Cecil Rhodes founder of Rhodes Scholarship

Cecil Rhodes (1853 - 1902) was a British-born South African businessman, mining magnate, and politician. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today markets 60% of the world's rough diamonds and at one time marketed 90%. He was an ardent believer in colonialism and was the coloniser of the state of Rhodesia, which was named after him. Rhodesia (later Northern and Southern Rhodesia) eventually became Zambia and Zimbabwe respectively.

Rhodes profited greatly by exploiting Southern Africa's natural resources, the proceeds of which funded the Rhodes Scholarship upon his death. Rhodes is famous for having declared: "To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far."

He was greatly influenced by John Ruskin's inaugural lecture at Oxford, which reinforced his own attachment to the cause of British imperialism. Among his Oxford associates were Rochefort Maguire, later a fellow of All Souls College and a director of the British South Africa Company, and Charles Metcalfe. His university career engendered in him an admiration for the Oxford "system", which was eventually to mature into his scholarship scheme: "Wherever you turn your eye - except in science - an Oxford man is at the top of the tree".

While attending Oxford, Rhodes became a Freemason. Although his initial view of it was not approving, he continued to be a Freemason until his death in 1902. The failures of the Freemason, in his mind, later caused him to envisage his own secret society with the goal of bringing the entire world under British rule.