Alfred Beit

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Alfred Beit (1853-16 July 1906) was a South African diamond magnate.

Born in Hamburg,Germany into a Jewish family^[1], he emigrated to Cape Colony in 1875 during the "diamond rush" at Kimberley. He became one of a group of financiers who gained control of the diamond-mining claims in the Central, Dutoitspan, and De Beers mines and became life-governor of De Beers and also a director of numerous other companies such as the British South Africa Company, Rand Mines, Rhodesia Railways and the Beira Railway Company. With Cecil Rhodes, he financed the unsuccessful Jameson Raid of late 1895 which was intended to trigger a coup in the South African Republic in the Transvaal.

On his death, the Beit trust came into existence. He bequeathed large sums of money for university education and research in South Africa, Rhodesia, Britain and Germany. In recognition of these bequests the Royal School of Mines, a faculty of Imperial College London, erected a large memorial to Beit flanking the entrance to its building.

[edit] See also

• Sir Otto Beit (1865-1930), his brother
• Sir Alfred Lane Beit (1903-1994), his nephew

[edit] References

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