Cecil Rhodes Birthday & Fun Facts

Cecil Rhodes Birthday Highlights

Birth Name

Cecil John Rhodes

Place Of Birth

Hertfordshire, UK

Age

170 years old

Birth Date

July 4 1853

Cecil Rhodes Facts

Child Star?

no

Occupation

Businessman

Education & Qualifications

Oriel College

Net Worth

$3,000,000

Parents

Francis William, Louisa Peacock

Siblings

Frank Rhodes

Cecil John Rhodes was a famous British mining businessman known for his political prowess in Southern Africa.
The Cape Colony got him as the Prime Minister from 1890-1896. A supporter of the policies of the British empire, Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company established the southern African territory of Rhodesia.
In 1895, Zambesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe) was named Rhodesia after him. Even the Rhodes University of South Africa got its name from him. During his political career, he successfully seized land from the African inhabitants of the Cape Town Colony. The provisions for Rhodes Scholarship were made by Cecil Rhodes, founded by his estate.

What was Cecil Rhodes's net worth?

It can be estimated that at the time of his death, Cecil Rhodes had a net worth of $3 million, a net worth earned from his various businesses.

How much did Cecil Rhodes earn per year?

It is estimated that Rhodes earned at least $400,000 from his diamond and gold mining business.

How tall was Cecil Rhodes?

There'sThere's no information available regarding the height of Cecil Rhodes.

How old was Cecil Rhodes?

Cecil Rhodes passed away in 1902 at the age of 48.

Cecil John Rhodes was born in 1853 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. Cecil was the fifth child of the Reverend Francis William Rhodes and his wife, Louisa Peacock Rhodes. Francis William Rhodes was a clergyman at the Church of England. Nearby Bishop's Stortford, Cecil was a vicar known for preaching sermons no longer than ten minutes.
Cecil's siblings included an older brother, Frank Rhodes, a British Army officer. Cecil John Rhodes went to Bishop's Stortford Grammar School from nine. Due to his lifelong ailment of asthma, he had to leave his grammar school in 1869 and move to South Africa.
In 1873, Cecil Rhodes sailed for England for further studies. He left his farm fields in South Africa under the responsibility of his business partner, Rudd. Rhodes decided to pursue further education at Oxford's Oriel College. However, he returned to South Africa after one term of his course in 1874. He only went back to Oxford after three years in 1876 to complete his second term.

Who was Cecil Rhodes's partner?

Cecil Rhodes never got married, though it is said that Princess Radziwell wooed him for many years.

Best Known For…

His parents, Francis and Louisa Peacock Rhodes, were in a constant state of worry regarding the health of their son, Cecil John Rhodes. They decided to send him to South Africa when he was 17 years old.
Cecil Rhodes soon started dabbling in the diamond business upon reaching South Africa. With funding from Rothschild & Co, it began trading and gradually consolidated diamond mines. Eventually, Cecil John Rhodes acquired almost complete monopolistic domination of the global diamond market. This led to the creation of his diamond company De Beers 1888 which still retains its prominence.
When in 1880, Cecil Rhodes decided to debut in public life at the Cape, he chose the rural Boer constituency of Barkly West under the Cape House of Assembly. His constituency remained loyal to him until his death.
In further progress in his political career, Cecil Rhodes became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1890. As the Prime Minister, the various Acts of Parliament introduced by him aimed to push black people from their lands and clear the way for industrial development.
Rhodes's support of the Jameson Raid was an unsuccessful attempt to create an uprising in the Transvaal that had the tacit approval of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and it came as a catastrophe in his political life. This incident compelled Cecil Rhodes to resign as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony.
Rhodesia was previously called Zambesia. In May 1895, in honor of Rhodes, the settlers there officially changed the name of Zambesia to Rhodesia. Later, Southern Rhodesia became known as modern-day Zimbabwe, and Northern Rhodesia became Zambia.
On the domestic political front within Britain, Cecil Rhodes was a supporter of the Liberal Party. However, Rhodes was also a major supporter of the Irish nationalist party.
Since Cecil Rhodes' attempt to earn a mining concession from the King of the Ndebele of Matabeleland was rejected summarily, he made another attempt by sending missionary Robert Moffat's son in 1888 as Lobengula trusted him. Moffat's son was sent to try to make them sign an agreement of friendship with England and favor the proposals of Rhodes. His associates Charles Rudd, Rochfort Maguire, and Francis Thompson assured Lobengula that a maximum of 10 white men would do mining in Matabeleland. However, his verbal assurance of the limitation wasn't included in the original document, and Lobengula went on to sign it without understanding the consequences of the document. This deception later became known as the Rudd Concession, which Lobengula unknowingly asserted. Lobengula later tried objecting to the agreement because of its false nature but was ignored into silence.
Given his ideas of imperialism, to nourish his dream of establishing a British Empire in new territories in the north by acquiring mineral concessions, Rhodes invested his own money and other investors and his friend Alfred Beit's wealth. A combination of extensive wealth, association with the British government, and sharp political instincts was Rhodes's advantage over other mineral companies. His friendly relations with the British Commissioners helped him with mineral concession areas with relevant but separate treaties by organizing British protectorates. This furthered his cause of both legalizing and securing his mining operations and attracting more investors. The combination of this imperialism and capitalism brought with it its contradictions. Rhodes wished only to have people of British origin and British settlers run the government in the Empire in Africa; he wasn't inclined to include any of the Colonial Office bureaucrats of London to run the administration in Africa.

Charity Work

In his final will, Rhodes allotted a large area around Table Mountain to the South African government. University of Cape Town's upper campus is a part of that land, and another was converted into the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. The spared area is now an important conservation area. He also left $37,90,440 in his will.
In his last will to create the international Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, Cecil John Rhodes mentioned explicitly in his last will. The prestigious graduate scholarship is the oldest in the world. At present, it grants 102 full postgraduate scholarships every year. He gave $1,26,348 to Oxford University.
As Cecil Rhodes respected and admired the Germans, he allowed Rhodes Scholarships to be available for German students. He had the vision that the United Kingdom, Germany, and the US would gradually come together and dominate the world.

• James Rochfort Maguire, who later became a director of the British South Africa Company, and Charles Metcalfe, were among his close Oxford associates.
• Cecil Rhodes was honored by making his birthplace the Rhodes Memorial Museum in 1938. The museum, though, has been renamed Bishop's Stortford Museum. The cottage in which Cecil Rhodes passed away in Muizenberg town of the Western Cape Province has been declared a provincial heritage site.
• While attending Oriel College, Cecil Rhodes became a Freemason and practiced it until his death in 1902. Rhodes believed the Freemasons weren't organized enough, so he created his secret society. Later, Rhodes' biographer thought that Rhodes wanted to spread the reach of his secret society and the British rule across the world in countries like Japan, South America, Africa, and elsewhere.
• His statue is being taken down due to several protests in revolt against systemic racism.
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