Charles Rudd

Charles D. Rudd
Portrait photo of Rudd by an unknown photographer From the National Archives of Zimbabwe
Born	(1844-10-22)October 22, 1844
Died	November 16, 1916(1916-11-16) (aged 72)
Known for	Business associate of Cecil John Rhodes

Charles Dunell Rudd (22 October 1844 – 15 November 1916) was the main business associate of Cecil John Rhodes.

He was the son of Henry Rudd (1809-1884), a ‘South African merchant’ and his first wife Mary Stanbridge.

Rudd studied at Harrow School and then entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1863, where he excelled in playing rackets. Before completing his degree, he left for Cape Colony in 1865, where he hunted with the likes of John Dunn and endeavored in various business enterprises. In the early 1870s, he worked for his brother Thomas' (1831–1902) Port Elizabeth-based trading firm.

In 1872 Rudd and Rhodes became friends and partners, working diamond claims in Kimberley, dealing in diamonds and operating pumping and ice-making machinery, amongst many other odds and ends. Between 1873 and 1881, while Rhodes intermittently attended college in England, Rudd managed their interests. By 1880 they had become rich and, with others, formed the De Beers Mining Company. Rudd was one of the directors and also held large interests in the main machinery supplier for the mining fields.

In 1887 Rudd's interests had shifted to gold, the previous year discovered at the Witwatersrand. With Rhodes and him as directors, and his brother Thomas as chairman, they registered Gold Fields of South Africa Ltd in early 1887. The company was structured to enormously favor Rudd and Rhodes, with its London board unaware of most of their activities in southern Africa. On 30 October 1888 Rudd secured an agreement to the mineral rights of Matabeleland and Mashonaland from Lobengula the King of Matabeleland. The agreement became known as the Rudd Concession. Matabeleland and Mashonaland form the bulk of what is now known as Zimbabwe.