Gustav Imroth (29 June 1862 – 10 October 1946) was a minor

Randlord 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 th ...

who played a role in the development of the South African diamond-mining industry and sports. He was born in Friedberg, Germany in 1862 into a Jewish banking family, travelled first to London in 1880, where he was naturalised British, and then to

Kimberley, South Africa Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its ...

in 1884 to work in the diamond industry for Dunkelsbuhler and Company alongside his cousins Louis Oppenheimer and Fredrich Hirschhorn. Gustav Imroth later represented Barnato Brothers in their dealings with the diamond syndicate (later De Beers), working closely with

Solomon Joel Solomon Barnato "Solly" Joel (23 May 1865 – 22 May 1931), born in London, England, moved to South Africa in the 1880s where he made his fortune in connection with diamonds, later becoming a financier with interests in mining, brewing and rail ...

and

Ernest Oppenheimer Sir Ernest Oppenheimer (22 May 1880 – 25 November 1957), KStJ was a diamond and gold mining entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist, who controlled De Beers and founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. Career Ernest Oppenhe ...

(also a first cousin). He helped found the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company Limited (“Johnnies”) and was its managing director from 1911 to 1920, when he retired to London. An amateur boxer, keen supporter of South African sports and founder member of the Wanderers Club, Gustav Imroth was a boxing umpire in the 1908 London Olympics and served as chairman of the Olympic Games Committee. He married his maternal first cousin Florence Hirschhorne (1871-1974) in London in 1893; they had three children: Leslie (1896-1918), Freda (1899-1960) and Alice (1903-1992). Lieutenant Leslie Imroth of the 11th

Hampshire Regiment The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot and the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. The regim ...

died in 1918 of wounds sustained during the Great War.

References

*Sir Theodore Gregory, Ernest Oppenheimer and the Economic Development of South Africa (Oxford University Press, 1962, page 48). *Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The Randlords: South Africa's Robber Barons and the Mines that Forged a Nation (Simon and Schuster, Inc., New York, 1987, page 274). 1862 births 1948 deaths British mining businesspeople People from the Northern Cape South African businesspeople 19th-century German Jews South African mining businesspeople German emigrants to the United Kingdom British emigrants to South Africa German emigrants to South Africa Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom {{SouthAfrica-business-bio-stub