Otto Beit
Encyclopedia
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, FRS (7 December 1865 – 7 December 1930) was a German
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 British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
financier, philanthropist and art connoisseur.
Life history and career
Beit was born in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany, the younger brother of 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...
, into the Jewish family of an affluent Hamburg trader. He went to England in 1888, where he joined the stockbroking firm of Wernher, Beit & Co., in which his brother 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...
, was a partner. He became a naturalised British citizen in 1896. In 1890 he left for South Africa to gain experience in the diamond industry. He remained for six years and played an active role in the development of Rand Gold Mines and became a member of 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...
's firm, H. Eckstein & Co.
Despite playing a prominent part in 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...
gold industry, he returned to London, partly because he did not want to confine his interests solely to financial activities, but also to cultivate his scientific and cultural tastes.
He and his brother financially backed Cecil Rhodes and were largely responsible for 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...
, and the ensuing Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
, whereby the pastoral nature of European settlers was destroyed. On his return to London, he followed for a few years the career of stockbroker and continued with his interest in the mining industry until the death of his brother Alfred, after which he retired and devoted himself for the remainder of his life to philanthropy
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
.
Directorates and memberships
Director, Rhodesia Railways Ltd; Member, Governing Body of Imperial College, 1912-1930; Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, and Beit Railway Trust for Rhodesia; founded Beit Memorial Trust for Medical Research; established the Beit Fellowship at Imperial College in memory of his brother Alfred, 1913; founded the Beit Fellowships for Scientific Research at Imperial College. He was also a member of the Governing Body from 1912 and a founder member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
British South Africa Company
The British South Africa Company was established by Cecil Rhodes through the amalgamation of the Central Search Association and the Exploring Company Ltd., receiving a royal charter in 1889...
. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 1920 New Year Honours for his work in connection with South African troops and hospitals in England and was created a Baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
in 1924 for his numerous donations to children's sanatoria, libraries and a homoeopathic research institute. He funded construction of the Beit Quad, Students' Union building and hostel at Imperial College, London. A plaque depicting him by Omar Ramsden
Omar Ramsden
Omar Ramsden was a Sheffield born silversmith. He was one of England's leading designers and makers of silverware. He lived on Fir Street in Walkley, Yorkshire. He collaborated for many years with Alwyn Carr but their partnership ended in 1919. Ramsden's mark used after their split was OMAR...
is situated in the Beit Quad entrance. He was a generous benefactor of the Johannesburg Art Gallery
Johannesburg Art Gallery
The Johannesburg Art Gallery is an art gallery located in Joubert Park, in the central business district of Johannesburg, South Africa. The building was designed by Edward Lutyens and consists of 15 exhibition halls and sculpture gardens...
, and more so with his gifts to the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
, of which he turned the first sod in 1920. King Edward's Hospital Fund received £50,000 from Beit in 1928 for the purchase of radium
Radium
Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...
.
He was no less generous to public collections in the United Kingdom, helping the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
to acquire many works of art. He also gave his name to an award for excellence in sculpture through the Royal Society of British Sculptors, the Otto Beit Medal.
He received an Honorary LLD from the University of Cape Town and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1924.
He was married to Lilian Carter, daughter of Thomas Lane Carter of New Orleans, USA. They had two sons and two daughters, the elder son dying in 1917 and the younger being Alfred Lane Beit.
Further reading
- Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa Vol.2 (Nasou, Cape Town 1970) ISBN 0 625 00320 9