"SIR JULIUS CHARLES WERNHER, 1ST
Bart. (1850-1912), British S.A. financier, was born at Darmstadt in 1850,
entered a banking house in Frankfort, and early in 1870 came to London as a
clerk. On the outbreak of the Franco-German War he returned to Germany to
take his place in the army, and was present at the fall of Paris. At the end
of 1871 he was sent by Mr. Jules Porges, diamond merchant of London and
Paris, on a mission to Kimberley. There he remained till 1880, when he was
transferred to London as English representative of the firm of Porges and
Wernher, interested not only in diamonds but in the gold mines of S. Africa.
In 1888, when the Kimberley diamond mines were amalgamated by Cecil Rhodes
and Alfred Beit, he became a life governor of the De Beers Corporation. Beit
was now a member of his firm, and in 1889, when Porges retired, the name of
the firm was changed to Wernher, Beit & Co. Out of his enormous fortune, Sir
Julius Wernher, who was created a baronet in 1905, spent large sums on
public objects, including education.