Rhodes Cecil

Rhodes, Cecil (b. 1853), South African statesman, was born in Hertfordshire, and in early life went to the Kimberley diamond-fields, where he made a large fortune, and, returning to England, graduated at Oxford. He went back to the Cape and, entering its Parliament, speedily became Premier. He took a great share in gaining the British South Africa Company's charter and in colonising Matabeleland. In 1895, on the occasion of Dr. Jameson's Raid, Mr. Rhodes, who was implicated in the plot to invade the Transvaal, resigned his Premiership. He was examined before the South African Committee of the House of Commons appointed to enquire into the matter, and held by them to have been one of the chief instigators of the invasion. A large tract of country in South Africa is known as Rhodesia.