Frederic John Goldsmid
Sir Frederic John Goldsmid | |
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Born | Companion of the Order of the Bath | 19 May 1818
Life and career
Goldsmid was born in Milan, Italy in May 1818, the only son of Eliza Frances (née Campbell) and Lionel Prager Goldsmid, an officer in the 19th Dragoons, and a scion of the well-known London family of that name. His maternal grandmother's father was Revolutionary War aide-de-camp David Franks. Sir Frederic, after completing his education in Paris, King's College School, and King's College London, entered the Madras army in the year 1839, when the first Afghan war was in progress, but he was not among those who fought in that campaign. Before he had been twelve months at Madras his regiment was ordered to proceed to China, and he took part in the actions at Canton and along the coast which preceded the Treaty of Nanking, receiving the Chinese war medal.[1] While this campaign was in progress he was appointed the adjutant of his regiment; and it was then that he turned is attention to the study of Asiatic languages, in which he afterwards became so proficient.[2]
In 1845 Goldsmid was appointed interpreter for Hindustani, the lingua franca of the native army of India; but in the following year ill-health compelled his return to England on medical certificate. He did not remain idle, however, and during the two years of his home residence he served as orderly officer at
In 1856 he returned to India and took up judicial work at Shikarpur, subsequently resuming the inquiry into alienated lands, and was attached to the staff of
From 1865 to 1870 he held the post of Government director of the
In 1877 he was appointed British representative of an international commission to inquire into the whole matter of coolie emigration, and again received the acknowledgments of the Government of India, in which the Secretary of State "entirely concurred." In 1880 Sir Frederic was appointed British Controller of the Daira Sanya, and held the post for three years. During this period occurred the Arabi rebellion, and during the war Sir Frederic organised a local intelligence department at Alexandria, which rendered useful service until the surrender of Arabi after Tel-el-Kebir. In 1883 he left Egypt and accepted a mission from the King of the Belgians to the Congo that would have led to a permanent command in that region but for the complete breakdown of his health, which compelled him to return to England. The special object of this mission was to test the validity of about 300 treaties concluded with chief of the Congo Basin. The may be termed his last appearance in a public capacity, and he devoted his attention during the last years of his life to literary work, much of which consisted of anonymous contributions to newspapers, reviews and work of reference like the Encyclopædia Britannica. In this sphere he gained the reputation of being a laborious and conscientious writer, and his natural temperament was that of a literary and scientific student rather than of a soldier and man of action. He was for many years a most interested member of the committee of the Gordon Boys' Home, and until the last had taken a keen interest in the Archbishop's Mission to Assyrian Christians, of which was one of the original promoters.[2]
He married, in 1849, Mary, eldest daughter of Lieutenant-General Mackenzie Steuart, who died in 1900, and by whom he had two sons and four daughters.[2]