Colonel John Dale Lace (27 November 1859 – 5 June 1937) was a South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n gold and diamond mining magnate and Randlord. He was born in Port St Mary on the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

.

He was twice married to Josephine Cornelia Brink (José) from Richmond in the Karoo, who died 14 May 1937. He met and married José for the first time when she was in London pursuing an acting career. It is believed that she was proposed to by Cecil John Rhodes

Cecil John Rhodes

Cecil John Rhodes PC, DCL was an English-born South African businessman, mining magnate, and politician. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today markets 40% of the world's rough diamonds and at one time marketed 90%...

, prime minister of the Cape at the time, and was mistress to King Edward VII

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

. It is known that she was mistress to another man Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe

Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe

Ernest William Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe , born Ernest William Denison, was a British banker and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 until 1905 when he inherited the Grimthorpe peerage.-Biography:Beckett was the eldest son of William Beckett, younger son of Sir...

, with whom she had a son, although she claimed it was Edward VII's son.

The second time, after Ernest Beckett declined to marry her, she and John married in Cape Town and John adopted her son. They never had children of their own. Josephine Dale Lace was a flamboyant Johannesburg socialite who was often seen in a carriage drawn by a team of zebras. The Dale Laces were owners of one of Johannesburg's most prominent historic landmarks, the Parktown mansion 'Northwards', designed by British architect Herbert Baker

Herbert Baker

Sir Herbert Baker was a British architect.Baker was the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, 1892–1912....

 in 1904.

Just as the gold-mining industry was booming, the diamond market was being monopolised by De Beers

De Beers

De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...

, which went on to become the world’s largest diamond company - the dissipation of the Dale Lace fortune coincided with a devastating fire at 'Northwards', and in 1912, the charred remains of the house were sold to George Albu

George Albu

thumb|Lady Albu at wheel of CGV, London April 1905thumb|Northwards, Johannesburg 26.17720S, 28.03650ESir George Albu, 1st Baronet was a mining magnate in the diamond and gold industries of South Africa.-History:...

. John Dale Lace lost his fortune and he and José went to live at Boschkop, northwest of Johannesburg.