Our next meeting - the last of the year.
26th May 2026 at 7:45pm at Riseley Village Hall
Barney Barnato- Nineteen Century Diamond Magnate
Speaker: Richard Blacklee
Barney Barnato (21 February 1851 – 14 June 1897) was a 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.
His fascinating life story takes us from Whitechapel in London, through the Diamond Rush in South Africa, the growth of his amazing wealth and finally his suspicious death - lost overboard.
