Chapter 5 - Isaac (Jack) Joel (Barnato)

Isaac (Jack) Joel (Barnato)


Jack Joel

In March 1884 in Kimberley, Solly’s Brother Jack was arrested and charged with illicit diamond buying. His bail was set at £4,000 but in April he fled to England.

That summer the Metropolitan Police circulated a woodcut portrait of him. But his warrant had been withdrawn on the insistence of Cecil Rhodes. As they say “Questions were asked in Parliament” but Jack Joel avoided a trial and probable prison.


Jack Joel is best known for his success as a breeder in England in the first two decades of the 20th Century. His Childwick Bury Stud turned out winners of eleven classic races between 1900 and 1918, including the champion fillies Jest and Princess Dorrie and of course the Derby winners Humorist and Sunstar. He also bred Absurd, who was later sent to New Zealand, where he became an extremely influential sire. The great sprinter Sundridge, purchased by Joel as a horse in training, became the principal stallion at the Childwick Bury stud; he was the grandsire of imported Sunstone, a multiple champion sire in South Africa.


To give you an idea of how successful an owner-breeder he was, here is a list of the principal horse races he won:


2000 Guineas
1911 Sunstar. After the 2000 Guineas Sunstar became lame just eight days before the Derby. His trainer Charles Morton patched him up with a treatment which included wrapping cabbage leaves round his legs, but warned that if he managed to get to Epsom he would never race again afterwards. Sunstar won the 1911 Derby in a canter but returned barely able to walk.

1000 Guineas

1913 Jest 1914 Princess Dorrie

The Epsom Derby

1911 Sunstar
1921 Humorist.(Photo right) He won 4 major races at 2 and 3 years. His health was delicate and no one knew why. He won the Derby by a neck beating another great horse, the 2000 Guineas winner Craig an Eran. A few weeks later Humorist died in his box following a lung haemorrhage caused by TB.







The Oaks

1903 Our Lassie 1907 Glass Doll
1913 Jest 1914 Princess Dorrie

St Leger

1908 Your Majesty 1914 Black Jester



Jack Joel married twice. His second wife was Olive Sopwith whose father was the famous Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith.

Thomas was the founder of the Sopwith aviation company that produced no fewer than 5,747 Sopwith Camel airplanes for the Allies, which were so successful during the Great War.




When Thomas was ten years old and on holiday in Oban in Scotland, a gun lying on his lap went off killing his father. This accident haunted Sopwith for the rest of his life.


After being made bankrupt he teamed up with Harry Hawker and became chairman of the new firm, Hawker Aircraft.


After the nationalization of what was by then Hawker Siddeley, he continued to work as a consultant as late as 1980.


Harry Hawker lived for a while on Stanmore Common and the house, which still stands today, boasted a heated front drive.

In 1945 my father Sidney Barnett wanted to buy his neighbours house but my mother, on seeing the state of an old bath in the house, refused to live there so they ended up in Gordon Avenue, just down the road.


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