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Sir Joseph Robinson, 1st Baronet
Joseph Benjamin Robinson, (3 August 1840 – 30 October 1929) was a South African gold and diamond mining magnate and Randlord.
Mayor of Kimberley, Northern Cape in 1880, which he represented in the Cape parliament for four years, chairman of the Robinson South African Banking Corporation Co, Ltd and of numeral gold mines in the Transvaal Colony, he was convicted in 1921 of fraud and fined half a million pounds. He is best remembered as having paid political fixer Maundy Gregory £30,000 (equivalent to £1.68 million in 2023), towards Prime Minister Lloyd George’s political fund, in exchange for a peerage. After the King personally complained and under public pressure, the government forced Robinson to reject the appointment. What became known as the Honours Scandal was one of the reason for the passing of the British Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.
Joseph Benjamin Robinson was born in Cradock, Eastern Cape, the youngest son of Robert John Robinson and Martha.
Robinson fought on the side of the Orange Free State in the Basuto War, and later became a general trader, wool-buyer and stock-breeder at Dordrecht. Upon the discovery of diamonds in South Africa in 1867, he hastened to the Vaal River district, where, by purchasing stones from natives and afterwards by buying diamond-bearing land, notably at Kimberley, he soon acquired a considerable fortune.
His forceful business tactics came in for strong criticism, earning him the title of "Old Buccaneer" around Kimberly, but even so he became a member of the Mining Board and later chairman. He raised and commanded the Kimberley Light Horse. He was Mayor of Kimberley in 1880, and for four years was a representative of Griqualand West in the Cape parliament. Upon the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand in 1886, Alfred Beit financed a partnership with Robinson with £25,000 (equivalent to £3.44 million in 2023). Robinson purchased the Langlaagte and Randfontein estates, but Beit soon dissolved the partnership because of Robinson's temper and business methods. Robinson chose to keep the western portion of their former joint assets, while Beit took the eastern section.[citation needed] His views as to the westerly trend of the main gold-bearing reef were entirely contrary to the bulk of South African opinion at the time, but events proved him to be correct, and the enormous appreciation in value of his various properties made him one of the richest men in South Africa. He founded the Randfontein Estates Gold Mining Company in 1890, which was the largest individual undertaking on the Reef and one of the largest in the world.
As a Rand capitalist he stood aloof from combinations with other gold-mining interests, and took no part in the Johannesburg reform movement, maintaining friendly relations with President Kruger. He claimed that it was as the result of his representations after the Jameson Raid that Kruger appointed the Industrial Commission of 1897, whose recommendations (had they been carried out) would have remedied some of the Uitlander grievances.
Before the Second Boer War of 1899—1902 between the British Empire and the two independent Boer states, Robinson lent Kruger, leader of the Boer resistance, $1 million (equivalent to $37.8 million in 2024).
On 27 July 1908 on the recommendation of General Botha to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, he was created a baronet. According to Andrew Roberts in relation to the controversial issue of the Chinese slave labour in the Transvaal. Winston Churchill, at the time Under-Secretary of State for the Colonial Office, wrote to Campbell-Bannerman to let him know that Robinson wanted a baronetcy, the only British hereditary honour which is not a peerage.
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Sir Joseph Robinson, 1st Baronet
Joseph Benjamin Robinson, (3 August 1840 – 30 October 1929) was a South African gold and diamond mining magnate and Randlord.
Mayor of Kimberley, Northern Cape in 1880, which he represented in the Cape parliament for four years, chairman of the Robinson South African Banking Corporation Co, Ltd and of numeral gold mines in the Transvaal Colony, he was convicted in 1921 of fraud and fined half a million pounds. He is best remembered as having paid political fixer Maundy Gregory £30,000 (equivalent to £1.68 million in 2023), towards Prime Minister Lloyd George’s political fund, in exchange for a peerage. After the King personally complained and under public pressure, the government forced Robinson to reject the appointment. What became known as the Honours Scandal was one of the reason for the passing of the British Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925.
Joseph Benjamin Robinson was born in Cradock, Eastern Cape, the youngest son of Robert John Robinson and Martha.
Robinson fought on the side of the Orange Free State in the Basuto War, and later became a general trader, wool-buyer and stock-breeder at Dordrecht. Upon the discovery of diamonds in South Africa in 1867, he hastened to the Vaal River district, where, by purchasing stones from natives and afterwards by buying diamond-bearing land, notably at Kimberley, he soon acquired a considerable fortune.
His forceful business tactics came in for strong criticism, earning him the title of "Old Buccaneer" around Kimberly, but even so he became a member of the Mining Board and later chairman. He raised and commanded the Kimberley Light Horse. He was Mayor of Kimberley in 1880, and for four years was a representative of Griqualand West in the Cape parliament. Upon the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand in 1886, Alfred Beit financed a partnership with Robinson with £25,000 (equivalent to £3.44 million in 2023). Robinson purchased the Langlaagte and Randfontein estates, but Beit soon dissolved the partnership because of Robinson's temper and business methods. Robinson chose to keep the western portion of their former joint assets, while Beit took the eastern section.[citation needed] His views as to the westerly trend of the main gold-bearing reef were entirely contrary to the bulk of South African opinion at the time, but events proved him to be correct, and the enormous appreciation in value of his various properties made him one of the richest men in South Africa. He founded the Randfontein Estates Gold Mining Company in 1890, which was the largest individual undertaking on the Reef and one of the largest in the world.
As a Rand capitalist he stood aloof from combinations with other gold-mining interests, and took no part in the Johannesburg reform movement, maintaining friendly relations with President Kruger. He claimed that it was as the result of his representations after the Jameson Raid that Kruger appointed the Industrial Commission of 1897, whose recommendations (had they been carried out) would have remedied some of the Uitlander grievances.
Before the Second Boer War of 1899—1902 between the British Empire and the two independent Boer states, Robinson lent Kruger, leader of the Boer resistance, $1 million (equivalent to $37.8 million in 2024).
On 27 July 1908 on the recommendation of General Botha to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, he was created a baronet. According to Andrew Roberts in relation to the controversial issue of the Chinese slave labour in the Transvaal. Winston Churchill, at the time Under-Secretary of State for the Colonial Office, wrote to Campbell-Bannerman to let him know that Robinson wanted a baronetcy, the only British hereditary honour which is not a peerage.