Beit, Alfred (1853–1906)

South African financier and philanthropist, born in Hamburg, Germany. He assisted the South African politician Cecil Rhodes in the amalgamation of the Kimberley mines into the De Beer's Consolidated Mines. After 1888 he developed the Transvaal goldmines, and in 1889 became a director of the British South Africa Company for the administration of Rhodesia.

In 1905 he founded professorships in colonial history at Oxford, England, and left large sums to various charities.