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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 |
Giovanni Boldini
Giovanni Boldini (31 December 1842 – 11 January 1931) was an Italian genre and portrait painter who lived and worked in Paris for most of his career. According to a 1933 article in ''Time'' magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" because of his flowing style of painting. Early life Boldini was born in Ferrara, Italy on 31 December 1842. He was the son of a painter of religious subjects, and the younger brother of architect Luigi (Louis) Boldini. In 1862, he went to Florence for six years to study and pursue painting. He only infrequently attended classes at the Academy of Fine Arts, but in Florence, met other realist painters known as the Macchiaioli, who were Italian precursors to Impressionism. Their influence is seen in Boldini's landscapes which show his spontaneous response to nature, although it is for his portraits that he became best known. Career Moving to London, Boldini attained success as a portraitist. He completed portraits of distinguished members of ... [...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: Pan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jameson Raid
The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched Raid (military), raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil Rhodes. It involved 500 British South Africa Company police launched from Rhodesia (region), Rhodesia over the New Year weekend of 1895–96. Paul Kruger, whom Rhodes had a great personal hatred towards, was president of the South African Republic at the time. The raid was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers (known as Uitlanders) in the South African Republic, Transvaal but failed to do so. The workers were called the Johannesburg conspirators. They were expected to recruit an army and prepare for an insurrection; however, the raid was ineffective, and no uprising took place. The results included embarrassment of the British government; the replacement of Cecil Rhodes as prime minister ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aldford House
Aldford House was a grand mansion built on London's Park Lane in 1894–97 for the diamond magnate, Alfred Beit. The architects were the Scottish partnership of Eustace Balfour and Hugh Thackeray Turner. Its style was somewhat Jacobean but it was not well-received and was demolished in 1929. A block of flats with the same name was then constructed on the site by the architectural partnership of George Val Myer and F. J. Watson-Hart, advised by Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori .... References Buildings and structures in Mayfair Former houses in the City of Westminster {{london-struct-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Park Lane
Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from Mayfair to the east. The road has a number of historically important properties and hotels and has been one of the most sought after streets in London, despite being a major traffic thoroughfare. The road was originally a simple country lane on the boundary of Hyde Park, separated by a brick wall. Aristocratic properties appeared during the late 18th century, including Breadalbane House, Somerset House, and Londonderry House. The road grew in popularity during the 19th century after improvements to Hyde Park Corner and more affordable views of the park, which attracted the nouveau riche to the street and led to it becoming one of the most fashionable roads to live on in London. Notable residents included the 1st Duke of Westminster's residenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo is an English country house and Estate (land), estate near Luton in Bedfordshire and Harpenden in Hertfordshire. Most of the estate lies within the civil parish of Hyde, Bedfordshire. The Old English language, Saxon word wikt:hoo#Etymology 4, Hoo means the spur of a hill, and is more commonly associated with East Anglia. History Pre-1762 The Manorialism, manor of Luton Hoo is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, but a family called de Hoo occupied a manor house on the site for four centuries, until the death of Thomas Hoo, Baron Hoo and Hastings, Thomas Hoo, 1st Baron Hoo and Hastings in 1455. The manor passed from the de Hoo family to the Rotherham family and then the Napier family. Successive houses were built on the site. In 1751, Francis Herne, a Member of Parliament MP for Bedford, inherited the house from his kinswoman Miss Napier. Crichton-Stuart In 1763 Francis Herne sold the estate (house), estate for £94,700 to John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. Following an un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julius Wernher
Sir Julius Charles Wernher, 1st Baronet (9 April 1850 – 21 May 1912) was a German-born Randlord and art collector who became part of the English establishment. Life history Born in Darmstadt, Hesse, Wernher was the son of Elisabeth (Weidenbusch) and Friedrich Augustus Wernher, a railway engineer of Protestant stock. He was educated at Frankfurt-am-Main, where he entered a merchant bank. In 1871, having served in the Franco-German War, he moved to London at the age of 21. His talent for business was spotted by a diamond dealer named Jules Porgès of London and Paris, who sent Wernher in 1873 as his agent to the diamond mines of Kimberley, South Africa to buy and export diamonds. Wernher bought up mining interests and by 1875 was a member of the Kimberley mining board. In that same year, Porgès and Alfred Beit joined him in Kimberley, and Porgès formed the ''Compagnie Française des Mines de Diamants du Cap.'' Porgès returned to London after having made Wernher and Beit partn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Welwyn
