Daughter of Petrus Johannes Bees 1832-1897) of Simonstown and Christina Osler (1831-1885), Fanny (Fannie) was born at the Royal Naval Base of Simonstown, Cape Town and was baptised in the Anglican Church there, where her maternal grandfather Stephen Sawle Osler (born in 1803 at Falmouth, Cornwall-1867) was Clerk to the Chaplain. Fanny's maternal grandmother, Christiana Osler, was born out of wedlock as a result of an alliance, to Stephen Sawle Osler and Christiana Kleyne, daughter of a prosperous farmer called Oranje Kleyne and a Hottentot, according to records in the Simonstown Museum. Kleyne owned a sizeable amount of land on top of the mountain at Simonstown. Christiana Osler was born on 21st November 1831 and was baptised at the Colonial Church in Simonstown on 29th January 1832. It seems possible that she may have been brought up with Osler's legitimate children as she is found signing as a witness with her father at an Osler family wedding. She married Petrus Johannes Bees, a Cape Town tailor, on 19th December 1853. Bees was the son of a German carpenter, Johannes Friedrich Bees, who was shipwrecked when The Flora, on which he was a passenger, ran aground on Robben Island. Five children were born of the Bees marriage, Fanny being the youngest. However, the marriage was short-lived and it is thought that Christiana's alcoholism was the cause of the break-up. She was found drowned in a ditch in front of the hotel at Beaufort West in 1885, after being seen the worse for drink earlier that evening. Long before that, with his children, Fanny's father journeyed north to Dutoitspan, the new diamond mecca, later to be called Kimberley. He set about digging for diamonds. Fanny, who was strikingly beautiful, found employment in the bars, in particular in the Gresham Bar in Main Street. Fanny's siblings, John, Benjamin, Emily, and Alice were talented musicians and Fanny's own acting ability in local theatrical productions soon brought recognition from Barnett Isaacs alias Barney Barnato. She became close friends with him and they set up house together and were eventually at Chelsea Registry Office in London on 19th November 1892. After the marriage, Fanny was out of the public eye. Like her husband Barney, Fanny was unfailingly kind hearted, gracious and unassuming, despite her considerably comfortable financial position. Widowed in 1897, she was survived by two of their three children, Leah Primrose and Woolf "Babe" Barnato, a racing driver. Fanny's son, R.A.F. Pilot Isaac Henry "Jack" Barnato died in 1918. Her granddaughter, Diana Barnato Walker, was an aviatrix and horse rider, the first British woman to break the sound barrier.