Abe Bailey

Sir Abraham Bailey, Bt

Vanity Fair caricature by Spy (1908)
Cricket information
Batting style	Right-handed batsman
Career statistics
Competition First-class Matches 3 Runs scored 16 Batting average 3.20 100s/50s 0/0 Top score 8 Balls bowled 470 Wickets 11 Bowling average 18.27 5 wickets in innings 0 10 wickets in match 0 Best bowling 4/51 Catches/stumpings 4/0
Source: Cricinfo

Sir Abraham Bailey, 1st Baronet, KCMG (6 November 1864, Cradock, Eastern Cape, South Africa – 10 August 1940, Muizenberg, South Africa), known as Abe Bailey, was a South African diamond tycoon, politician, financier and cricketer.

Married in 1860 in South Africa, Thomas and Ann Bailey had four children, Mary, Abraham, Susannah and Alice, before Ann Bailey's premature death in 1872, when young Abe was only seven years old. Bailey's mother, Ann Drummond McEwan, was Scottish by birth while his father, Thomas Bailey, was from Yorkshire. Abe Bailey was sent to England to be educated, first at Keighley and later at Clewer House.

After the outbreak of the Second Boer War in October 1899, a corps of imperial volunteers from London was formed in late December 1899. The corps included infantry, mounted infantry and artillery divisions and was authorized with the name City of London Imperial Volunteers. It proceeded to South Africa in January 1900, returned in October the same year, and was disbanded in December 1900. Bailey was appointed a lieutenant of the mounted infantry division on 3 January 1900, with the temporary rank of Lieutenant in the Army,.

Via his business interests and his ties to Cecil John Rhodes, Abe Bailey acquired substantial mining and land properties in the former Rhodesia. By the 1930s he was one of the world's wealthiest men. Appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1911, he was created Baronet in 1919, one of a number of "Randlords" knighted for their services to the British Empire.

Bailey played three first-class matches for Transvaal. He played an important role in 1912 Triangular Tournament. He first proposed the idea on a trip to England in 1907, stating: "Inter-rivalry within the Empire cannot fail to draw together in closer friendly interest all those many thousands of our kinsmen who regard cricket as our national sport, while secondly it would probably give a direct stimulus to amateurism."