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Diamond Magnate
This is an annotated list of important diamond business magnates. It is in alphabetical order based on last name. {{incomplete list, date=June 2023 * Barney Barnato (1851–1897), British Randlord and diamond magnate * Alfred Beit (1853–1906), Anglo-German gold and diamond magnate * Thomas Cullinan (diamond magnate) (1862–1936), South African diamond magnate. * David Harris (South African businessman) (1852–1942), South African soldier, diamond magnate, and legislator * John Dale Lace (1859–1937), South African gold and diamond magnate. * Lev Avnerovich Leviev (born 1956), Israeli diamond magnate, investor, and philanthropist * William McHardy (diamond magnate) (1846–1913), Scottish-South African diamond magnate * Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902), British mining magnate and politician * Maurice Tempelsman Maurice Tempelsman (born August 26, 1929) is a Belgian-American businessman and diamond merchant. He was the longtime companion of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former Fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, but diamond is metastable and converts to it at a negligible rate under those conditions. Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are used in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools. They are also the reason that diamond anvil cells can subject materials to pressures found deep in the Earth. Because the arrangement of atoms in diamond is extremely rigid, few types of impurity can contaminate it (two exceptions are boron and nitrogen). Small numbers of defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) color diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (defects), green (radiation exposure), purple, pink, orange, or red. Diamond also has a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Business Magnate
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or services are widely consumed. Such individuals have been known by different terms throughout history, such as industrialists, robber barons, captains of industry, czars, moguls, oligarchs, plutocrats, or taipans. Etymology The term ''magnate'' derives from the Latin word ''magnates'' (plural of ''magnas''), meaning "great man" or "great nobleman". The term ''mogul'' is an English corruption of ''mughal'', Persian or Arabic for "Mongol". It alludes to emperors of the Mughal Empire in Medieval India, who possessed great power and storied riches capable of producing wonders of opulence such as the Taj Mahal. The term ''tycoon'' derives f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barney Barnato
Barney Barnato (21 February 1851 – 14 June 1897), born Barnet Isaacs, was a British Randlord, 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 is perhaps best remembered as being a rival of Cecil Rhodes. Early life Barney Barnato claimed that he had the same birthday as Cecil Rhodes (5 July 1853). Most biographies give his date of birth as 5 July 1852. However, his birth certificate (supported by census data) shows he was born Barnet Isaacs in Aldgate, London on 21 February 1851, the son of Isaac and Leah Isaacs. He was educated by Moses Angel at the Jews' Free School. He had a hard life, and is reputed to have begged pass-outs (re-entry tickets) from theatre-leavers at the Garrick Theatre in Leman Street, to sell them on to others for a halfpenny. For a while he became a prizefighter and music-hall turn.Stephen Inwood (2005). ''City of cities: The birth of modern London''. London: Pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Beit
Alfred Beit (15 February 1853 – 16 July 1906) was a Anglo-German gold and diamond magnate in South Africa, and a major donor and profiteer of infrastructure development on the African continent. He also donated much money to university education and research in several countries, and was the "silent partner" who structured the capital flight from post-Boer War South Africa to Rhodesia, and the Rhodes Scholarship, named after his employee, Cecil Rhodes. Beit's assets were structured around the so-called Corner House Group, which through its holdings in various companies controlled 37 per cent of the gold produced at the Witwatersrand's goldfields in Johannesburg in 1913.See chapter 12 in Rönnbäck & Broberg (2019) Capital and Colonialism. The Return on British Investments in Africa 1869-1969 (Palgrave Studies in Economic History) Life and career Born and brought up in[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Cullinan (diamond Magnate)
Sir Thomas Cullinan (12 February 186223 August 1936) was a South African diamond magnate. He is renowned for giving his name to the Cullinan Diamond, the largest diamond ever discovered, and as owner of the Premier Mine, now renamed the Cullinan Mine, from which the famous gem was extracted on 26 January 1905. He also gave his name to the nearby South African town of Cullinan. He was honoured by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tembisa which named their church after him (Sir Thomas Cullinan AME Church). Life and career Thomas Cullinan was born in Elands Post near Seymore, Cape Colony on 12 February 1862. He moved to Barberton in 1884 and married two years later. In 1887, he moved to Johannesburg. There he became a bricklayer, and after he earned some money, he turned to prospecting. In 1897 he moved to Parktown, the up-and-coming suburb of the Randlords and had The View, his home, built. He discovered the Premier diamond fields in 1898. They lay a considerable distance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Harris (South African Businessman)
Colonel Sir David Harris (12 July 1852 - 23 September 1942) was a soldier, diamond magnate, and legislator. Early life He was born in London, England, and emigrated to the Colony of Natal in 1871. He later traveled 950 km from Durban to Kimberley where he began working as a prospector. Within two years, he was wealthy and had made the acquaintance of Cecil Rhodes. Career Military service He joined the Du Toit's Pan Horse Regiment in 1876 fought in the Gaika-Galeka war (part of the Xhosa Wars in the Eastern Cape. He also fought in other campaigns and distinguished himself in the Langeberg Rebellion (1896-97). He served in the Home Guard during the Siege of Kimberley. Member of Parliament In 1897, he joined the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope on the death of Barney Barnato Barney Barnato (21 February 1851 – 14 June 1897), born Barnet Isaacs, was a British Randlord, one of the entrepreneurs who gained control of diamond mining, and later, gol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dale Lace
