Colonel Albert Edward Williamson Goldsmid (6 October 1846 – 27 March 1904) was a British officer. He was the founder of the Jewish Lads' Brigade (in 1895) and the Maccabaeans.

Biography

Albert Goldsmid was born in

Poona Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

, British India, the son of Jessie Sarah (née Goldsmit) and Henry Edward Goldsmid. Both of his parents were the great-grandchildren of Aaron Goldsmid, the founder of the Goldsmid family, and his mother was the sister of Major-General Frederic John Goldsmid. His American-born maternal grandmother, Eliza Frances Campbell, was the granddaughter of Revolutionary War aide-de-camp David Franks. His father and maternal grandfather were born Jewish, and had converted to Christianity to achieve social and economic opportunities that were denied Jews. As an adult, Goldsmid converted to Judaism and always maintained that being Jewish had not impinged upon his military career. In his later years, he identified himself as the living personification of George Eliot's ''

Daniel Deronda ''Daniel Deronda'' is a novel written by Mary Ann Evans under the pen name of George Eliot, first published in eight parts (books) February to September 1876. It was the last novel she completed and the only one set in the Victorian society ...

''. Eliot's book was transformative for Zionist development and understanding amongst Jews and non-Jews. Goldsmid's wife, Ida Stewart Hendriks, was also a convert to Judaism; she had been raised a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

by her Protestant mother and Jewish-born father (Ida Hendriks' paternal great-great-great-grandfather had also been Aaron Goldsmid). Goldsmid is buried at the Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery, London. He was the great-grandfather of American-born entertainer Christopher Guest, who succeeded as the 5th Baron Haden-Guest in 1996.

Military career

In June 1866, having passed out from Sandhurst, Goldsmid was commissioned into the

104th Foot The 104th Regiment of Foot (Bengal Fusiliers) was a regiment of the British Army, raised by the Honourable East India Company in 1765. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 101st Regiment of Foot (Royal Bengal Fusiliers) to form th ...

. He became adjutant of battalion in 1871, captain in May, 1878, major in 1883, lieutenant-colonel in 1888, and colonel on 21 April 1894. In 1892 Colonel Goldsmid was selected by Baron de Hirsch to supervise the Jewish colonies in Argentina, but retired from the task to take up his 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 Sir 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 December, 1899, when the sixth division of the South-African field force was mobilized, Goldsmid was selected as chief staff-officer to General Thomas Kelly-Kenny with the grade of assistant adjutant-general, and in that capacity was present at the battle of Paardeberg. During the earlier stages of the war he was commandant of the Orange River, Herbert, and Hay districts, 1900. After his service in South Africa, he was placed on half-pay in July 1901. Goldsmid was the highest ranking Jewish officer in the British Army in the 19th century.

Zionist activism

Colonel Goldsmid was an ardent Zionist, and head of the Hovevei Zion of Great Britain and Ireland. From 1896 to 1904 he was associated with Theodor Herzl as the head of the British Zionist movement and the key contact in the failed Zionist effort to establish a British Zionist protectorate in the Northern Sinai area of El Arish.''The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl'', edited by Raphael Patai, translated by Harry Zohn, vol 1, Herzl Press and Thomas Yoseloff Press, New York, New York 1960.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldsmid, Albert 1846 births 1904 deaths British Army personnel of the Second Boer War British Jews British Zionists Converts to Judaism Royal Munster Fusiliers officers Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Members of the Royal Victorian Order Hovevei Zion