View source for Barney Barnato

{{short description|British businessman who made his fortune in South Africa (1851–1897)}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2018}}
{{use British English|date=May 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Barney Barnato
| image       = Barney Barnato00.jpg
| alt         = Black and white portrait of a seated man. He has a short beard, is wearing glasses and is dress formally.
| caption     = Barney Barnato circa 1890
| birth_name  = Barnet Isaacs
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1851|2|21|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Aldgate]], London, England
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1897|6|14|1851|2|21|df=y}}
| death_place = At sea, near the island of [[Madeira]]
| occupation  = Diamond and gold mining entrepreneur
| known_for   =
| spouse      = Fanny Christina Bees
| children    = 4, including [[Woolf Barnato|Woolf]] 
}}
'''Barney Barnato''' (born Barnet Isaacs; 21 February 1851 – 14 June 1897) was a British [[Randlord]] and [[diamond magnate]] who was one of the entrepreneurs who gained control of diamond mining, and later, gold mining in South Africa from the 1870s up to [[World War I]]. He was known as a rival of [[Cecil Rhodes]]. 

==Early life==
Barnato was born Barnet Isaacs in [[Aldgate]], London, on 21 February 1851,<ref name="RubinsteinJolles2011">{{cite book |last1=Rubinstein |first1=William D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJc8afOZV0QC&pg=PA52 |title=The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History |last2=Jolles |first2=Michael |last3=Rubinstein |first3=Hilary L. |date=15 March 2011 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4039-3910-4 |page=52 ff |author-link1=William Rubinstein |author-link3=Hilary L. Rubinstein}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Barney Barnato {{!}} South African History Online |url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/barney-barnato |access-date=3 September 2022 |website=sahistory.org.za}}</ref> to Isaac and Leah Isaacs.<ref name="inwood"/> He and his siblings, Harry,<ref name=Leavitt/> Kate, Sarah and Lizzie, grew up in [[Whitechapel]]. Their mother died in 1852 and their father made a living by selling second hand clothing and fabric remnants.{{cn|date=March 2025}} Barnato was educated by [[Moses Angel]] at the [[Jews' Free School]],<ref name="inwood"/> but left school with Harry in their early teens to join their father's business.{{cn|date=March 2025}} The brothers performed on stage in the music halls as the Great Henry Isaacs "and Barnett too". They became known as Bar-na-to, or the Barnato, Brothers.<ref name=Leavitt>{{cite book |last=Leavitt |first=M. B. |url=https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsinthea00leavuoft |title=Fifty Years in Theatrical Management |publisher=Broadway Publishing Co. |year=1912 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsinthea00leavuoft/page/302 302]}}</ref> Barney also become a prizefighter.<ref name="inwood">Stephen Inwood (2005). ''City of cities: The birth of modern London''. London: Pan Books. p. 33. {{ISBN|978-0-330-43457-7}}</ref>

==Career==
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2025}}
[[File:Barnett Isaacs Barnato ('Men of the Day. No. 612.'), Vanity Fair by Spy, 1895.jpg|thumb|Barnato, caricatured by [[Leslie Ward|Spy]] in [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|''Vanity Fair'']], 1895]]
[[File:Barnett Isaacs Barnato by Harry Furniss. Pen and ink, 1880s-1900s.jpg|thumb|Barnett Isaacs Barnato by [[Harry Furniss]]. Pen and ink, 1880s–1900s. [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]]]
In 1873, Barnato joined his brother Harry in the [[Cape Colony]] during the [[Kimberley,_Northern_Cape#Discovery_of_diamonds|diamond rush]]. The pair eventually bought four claims in [[Kimberley, Northern Cape|Kimberley]]. The French mining company Compagnie Française des Mines de Diamants du Cap de Bonne Espérance, owned by [[Jules Porgès]], held a large block of claims that split the [[Kimberley Mine]] in two. Barnato telegraphed Porgès to express interest in bidding if he was to sell. [[Cecil Rhodes]] bid £1.4 million to acquire the company and Barnato countered with £1.75 million. Before receiving a response from Porgès, Rhodes contacted Barnato and requested he withdraw his offer. In exchange, Rhodes suggested he purchase the company at his original bid price and sell it to Barnato for £300,000 plus a twenty percent holding in Barnato's Kimberley Central Diamond Mining Company (DMC). After several days of consideration, Barnato agreed to withdraw his offer, and a month later, he owned Porgès' company. Shares in Kimberley Central DMC surged from £14 to £49.

