the Mining and Finance Corporation, and in the manufacture of alkali. He also made a reputation as a horse breeder and sheep farmer.

PHOTO CAPTION: Portrait at Vanity Fair 9 September 1908.

In politics, Abe Bailey sided with Cecil John Rhodes. He became involved in agitation of the Uitlanders (British settlers in the Boer republics) against the government of President Paul Kruger  in the Transvaal and was briefly imprisoned at the time of the Jameson Raid of 1895-1896.

During the Boer War (1899-1902) he worked for the British cause as a recruiter, and in 1902 succeeded to Rhodes’ seat in the Cape parliament, holding it until 1905. He subsequently sat in the Transvaal legislature from 1908-1910 and thereafter served as a unionist in the South African Parliament from 1910-1924.

During World War I, he served as deputy assistant quartermaster general in South Africa. In 1912, he was knighted, and in 1919 he obtained a baronetcy.

He also made a name for himself as a Maecenas (i.e. as a generous philanthropist), through the Abe Bailey Trust, and numerous other bequests. His second wife, Lady Mary, was a prominent aviator.

L. H. Gann