Colonel John Dale Lace (27 November 1859 – 5 June 1937) was a South African gold and diamond mining magnate and Randlord. He was born in Port St Mary on the Isle of Man. Career Dale Lace came to South Africa as an employee of the Bank of Africa. Dale Lace built a fortune in the diamond industry. He would depart Kimberley for the Witwatersrand Goldfields. During 1895 until 1896, he was a member of the Johannesburg Reform Committee agitating for better rights for Uitlanders in the South African Republic. A consequence of this action resulted in the Jameson Raid and would accompany a British Agent with a message to the raiders expressing the Colonial Secretary's disapproval of the raid. When the raid failed, he was one of many of the Committee arrested, tried and found guilty but escaped jail with the payment of a £2,000 fine. After the British victory in the Second Boer War, he was appointed as a Councillor on the first Johannesburg Town Council and he was among the founders ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lev Avnerovich Leviev
Lev (Levi) Leviev (born July 30, 1956) is an Israeli diamond magnate, investor and philanthropist. Leviev was the Chairman and majority shareholder of Africa Israel Investments, a diversified conglomerate, between 1997-2018. Leviev lived in Israel between 1971-2007 and moved to reside in London. He is a noted philanthropist for Chabad Lubavitch causes in Eastern Europe and Israel. In 2018, Leviev had a net worth of US$1 billion according to Forbes. Early life Leviev was born in Samarkand, Uzbek SSR in 1956. His family moved to Israel in 1971 where he lived until 2007 when he moved to London. As of 2018, he lives in Russia. His parents, Avner and Chana Leviev, were prominent members of the Bukharian Jewish community, and Leviev is a practicing Orthodox Jew. He is a supporter of the Chabad movement, but as a Bukharan Jew he was brought up in the Bukharan liturgy. In 1971, when he was fifteen, his family emigrated from Uzbekistan to Israel. Alisher Usmanov's father was the pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William McHardy (diamond Magnate)
William McHardy (30 May 1846, Ballater, Scotland – 28 August 1913, Cullinan, South Africa) was a Scottish-South African diamond magnate. He was the first General Manager of the Cullinan Premier Mine from 1903 until his death in 1913, after which his son, Donald McHardy, took over his position in the mining industry. Career William was first appointed as the General Manager of the Kimberley Mine (in Cape Colony) in the 1880s and 1890s and was later appointed as the first General Manager of the Cullinan Premier Mine in about 1900. He held this post until his death in 1913 when his son, Donald McHardy then took over his position. Death William died on 28 August 1913 from heartbreak, not long after his son, James, died. James was accidentally run over by his father's car while his father was driving it. When James died, his room was closed and William ordered that no one was allowed enter James' room. Residence McHardy had the McHardy House built in 1903 in Cullinan, not long befo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecil Rhodes
Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company colonised the southern African territory of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe and Zambia), which the company named after him in 1895. South Africa's Rhodes University is also named after him. He also devoted much effort to realising his vision of a Cape to Cairo Railway through British territory. Rhodes set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate. The son of a vicar, Rhodes was born at Netteswell House, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. A sickly child, he was sent to South Africa by his family when he was 17 years old in the hope that the climate might improve his health. He entered the diamond trade at Kimberley in 1871, when he was 18, and, thanks to funding from Rothschild & Co, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Tempelsman
Maurice Tempelsman (born August 26, 1929) is a Belgian-American businessman and diamond merchant. He was the longtime companion of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former First Lady of the United States. Early life Tempelsman was born on August 26, 1929, in Antwerp, Belgium, the son of Leon and Helene Tempelsman, both Orthodox Jews, in a Yiddish-speaking family in Antwerp's Jewish community. In 1940, Tempelsman and his family emigrated to the United States to escape persecution by Nazi Germany during World War II. When he was 16, Tempelsman began working for his father, a diamond broker. He attended New York City's public schools and New York University. Business interests In 1950, Tempelsman created a new marketing niche by persuading the US government to stockpile African diamonds for industrial and military purposes, with him as middleman. In 1957, at the age of 27, he and his lawyer, Adlai Stevenson, traveled to Africa, where Tempelsman had begun forging ties with le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Wernher
Major-General Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Baronet, (16 January 1893 – 30 June 1973) was a British military officer. Life and career He was the second son of Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Baronet, and his wife, Alice Sedgwick Mankiewicz. He reached the rank of major-general during World War II, and he played an important role in coordinating the logistics of Operation Overlord. Second World War In September 1943, Sir Harold was appointed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill as Co-Ordinator of Ministry and Science Facilities (CMSF), in charge of overseeing the construction of all the Mulberry Harbour components. In 1948, he inherited the Wernher baronetcy from his elder brother, Sir Derrick Wernher (1889–1948), who had no male heir. He had previously inherited Luton Hoo after his father's death in 1912. He died in 1973 at Luton, Bedfordshire, and as he did not have any surviving male heir, the baronetcy became extinct. To avoid death duties, the Wernher estate donated the Wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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