Rhodes' next proposal was to merge the De Beers Diamond Mining Company (DMC) into Kimberley Central DMC to form [[De Beers|De Beers Consolidated Mines]]. Barnato emerged as the largest shareholder, with 6,658 shares in the new company. A group of shareholders from Kimberley Central applied to the [[Supreme Court of the Cape]] to stop the merger, and the judge ruled in favour of the applicants. Kimberley Central was liquidated and De Beers Consolidated purchased the company. The Barnato brothers' shares were bought out for the sum of £5,338,650 in 1889. By the time they made it to [[Johannesburg]] in 1888, a dozen gold mining companies were already present in the [[London Stock Exchange]] and the [[JSE Limited|Johannesburg Stock Exchange]]. With his nephews [[Woolf Barnato Joel|Woolf]] and [[Solomon Joel]] (Solly), Barnato spent more than a million pounds in one year, including investments in Johannesburg's infrastructure. Early in 1889, he floated his first gold mining company on the stock exchanges. After the formation of his Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company that year, he went on a major acquisition plan.{{clarify|date=March 2025|reason=what "major acquisition plan"?}} Barnato doubled his fortune in the boom in South African gold mining shares of 1894–95 before losing most of it in the 1896 share collapse.

==Death==
Barnato died in 1897; records state that he was lost overboard near the island of [[Madeira]] while on a passage home to England.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">[http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/new-stories/esther-rantzen/ ''Who do you think you are?'' — Esther Rantzen]{{dead link|date=September 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} on [[BBC.co.uk]]. Accessed 3 September 2008.</ref> A crew member gave evidence at the inquest that Barnato had been walking round the deck with his nephew [[Solomon Joel|Solly Joel]] at the time and, as he fell overboard, his last word was "murder!" Solly was suspected{{by whom?|date=April 2025}} to have been stealing money from the company, which he inherited on Barnato's death.{{cn|date=March 2025}} Some{{who?|date=March 2025}} have suggested that witnessing the [[Jameson Raid]] had left Barnato severely depressed and that he died by suicide as a result, though his family have dismissed this as being out of character.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tokencoins.com/barnato.htm|title=The story behind "Barney" Barnato|website=tokencoins.com}}</ref> Another suggestion is that he had been killed by conman Karl Frederick Kurtze, who in 1898 went under the name Ludwig von Veltheim.<ref name=Roberts/> Barnato's nephew [[Woolf Barnato Joel|Woolf Joel]] was shot dead in Johannesburg by a blackmailer in 1898,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Woolf-Joel/6000000013102370803 |title=Woolf Joel |last= |first= |date=25 January 2019 |website=geni.com |publisher=Geni. A MyHeritage Company |access-date=28 June 2023 |quote=[Died] 14 March 1898 (34-35), Johannesburg, GP, South Africa. Shot dead in Johannesburg office by blackmailer.}} See also [[Joel family]].</ref> suspected to be von Veltheim. At the murder trial, von Veltheim claimed that Barnato and Joel had hired him to kidnap [[Paul Kruger]], and that he had simply been seeking payment, an explanation that saw him acquitted.<ref name=Roberts>Brian Roberts, ''The Diamond Magnates''. London: Hamilton, 1972. pp. 232–244. {{OCLC|254654034}}</ref>

