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Authorised form of nameBeit; Sir; Otto John (1865 - 1930); financier, philanthropist, and art connoisseur
Dates1865 - 1930
Place of birthHamburg, Germany, Europe
Date of birth07 December 1865
Place of deathLondon
Date of death07/12/1930
Occupationfinancier, philanthropist, and art connoisseur
ActivityCareer: Went to England an joined Wernher, Beit & Co., stockbroking firm (1888); left for South Africa to gain experience in the diamond industry, taking an active role in the development of Rand Gold Mines and became a member of Hermann Eckstein's firm, H. Eckstein & Co (1890-6); returned to London and became a naturalised British citizen (1896); supported the imperialist vision of Cecil Rhodes, and as his house-guest at the time of the Jameson Raid; decided to pursue philanthropy and donated to children's sanatoria, libraries and a homoeopathic research institute; director of 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; helped the Victoria and Albert Museum to acquire many works of art.
Honours:
KCMG 1920; Bt 1924
Membership categoryStatute 12
Date of election06/11/1924
Age at election59
ProposerArthur Schuster; Thomas Ralph Merton; Hugh Frank Newall; Arthur Stanley Eddington; Alexander Scott; Jocelyn Sharpe; W E Dalley; William Henry Bragg; Harold Wager
Thomas Henry Holland; Thomas Renton Elliott; Frank Edward Smith; Frederick William Andrewes; Sidney Frederic Harmer; Edwin Stephen Goodrich; Diarmid Noel Paton; Arthur Hill; David Prain; James Hopwood Jeans; William Bate Hardy
RelationshipsParents: Siegfried Beit (1818–1881), silk merchant, andLaura Caroline Hahn (b. 1819). The Beits, who were of Sephardic Jewish descent, had settled in Hamburg in the seventeenth century.
Brother: Alfred Beit (1853-16 July 1906), diamond magnate in South Africa.
Spouse: Lilian Carter, the daughter of Thomas Lane Carter of New Orleans, Louisiana, US (27 May 1897).
Children: Two sons and two daughters, the elder son Theodore killing himself in 1917 and the younger being Alfred Lane Beit.
Royal Society Obituary or MemoirClick to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices)
SourcesSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
Obituaries:
Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 1932-1935 vol l pp 60-62, plate, signed by J R B
Royal Society codeNA748
Archives associated with this Fellow
Reference numberTitleDate
EC/1924/16Beit, Sir Otto John: certificate of election to the Royal Society
IM/000320Beit, Sir Otto John1991
NLB/67/158Copy letter from William Bate Hardy and James Hopwood Jeans, Secretaries of the Royal Society; to Sir Otto [John] Beit, Bart, KCMG6 November 1924
NLB/67/205Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir Otto [John] Beit, Bart., KCMG, FRS13 November 1924
NLB/70/67Copy letter from Francis Alexander Towle, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society; to Sir [John] Otto Beit, Baronet, FRS; 49 Belgrave Square, S.W.1.14 December 1926
MC/17Volume 17 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1897-1899
MC/27/27Letter from Otto [John] Beit, 49 Belgrave Square, S.W, to [Robert] Harrison, The Royal Society, Burlington House, W10 December 1912
MC/27/28Letter from Otto [John] Beit, Municipal Technical Institute, Belfast, to The Secretary, Royal Society, Burlington House, Picadilly [sic], London5 October 1912
MC/27/29Letter from Otto [John] Beit, Municipal Technical Institute, Belfast, to Robert Harrison, Royal Society, Burlington House, London, W8 October 1912
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