Barney Barnato (July 5, 1852-June 14 1897), British-born, became a South African pioneer mining magnate and politician. He was born in the East End of London, the son of a petty shopkeeper. His original name was Barnett Isaacs. He attended the Jewish Free School and later made a scanty living as a prize fighter and entertainer.
In 1873 he followed his brother Henry (“Harry”) to the newly-discovered diamond fields in South Africa’s Cape Colony, where both men became extremely successful. Barnato secured a leading part in the Kimberley diamond mining industry. In the ensuing struggle for control he was, however, bested by Cecil John Rhodes (q.v.) who unlike Barnato saw the diamond mining industry as an instrument for imperial expansion, rather than merely as a financial venture. Barnato, for his part, contented himself with a life-governorship in the Rhodes-controlled De Beers Consolidated Mines.
In addition, he acquired a stake in the gold mining industry of the Witwatersrand, through interests in such firms as the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company, the Johannesburg Share Market, and Barnato Brothers. In 1888, Barnato siding with Rhodes in politics, secured a seat in the Cape Legislative Assembly. Barnato was destined to become the prototype of the millionaire “Hoggenheimer”, an anti-Semitic stage and cartoon figure in South Africa. But in fact Barnato, for all his wealth, obscure origins, and personal eccentricities, was a man of honor.
He stood aloof from the Jameson Raid of 1895-96 (an unauthorized and abortive invasion of the Boer Republic of the Transvaal from Rhodesia by British volunteers) and in fact condemned the enterprise. He was, however, subject to depressions, and in 1897 committed suicide by leaping overboard from a ship into the Atlantic Ocean.
His son, Wolf Barnato, became well-known in British motor-racing.