His fortune was divided up among his family, among which were his sister Sarah and her husband Abraham Rantzen, great-grandparents of TV presenter [[Esther Rantzen]].<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> Another beneficiary was his son, [[Woolf Barnato]], who used part of the multimillion-pound fortune he inherited at the age of two to become a racing driver in the 1920s, one of the so-called [[Bentley Boys]].{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

==Personal life==
[[File:Fanny Christina Bees (1859–1943).png|thumb|right|200px|Fanny Christina Bees]]
Barney married Fanny Christina Bees. Together, they had three children:{{Cn|date=March 2025}}
*Leah "Lily" Primrose Barnato (1893–1933)
*Isaac "Jack" Henry Woolf Barnato (c. 1894–1918)
*[[Woolf Barnato|Woolf "Babe" Barnato]] (1895–1948)

He was also the father of Isabel Louisa Barnato (born 5 June 1891,<ref>General Record Office Births Jun 1891 Barnato, Isabel Louisa B, Christchurch, 2b 679</ref> died 19 June 1891),<ref>General Record Office Deaths Jun 1891 Barnato, Isabel Louisa B, 0, Christchurch, 2b 483</ref> daughter of Isabella Barnato (born Isabella Clarke 30 November 1865, died 30 October 1891).<ref>General Record Office Deaths Dec 1891 Barnato, Isabella, 25, Christchurch, 2b 422</ref>

Barnato built, but never lived in, a vast house on the corner of [[Park Lane (road)|Park Lane]] and Stanhope Gate in [[Mayfair]], London, which was bought after his death by the banker Sir [[Edward Sassoon]].<ref name="inwood"/>

==Cultural depictions==
* Barnato's life was the subject of a South African television mini-series, ''[[Barney Barnato (TV series)|Barney Barnato]]'', made in 1989 and first aired on [[SABC]] in early 1990.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

==See also==
* [[Joel family]]
* [[John Hays Hammond]] – a mining engineer, diplomat and philanthropist whom Barnato brought to Africa
* [[List of unsolved deaths]]

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist|2}}

'''Sources'''
* [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
*{{Cite book |first=James |last=Leasor |title=Rhodes & Barnato: The Premier & The Prancer |publisher=Leo Cooper, James Leasor Limited |orig-year=1997 |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-908291-28-8 |url=http://www.jamesleasor.com/rhodes-barnato-the-premier-and-the-prancer/ |access-date=27 August 2011 |archive-date=27 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127191622/https://www.jamesleasor.com/rhodes-barnato-the-premier-and-the-prancer/ |url-status=dead}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Barney Barnato}}
* {{Cite web |url=https://fragmentsof-history.com/2018/02/06/the-killing-of-bro-barney-barnato/ |title=The killing of Bro. Barney Barnato. Suicide…… or murder by a fellow Mason? |first=Peter |last=Reeve |date=6 February 2018 |website=fragmentsof-history.com |access-date=28 June 2023}}. Further details regarding Barnato's death (and possible murder), including witness statements from the inquest held at the South Western Hotel on Friday 18 June 1897 before the Coroner, Mr W Coxwell.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnato, Barney}}
[[Category:Barney Barnato| ]]
[[Category:1851 births]]
[[Category:19th-century English businesspeople]]
[[Category:Cape Colony businesspeople]]
[[Category:1890s missing person cases]]
[[Category:1897 deaths]]
[[Category:British businesspeople in mining]]
[[Category:Burials at Willesden Jewish Cemetery]]
[[Category:Formerly missing British people]]
[[Category:Diamond dealers]]
[[Category:English Jews]]
[[Category:Joel family]]
[[Category:Kimberley, South Africa]]
[[Category:Missing person cases in Portugal]]
[[Category:People educated at JFS (school)]]
[[Category:People from Aldgate]]
[[Category:People from Kimberley, South Africa]]
[[Category:People lost at sea]]
[[Category:Randlords]]
[[Category:South African Jews]]
[[Category:South African businesspeople in mining]]
[[Category:South African people of English-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Unsolved deaths]]