Julius Wernher
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-born Randlord
Randlord
Randlord is a term used to denote the entrepreneurs who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa in its pioneer phase from the 1870s up to World War I....
and art collector who became part of the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
.
Life history
Born in DarmstadtDarmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, Wernher was the son of a railway engineer of Protestant stock. He was educated at Frankfurt-am-Main, where he entered a banking house. In 1871, having served in the Franco-German War, he moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at the age of 21. His talent for business was spotted by a diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
dealer named Jules Porgès
Jules Porgès
Jules Porgès was a Paris-based financier who played a central role in the rise of the Randlords who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa....
of London and Paris, who sent Wernher in 1873 as his agent to the diamond mines of Kimberley
Kimberley, Northern Cape
Kimberley is a city in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It is located near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The town has considerable historical significance due its diamond mining past and siege during the Second Boer War...
, 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...
to buy and export diamonds. Wernher bought up mining interests and by 1875 was a member of the Kimberley mining board. In that same year, Porgès and Alfred Beit
Alfred Beit
Alfred Beit was a German, British South African, Jewish gold and diamond magnate, a supporter of British imperialism in Southern Africa and a major donor towards infrastructure development in central and Southern Africa, and to university education and research in several countries.- Life and...
joined him in Kimberley, and Porgès formed the Compagnie Française des Mines de Diamants du Cap. Porgès returned to London after having made Wernher and Beit partners in the firm of Jules Porgès & Co. By 1884 Wernher returned to London and traded in diamond shares, while Beit remained in Kimberley to look after their interests. On Porgès' retirement in 1889, the firm was restructured and named Wernher, Beit & Co.
With the discovery in 1886 of gold on the Witwatersrand
Witwatersrand
The Witwatersrand is a low, sedimentary range of hills, at an elevation of 1700–1800 metres above sea-level, which runs in an east-west direction through Gauteng in South Africa. The word in Afrikaans means "the ridge of white waters". Geologically it is complex, but the principal formations...
, the firm appointed Hermann Eckstein
Hermann Eckstein
Hermann Ludwig Eckstein was a South African mining magnate and banker.-Life history:Born in Hohenheim near Stuttgart, Germany to a Lutheran minister, he received an excellent education...
as their representative in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, while Cecil Rhodes and Beit effectively amalgamated the Kimberley diamond mines by 1888 and enabled Wernher, Beit & Co. to acquire a controlling interest in De Beers Consolidated Mines. Wernher by now was managing over 70 South African companies from his London office, and developing a passion for collecting art. He was created a baronet in 1905, as well as being a member of the Order of the Crown of Prussia
Order of the Crown (Prussia)
The Order of the Crown was Prussia's lowest ranking order of chivalry. Instituted in 1861 as an award equal in rank to the Order of the Red Eagle, it could only be awarded to commissioned officers , but there was a medal associated with the order which could be earned by non-commissioned officers...
. Despite having a reputation for prudence in business, Wernher was swindled out of £64,000 in 1906 by Henri Lemoine
Henri Lemoine
Henri Lemoine was a French fraudster who claimed to be able to produce synthetic diamonds.In 1905 Lemoine contacted Sir Julius Wernher, British banker and one of the governors of De Beers Diamond Mines...
, who claimed he could make synthetic diamonds.
Beset by failing health in 1911, Wernher merged the shareholdings of Wernher, Beit & Co. with those of Central Mining and Investment Corporation and Rand Mines Ltd. Besides his interest in art, Wernher funded an extension to the National Physical Laboratory
National Physical Laboratory, UK
The National Physical Laboratory is the national measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, based at Bushy Park in Teddington, London, England. It is the largest applied physics organisation in the UK.-Description:...
. He also bequeathed £250,000 to establishing a university in Cape Town, and £100,000 to the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London.
At the time of his death in London, he was one of the richest men in the United Kingdom with a fortune of £12 million (then $60 million in face value then about 20-30 times that in current purchasing power). This accumulation of wealth was due to his level-headedness and attention to detail. In contrast, Beit was shrewd but impulsive, leading to fiascos like the Jameson Raid
Jameson Raid
The Jameson Raid was a botched raid on Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic carried out by a British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895–96...
