Kimberley is the capital of South Africa's Northern Cape, and has enjoyed a prosperous past thanks to the discovery of diamonds in the area. In 1866, Erasmus Jacobs uncovered what was later found to be a diamond on the banks of the Orange River. This was followed by a few further discoveries in the same locality, and by the early 1870s there was a massive rush as people from all over the country flocked to try and find their fortune. The rush was such that by 1873, Kimberley was the second-largest town in South Africa - but the region did not have a proper name until the rush. It was decided that the settlement should be named Kimberley after Lord Kimberley, the British minister for the Colonies, because it was a name he could "both spell and pronounce".
01904 521 936