John Dale Lace
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Colonel John Dale Lace (27 November 1859 – 5 June 1937) was a South African gold and diamond mining magnate and Randlord. He was born in Port St Mary on the Isle of Man.
Dale Lace came to South Africa as an employee of the Bank of Africa.[1]: 18 Dale Lace built a fortune in the diamond industry. He would depart Kimberley for the Witwatersrand Goldfields.[1]: 18 During 1895 until 1896, he was a member of the Johannesburg Reform Committee agitating for better rights for Uitlanders in the South African Republic.[1]: 18 A consequence of this action resulted in the Jameson Raid and would accompany a British Agent with a message to the raiders expressing the Colonial Secretary's disapproval of the raid.[1]: 18 When the raid failed, he was one of many of the Committee arrested, tried and found guilty but escaped jail with the payment of a £2,000 fine.[1]: 18 After the British victory in the Second Boer War, he was appointed as a Councillor on the first Johannesburg Town Council and he was among the founders of the Transvaal Political Association in Johannesburg in October 1902.[2][1]: 18 The association later became the Transvaal Responsible Government Association, which worked for Responsible government until it was granted in 1906. He was also a founding member of the Wanderer's Club in Johannesburg.,[1]: 18 as was a road, Dale Lace Avenue, in Randpark Ridge.