.
Art
Wernher kept his art collection at his London mansion, Bath House in PiccadillyPiccadilly
Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...
, and at his country house Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo straddles the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire borders between the towns of Harpenden and Luton. The unusual name "Hoo" is a Saxon word meaning the spur of a hill, and is more commonly associated with East Anglia.- Early History :...
(occupied by Robert de Hoo in 1245). Much of it is now on display at Ranger's House in the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
suburb of Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
. A large memorial to Wernher now flanks the entrance to the Royal School of Mines
Royal School of Mines
Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London.- History :The Royal School of Mines was established in 1851, as the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Marriage and children
On 12 June 1888 Julius married socialite Alice Sedgwick Mankiewicz (1862 - 30 November 1945), nicknamed "Birdie", whom he described as "bright-eyed, fair-haired, small, intelligent and musical". She was the daughter of Jacob James Mankiewicz (1830–1879) from Danzig, the son of Joel Mankiewicz, a merchantMerchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
. Her mother was Ada Susan Pigott from Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
, who had a brother who was a General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
. Birdie and her mother lived in part of a big mid-Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
house in Bayswater, 15a Pembridge Square. Julius and Alice had three sons:
- Sir Derrick Julius Wernher, 2nd Baronet (7 June 1889 - 6 March 1948) x 14 December 1922 Theodora Anna Romanoff, daughter of Nikita Romanoff
- Anna Alexandra Wernher b. 14 May 1924
- Alexander, killed in World War One.
- Maj.-Gen. Sir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Bt.Harold Augustus WernherSir Harold Augustus Wernher, 3rd Baronet, GCVO, TD -Biography:He was the son of Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Baronet and his wife Alice Sedgwick Mankiewicz...
(16 January 1893 - 30 June 1973) x Countess Anastasia (Zia) Mikhailovna de TorbyAnastasia de TorbyCountess Anastasia Mikhailovna de Torby, CBE , also named Lady Zia Wernher, was the elder daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, by Countess Sophie of Merenberg.-Biography:Like her mother, Anastasia was born of a morganatic marriage, and was...
, (9 September 1892 - 1977), daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia and Sophie Nikolaievna von Merenberg, Countess de Torby- Captain George Michael Alexander Wernher (22 Aug 1918 Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland - 4 Dec 1942 Beja, Egypt). Killed in action
- Georgina WernherGeorgina KennardGeorgina Kennard, Lady Kennard , was the mother of Alexandra Hamilton, Duchess of Abercorn, and Natalia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster...
b. 17 Oct 1919 Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. x London 10 October 1944 Lt.-Col. Harold Pedro Joseph Phillips (1909-1980), son of Colonel Joseph Harold John Phillips; xx London December 1992 Lt.-Col. Sir George Arnold Ford Kennard, 3rd Bt., son of Sir Coleridge Arthur Fitzroy Kennard, 1st Bt. and Dorothy Katherine Barclay. She had 5 children from her first marriage. - Myra Alice Wernher, Commander, Royal Victorian Order (C.V.O.). b. 8 Mar 1925 x 5 November 1946 Major Sir David Henry Butter, son of Colonel Charles Adrian James Butter. They had 5 children.
The Wernher Mausoleum is in the Churchyard of Holy Trinity, East Hyde.
Alice Wernher married Lord Ludlow
Henry Lopes, 2nd Baron Ludlow
Henry Ludlow Lopes, 2nd Baron Ludlow , was a British barrister and politician.Lopes was the only son of Henry Lopes, 1st Baron Ludlow, by Cordelia Lucy, daughter of Erving Clark, of Efford Manor, Plymouth. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, and was called to the Bar, Middle...
(Henry Ludlow Lopes, 2nd Baron Ludlow of Heywood (30 Sep 1865 - 8 Nov 1922)) on 25 September 1919.