Robert Holmes à Court, South African-Australian businessman and lawyer (d. 1990)
Michael Robert Hamilton Holmes à Court (27 July 1937 – 2 September 1990) was a South African-born Australian businessman who became Australia's first billionaire, before dying suddenly of a heart attack in 1990 at the age of 53.
A great-great-grandson of William Holmes à Court, 2nd Baron Heytesbury, and a grand-nephew of William Frederick Holmes à Court, 3rd Baron Heytesbury, Holmes à Court was one of the world's most feared corporate raiders through the 1980s, having built his empire single-handedly from virtually nothing to a diversified resources and media group with an estimated value immediately before the 1987 stock market crash of about A$2 billion. Shareholders in the company enjoyed enormous investment growth. 1984 saw Robert Holmes à Court's horse Black Knight win the Melbourne Cup with a time of 3 minutes 18.19 seconds.
Holmes à Court died intestate and his estate was to be divided one third for his widow Janet (née Ranford), and the remainder equally among their four children.