Welwyn is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the villages of Digswell and Oaklands, Hertfordshire, Oaklands. It is sometimes referred to as Old Welwyn or Welwyn Village, to distinguish it from the much newer and larger settlement of Welwyn Garden City, about a mile to the south. Etymology The name is derived from Old English ''welig'' meaning "willow", referring to the trees that nestle on the banks of the River Mimram as it flows through the village. The name itself is an evolution from ''weligun'', the dative form of the word, and so is more precisely translated as "at the willows", unlike nearby Willian, Hertfordshire, Willian which is likely to mean simply "the willows". Through having its name derived from ''welig'' rather than ''sealh'' (the more commonly cited Old English word for ''willow''), ''Welwyn'' is possibly cognate with ''Heligan estate, Heligan'' in Cornwall whose name is derived from ''h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Randlords
Randlords were the capitalists who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa in its pioneer phase from the 1870s up to World War I. A small number of European financiers, largely of the same generation, gained control of the diamond mining industry at Kimberley, Northern Cape. They set up an infrastructure of financing and industrial consolidation which they then applied to exploit the discoveries of gold from 1886 in Transvaal at Witwatersrand — the "Rand". Once based in the Transvaal, many set up residence in the mansions of Parktown. Many of the Randlords received baronetcies in recognition of their contributions. Notable Randlords * Sir George Albu, 1st Bt (1857–1935)' * Leopold Albu (1861–1938) * Sir Abe Bailey, 1st Bt (1864–1940) *Barney Barnato (1852–1897) *Alfred Beit (1853–1906) * Sir Otto Beit, 1st Bt (1865–1930) *Hermann Ludwig Eckstein (1847–1893) * Sir George Herbert Farrar (1859–1915) *Adolf Goerz (1857–1900) *John Hays H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British South Africa Company
The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expected mineral wealth of Mashonaland but united because of common economic interests and to secure British government backing. The company received a Royal Charter modelled on that of the British East India Company. Its first directors included The 2nd Duke of Abercorn, Rhodes himself, and the South African financier Alfred Beit. Rhodes hoped BSAC would promote colonisation and economic exploitation across much of south-central Africa, as part of the "Scramble for Africa". However, his main focus was south of the Zambezi, in Mashonaland and the coastal areas to its east, from which he believed the Portuguese could be removed by payment or force, and in the Transvaal, which he hoped would return to British control. It has been suggested that R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lobengula
Lobengula Khumalo (c. 1845 – presumed January 1894) was the second and last official king of the Northern Ndebele people (historically called Matabele in English). Both names in the Ndebele language mean "the men of the long shields", a reference to the Ndebele warriors' use of the Nguni shield. Background The Matabele were descendants of a faction of the Zulu people who fled north during the reign of Shaka following the ''mfecane'' ("the crushing") or ''difaqane'' ("the scattering"). Shaka's general, Mzilikazi led his followers away from Zulu territory after a falling-out. In the late 1830s, they settled in what is now called Matabeleland in western Zimbabwe, but they claimed sovereignty over a much wider area. Members of the tribe had a privileged position against outsiders whose lives were subject to the will of the king. In return for their privileges, however, the Ndebele people both men and women had to submit to a strict discipline and status within the hierarchy. Tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Benjamin Robinson
Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson, 1st Baronet (3 August 1840 – 30 October 1929) was a South African gold and diamond mining magnate and Randlord. Mayor of Kimberley, Northern Cape in 1880, which he represented in the Cape parliament for four years, chairman of the Robinson South African Banking Corporation Co , Ltd and of numeral gold mines in the Transvaal Colony, he was convicted in 1921 of fraud and fined half a million pounds. He is best remembered as having paid political fixer Maundy Gregory £30,000, towards Prime Minister Lloyd George’s political fund, in exchange for a peerage. After the King personally complained and under public pressure, the government forced Robinson to reject the appointment. What became known as the ''Honours Scandal'' was one of the reason for the passing of the British Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925. Life Joseph Benjamin Robinson was born in Cradock, Eastern Cape, the youngest son of Robert John Robinson and Martha. Robinson fought ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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