ALBU, SIR GEORGE

ALBU, SIR GEORGE (1857–1935), South African mining magnate and financier. Born in Berlin, Albu in 1876 joined his brother Leopold as a diamond broker in South Africa and became prominent in Kimberley and later on in the Johannesburg goldfields. He opposed Kruger's restrictive policies but denounced the Jameson Raid of 1895, aimed at the overthrow of the administration. In 1887 he formed the company of G. and L. Albu which, reorganized as the General Mining and Finance Corporation in 1895, controlled some of the largest gold-producing properties on the Rand. Albu introduced innovations in goldmining techniques. He supported Jewish institutions, including the Johannesburg Hebrew High School. In 1912 he was made a baronet. His daughter, Margaret, married Bishop Wilfrid Parker of Pretoria in 1933. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. Macdonald, The Romance of the Golden Rand (1933). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Wheatcroft, The Randlords (1985), index.