Barney Barnato

Barnato was born Barnet Isaacs in Aldgate, London, on 21 February 1851, to Isaac and Leah Isaacs. He and his siblings, Harry, Kate, Sarah and Lizzie, grew up in Whitechapel. Their mother died in 1852 and their father made a living by selling second hand clothing and fabric remnants. Barnato was educated by Moses Angel at the Jews' Free School, but left school with Harry in their early teens to join their father's business. The brothers performed on stage in the music halls as the Great Henry Isaacs "and Barnett too". They became known as Bar-na-to, or the Barnato, Brothers. Barney also become a prizefighter.

In 1873, Barnato joined his brother Harry in the Cape Colony during the diamond rush. The pair eventually bought four claims in Kimberley. The French mining company Compagnie Française des Mines de Diamants du Cap de Bonne Espérance, owned by Jules Porgès, held a large block of claims that split the Kimberley Mine in two. Barnato telegraphed Porgès to express interest in bidding if he was to sell. Cecil Rhodes bid £1.4 million to acquire the company and Barnato countered with £1.75 million. Before receiving a response from Porgès, Rhodes contacted Barnato and requested he withdraw his offer. In exchange, Rhodes suggested he purchase the company at his original bid price and sell it to Barnato for £300,000 plus a twenty percent holding in Barnato's Kimberley Central Diamond Mining Company (DMC). After several days of consideration, Barnato agreed to withdraw his offer, and a month later, he owned Porgès' company. Shares in Kimberley Central DMC surged from £14 to £49.

Rhodes' next proposal was to merge the De Beers Diamond Mining Company (DMC) into Kimberley Central DMC to form De Beers Consolidated Mines. Barnato emerged as the largest shareholder, with 6,658 shares in the new company. A group of shareholders from Kimberley Central applied to the Supreme Court of the Cape to stop the merger, and the judge ruled in favour of the applicants. Kimberley Central was liquidated and De Beers Consolidated purchased the company. The Barnato brothers' shares were bought out for the sum of £5,338,650 in 1889. By the time they made it to Johannesburg in 1888, a dozen gold mining companies were already present in the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. With his nephews Woolf and Solomon Joel (Solly), Barnato spent more than a million pounds in one year, including investments in Johannesburg's infrastructure. Early in 1889, he floated his first gold mining company on the stock exchanges. After the formation of his Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company that year, he went on a major acquisition plan. Barnato doubled his fortune in the boom in South African gold mining shares of 1894–95 before losing most of it in the 1896 share collapse.

Barney married Fanny Christina Bees. Together, they had three children:

Leah "Lily" Primrose Barnato (1893–1933)

Isaac "Jack" Henry Woolf Barnato (c. 1894–1918)

Woolf "Babe" Barnato (1895–1948)

He was also the father of Isabel Louisa Barnato (born 5 June 1891, died 19 June 1891), daughter of Isabella Barnato (born Isabella Clarke 30 November 1865, died 30 October 1891).

Barnato built, but never lived in, a vast house on the corner of Park Lane and Stanhope Gate in Mayfair, London, which was bought after his death by the banker Sir Edward Sassoon.