Published date
12 February 1862
References
The Cullinan and Cullinane geneology project, Sir Thomas Major Cullinan (1862-1936) of Johannesburg, South Africa, from Rootsweb, [online], Available at freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com [Accessed: 23 January 2011] | Family tree maker, Sir Thomas Cullinan (b. 1862, d. 23 Aug 1936), [online], Available at familytreemaker.genealogy.com [Accessed: 23 January 2012]
Sir Thomas Cullinan was born in the The Cape Colony in 1862. He settled in Barberton, before moving to Johannesburg in 1887. He began working as a bricklayer in Johannesburg, a job he later left for prospecting.
He discovered the Premier Diamond Fields in 1898 and was co-founder and member of what became the The Transvaal Chamber of Industries. He was knighted in 1910 in recognition of his contribution to the Diamond industry and has a town and the biggest diamond ever found named after him. He married Annie Francis Harding in 1886. He died in 1936.