Barney Barnato
Barney Barnato , 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. He is perhaps best remembered as being a rival of Cecil Rhodes.
Barney Barnato claimed he had the same birthday as Cecil Rhodes . Most biographies give his date of birth asJuly 1852. However, his birth certificate shows he was born Barnet Isaacs in Aldgate, London onFebruary 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 passouts from theatreleavers at the Garrick Theatre in Leman Street, to sell them on to others for a halfpenny. For a while he became a prizefighter and musichall turn. Barney grew up in Whitechapel, the very poor East End of London in an area that was predominantly a Jewish neighborhood. The Isaacs family lived in the area for nearly one hundred years. Isaac Isaacs, Barneys father made a living from selling second hand clothing and fabric remnants. When Barney and his older brother Harry reached fourteen, they left school and entered the business. Their mother Leah died in the year after Barney was born, almost certainly foll
Source: Wikipedia