Barnato, Barnet Isaacs

Posted by Alfred Armstrong
Thu, 01/24/2008 - 20:56
Born: 
1852
Died: 
97
Surname: 
Barnato
Forenames: 
Barnet Isaacs
Known as Barney Barnato, a Cockney comic who travelled to South Africa and became a millionaire in the Kimberley diamond trade. FH met him in South Africa in 1896, in the days when he was running the Saturday Review. An extreme example of the self-made man, who had almost literally clawed his way to the top, and who exhibited the typical petty meanness of the breed - he was noted for never buying a drink - Barnato killed himself by throwing himself from a steamer to England, possibly in a fit of depression associated with overwork and anxiety.
Sources: 
LL