From its very establishment, the Kim-berley Club was an exclusive highly vetted gentlemen’s club.

When the club opened in 1881, membership was limited to just 250 men, which went some way towards illustrating the exclusiveness of the establishment and the high social standing of its members.

Membership was much desired by the men of ascending wealth and power as it revealed, to a certain degree, one’s respectability and standing within Kimberley’s diamond mining society. However, not all men of wealth and power were deemed worthy enough to be part of that exclusive circle.

One such man was Barney Barnato.

Born into a poor Jewish family in London’s roguish East End, Barnato longed to shed the social stigma of his youth and yearned for the rewards of high social status even more than he did wealth and power.

However, Barnato was plagued by a reputation as an illicit diamond dealer, besides some other unsavoury characteristics, and, thus, much of Kimberley’s high society considered him no more than a rogue who was not worthy enough to join an establishment as respectable as the Kimberley Club.

For many years, Barnato tried, unsuccessfully, to join the club. He could never find a member willing to forward his name, let alone another willing to second such a nomination.

At the time he was seeking the rewards of social status, Barnato was actively establishing himself as one of the leading diamond mining magnates in Kimberley.

Between 1877 and 1887, he rose from being a small-time diamond trader with an initial capital of some £20 to the largest single holder of diamond scrip in Kimberley, personally owning 40% of the Kimberley mine. Indeed, by 1887, his annual income was some £200 000, making him one of the wealthiest men in Kimberley.

Although by 1887 Barnato was one of the wealthiest men in Kimberley and was certainly one of the most powerful mining magnates, he was still deemed ineligible to join the Kimberley Club.

But, in 1887, Barnato became embroiled in a scheme – led by the colossal mining magnate, Cecil John Rhodes – to amalgamate Kimberley’s four diamond mines under the control of a monopoly company.

Interestingly, it would be this legendary battle between Rhodes and Barnato to assume ultimate control of the diamond mining industry that would assist him in finally gaining entry into that exclusive club.

The intricacies of the battle to amalgamate the mines need not be elaborated here – what is important are the inducements that Rhodes used to encourage Barnato to abandon his own scheme of amalgamation, which centred around Kimberley Central Mining Company, and to throw in his lot behind Rhodes and De Beers.

It is said that during the final stage of negotiations between Rhodes and Barnato to formalise the amalagamation of the mines and to establish the company that would control that diamond mining monopoly, Rhodes offered him all sorts of emoluments. Besides offering him a perpetual fortune as one of the major shareholders of the new De Beers Consolidated Mines, Rhodes also offered him a life directorship of that company, which would soon be “worth as much as the balance of Africa”.

Rhodes also promised to ensure that he would be elected to the Cape legislative assembly and, most importantly, Rhodes promised to help Barnato secure membership of the Kimberley Club, adding: “I propose to make a gentleman of you.”

Barnato could not ignore such inducements and, thus, agreed to the amalgamation of the mines and the formation of the monopoly company in accordance with Rhodes’ terms and conditions.

Within a few months, Barnato had assumed his position as one of the life governors of De Beers Consolidated Mines, which was formed in March 1888, and was also elected to the Cape legislature in November of that year.

However, Rhodes found it rather difficult to fulfil his promise of securing Barnato membership of the Kimberley Club. For three years, Rhodes tried to nominate Barnato for membership of the exclusive club, but could never find another member willing to second the nomination. The members still believed Barnato to be no more than a rogue despite his newly acquired status as life governor of De Beers. It would be some four years later, in 1892, that Rhodes finally managed to convince another member to second the nomination and Barnato was admitted into that exclusive gentlemen’s circle.

While the Kimberley Club is still a members club, the public is now able to share in the luxury and opulence of that bygone era as the building was recently turned into a four-star boutique hotel. The club has 17 en suite bedrooms – some of which are in the original building – furnished with the club’s original furniture dating from the late nineteenth century. Guests may dine in the original dining room and partake of a refreshment in the bar that was frequented by such men as Rhodes and Barnato, Dr Leander Starr Jameson, Gardner Williams and Randolph Churchill, as well as the British royal family and the Oppenheimer family, to name but a few. Such an experience is not to be missed, especially by those seeking to reclaim some of the history and style of that bygone colonial era.

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