Albert Edward Williamson Goldsmid

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Albert Edward Williamson Goldsmid, birth 8 Oct 1846 Poona, Bombay, India, died 26 Mar 1904 Paris, France, son of Henry Edward (Tsebi Hirsch) Goldsmid and Jessie Sarah Goldsmid
A friend of Theodore Herzl

Colonel in the British army; born at Puna, Bombay, Oct. 6, 1846; son of Henry Edward Goldsmid. In June, 1866, he was gazetted from Sandhurst, England, to his first commission in the 104th Foot of the Bengal Fusiliers. He became adjutant of battali on in 1871, captain in May, 1878, major in 1883, lieutenant-colonel in 1888, and colonel on April 21, 1894. In 1892 Colonel Goldsmid was selected by Baron de Hirsch to supervise the colonies in Argentina, but retired from the task to take up hi s appointment as colonel-in-command of the Welsh regimental district at Cardiff in 1894. In 1897 he was promoted chief of staff, with the grade of assistant adjutant-general in the Thames district. At the departure of the Aldershot staff with Si r Redvers Buller in the conflict with the Boers in 1899, he acted as chief staff-officer at the camp at Aldershot, and was entrusted with the duties of mobilization. In Dec., 1899, when the sixth division of the South-African field force was mobil ized, Goldsmid was selected as chief staff-officer to General Kelly-Kenny with the grade of assistant adjutant-general, and in that capacity was present at the battle of Paardeberg. Duringthe earlier stages of the war he was commandant of the Oran ge River, Herbert, and Hay districts, 1900.

Colonel Goldsmid is an ardent Zionist, and is chief of the Chovevei Zion of Great Britain and Ireland. The success of the Jewish Lads' Brigade in London and the provinces is mainly due to Goldsmid's initiative. In 1903 he became president of th e Maccabeans, of which he had been one of the founders.
Married 1879 to:
Ida Stewart Hendriks, birth 30 Jun 1859, died 7 Feb 1929, daughter of Frederick Hendriks and Hortense Campbell Littler

1) Gladys Helen Rachel Goldsmid, birth 4 Dec 1879 BELFAST, IRELAND, died 8 Jan 1965 28 Kensington Court, London, England
Married 9 Feb 1898 New West End Synagogue, LONDON, ENGLAND to:
Louis Samuel Montagu, birth 10 Dec 1869 BELFAST, IRELAND, died 11 Jun 1927 28 Kensington Court, London, W8, Middlesex, England, son of Samuel Montagu and Ellen Cohen
2nd Lord Swaythling
Pesident of the Federation of Synagogues, an anti-Zionist, and noted for his statement that "Judaism is to me only a religion". His son Ewen wrote The Man Who Never Was.

2) Muriel Ethel Carmel Goldsmid, birth 10 May 1881, died 20 Feb 1943, occupation: playwright, author
Married 1910 to:
Lord Leslie Haden-Guest, birth 10 Mar 1877 Oldham, Lancashire, England, died 20 Aug 1960
Created Baron Haden-Guest 2 Feb 1950
MP for Southwark North 1923-1927 and Islington North 1937-1950.

Medical doctor, pioneer in school hygiene, author and journalist, member of Parliament. In his obituary published in the London Times, Haden Guest is described glowingly as "very much a man of parts," having taken on, during his remarkable career , such diverse roles as surgeon, social reformer, author, and politician. Readers of Orage's journal are familiar, however, with yet another side to Haden Guest: nearly every week from May 1907 until October 1908, Haden Guest wrote the drama colum n for the New Age. This interest in theater and literatureûwhich doesn't seem to carry through to his later lifeûmay simply be a youthful indulgence that Haden Guest satisfied before he set out upon the serious work of his maturity. But there's no thing unusual in members of Orage's circle combining such distinct disciplines as politics, social medicine, and the arts. That Haden Guest was also a student of theosophy (a further part of his personality left unmentioned in his official Time s obituary) only makes him more of a part of the New Age. Perhaps we can get a taste of Haden Guest's many sides in the way (in 1914) he described his recreations: "lecturing on socio-medical journals, theosophical and socialist questions and bein g lazy." Only that last item would raise objections from anyone familiar with Haden-Guest's entire life.

Haden Guest was born in Oldham, Lancashire, in the North of England. His father, a physician, was active in leftist causes, opening his home to the likes of Annie Besant and other Fabians. (Haden-Guest's second wife, Muriel Carmel, tells how Hade n Guest's father "went to America in his youth to liberate the Red Indians. He returned somewhat disillusioned.") As a young man, Haden Guest followed his father's example, lecturing on social issues and working-class politics. He was educate d at Hulme's Grammar School, went on to graduate from Owen's College, and eventually earned his medical degree from London Hospital. Haden Guest travelled to South Africa to serve in the Boer War; after the war he stayed on in Africa a few year s to practice medicine. Upon his return to London, Haden Guest played a key role in establishing health clinics for the city's public schools (see M. D. Eder for comparison). It was during this period in his life, when Haden Guest was 30 years old , that he also worked as a drama critic for the NA. In 1909, Haden Guest divorced his first wife, Edith Low (whom he had married in 1898 and with whom he had two sons), and the following year he married Muriel Carmel, the playwright and author who se work sometimes appears today under the name "Mrs. L. Haden Guest." Haden Guest continued his medical work in London and published, before the war, a number of socio-medical texts, including The Case for School Clinics (1911), a Fabian Societ y tract on school hygiene; Theosophy and Social Reconstruction (1911), issued by the Theosophical Publishing Society; and Votes for Women and the Public Health (1912), which Haden Guest wrote for the Women's Freedom League. During the World War , Haden-Guest worked for the Red Cross and helped to organize hospitals overseas.

Following the war, Haden Guest's professional interests generally moved from medicine to a more formal involvement with politics. Haden Guest founded the Labour Party Commonwealth Group, and from 1923 to 1927 he served as a Labour Party membe r of Parliament for North Southwark. About this time Haden Guest fell out with Labour and joined the Conservative party, running in the next election as an Independent Constitutionalist. By 1931, he had again aligned himself with Labour. Afte r a string of political defeats, Haden Guest was re-elected to the House of Commons in 1933, this time representing North Islington. He held this post until 1950, whenûupon becoming a baronûhe was made a member of the House of Lords.

During the post-war years, Haden Guest was also involved in a series of investigative trips to different countries. In 1920 he served as a member of the Labour Delegation that travelled to Russia and met with Lenin and Trotsky; a few years later , he joined the Empire Parliamentary Delegation in its visit to Canada; and in 1938-39, he travelled with a couple of British commissions that investigated conditions in West Africa. A number of H's books grew out of his political trips: The Strug gle for Power in Europe, 1917-1921. An outline economic and political survey of the central states and Russia (1921), The new Russia (1926), Canada as a career (1927), and The New British Empire (1929), which treated both Canada and Australia. Oth er titles by Haden-Guest include: The Nature of Future: a survey of hygienic conditions and possibilities in school and home life (1916), The Care and Nursing of Babies and Children (1922), The Labour Party and the Empire (1926), Where Is Labou r Going? (1927), Is Labour Leaving Socialism? (1929), and the grim wartime publication If Air War Comes; a guide to air raid precautions and anti-gas treatment (1939).

3) Gwendolyn Beatrice Goldsmid, birth 13 Jun 1884, died 15 Aug 1884

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