Harry Oakes
| Sir Harry Oakes | |
|---|---|
Oakes in 1925
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| Born |
Harry Oakes December 23, 1874 Sangerville, Maine |
| Died | July 7, 1943 (aged 68) Bahamas |
| Residence | Oak Hall |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Foxcroft Academy |
| Alma mater |
Bowdoin College Syracuse University |
| Occupation | Gold mine owner, entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist |
| Spouse(s) | Lady Eunice Oakes |
| Parent(s) | William Pitt Oakes, Edith Nancy Lewis |
Sir Harry Oakes, 1st Baronet of Nassau (23 December 1874 – 7 July 1943) was an American-born British Canadian gold mine owner, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist. He earned his fortune in Canada and in the 1930s moved to the Bahamas for tax purposes, where he was murdered in 1943 in notorious circumstances. The cause of death and the details surrounding it have never been entirely determined, and have been the subject of several books and four films.
Oakes was born in Sangerville, Maine, one of five children of William Pitt Oakes and Edith Nancy Lewis. His father was a prosperous lawyer. He graduated from Foxcroft Academy and went on to Bowdoin College in 1896, and spent two years at the Syracuse University Medical School. One of his sisters, Gertrude Oakes, died in the 1935 sinking of the ocean liner SS Mohawk off the New Jersey coast.
In 1898, he left medical school before graduation and made his way to Alaska at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush in hopes of making his fortune as a prospector. For 15 years, he sought gold around the world from California to Australia.
Oakes arrived in Kirkland Lake in Northern Ontario, Canada on 19 June 1911. In 1912, he struck gold there. Oakes established Lake Shore Mine to develop his gold; 20 years later the mine was the most productive in the Western Hemisphere, and ultimately proved to be the second-largest gold mine in the Americas.
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