The son of a vicar, Rhodes was born at Netteswell House, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. He was a sickly child. He was sent to South Africa by his family when he was 17 years old in the hope that the climate might improve his health. He entered the diamond trade at Kimberley in 1871, when he was 18, and over the next two decades gained near-complete domination of the world diamond market. His diamond company De Beers, formed in 1888, retained its prominence into the 21st century.