35 Facts About James Goldsmith

Sir James Michael Goldsmith was a French-British financier, tycoon and politician who was a member of the Goldsmith family.

James Goldsmith founded the short-lived Eurosceptic Referendum Party in the United Kingdom, which became an early campaigner for opposition to Britain's membership of the European Union.

Frank James Goldsmith had previously changed the family name from the German Goldschmidt to the English James Goldsmith.

James Goldsmith's grandfather was Adolphe Benedict Goldschmidt, a multi-millionaire who moved to London in 1895.

James Goldsmith served as a Gunner in the British Army's Royal Artillery under the National Service requirements, during which time he received a commission as an officer.

James Goldsmith's successes included winning the British franchise for Alka-Seltzer and introducing low-cost generic drugs to the UK.

James Goldsmith was described in the tabloid press as a greenmail corporate raider and asset stripper, a categorisation he denied vigorously.

James Goldsmith claimed the re-organizations he undertook streamlined the operations, removed complacent inefficient management, and increased shareholder value.

James Goldsmith took on the agency for various slimming remedies and branched out into the manufacture of generic prescription drugs.

James Goldsmith added bakeries and then confectioners to the group, and then took over a number of wholesalers and retailers, including small chains of tobacco, confectioner and newsagent shops.

The bid was strongly contested and James Goldsmith was fiercely attacked by the financial press.

In early 1973, James Goldsmith travelled to New York to assess US business opportunities, followed by a tour round Central and South America.

James Goldsmith took the view that the UK economy was due for a downturn and began aggressively liquidating many of his assets.

The management of the company coordinated a virulent campaign against James Goldsmith, involving unions, the press, and politicians at state and federal level.

James Goldsmith retired to Mexico in 1987, having anticipated the market crash that year and liquidated his assets.

James Goldsmith swapped his American timber assets for a 49.9 percent stake in Newmont Mining and remained on the board of Newmont until he liquidated his stake through open-market trades in 1993.

James Goldsmith had been precluded by the original purchase of Newmont from acquiring a controlling shareholding in the company.

In 1990, James Goldsmith began a lower-profile, but profitable, global "private equity style" investment operation.

James Goldsmith became an active campaigner on environmental issues during his later years.

James Goldsmith published a book entitled The Trap in 1994 outlining what he believed were some key challenges facing humanity, with a focus particularly on the fields of modern intensive farming and the use of nuclear power.

James Goldsmith published detailed rejoinders in another publication entitled The Response, published in 1995.

Posthumously, James Goldsmith's estate provided funding for an organisation entitled the 'J.

The article falsely stated that James Goldsmith had participated in a meeting supposedly called by John Aspinall to help Lucan.

James Goldsmith was a regular at his close friend Aspinall's gambling club, the Clermont, where Lucan was one of the house players having their losses written off, rather than a true member.

In March 1993 James Goldsmith gave a televised lecture publicly declaring opposition to the European Union, which was transmitted across the United Kingdom on Channel 4 Television as part of its Opinions political commentary series, the text of which was published in The Times the following day under the title Creating a Superstate is the way to destroy Europe.

James Goldsmith advocated the prevention by governmental action of mass migrations by populations from poorer areas of the globe into the First World driven by economic motivation, which he foresaw as an inevitability of escalating Third World population demographics and First World governmental Neo-Liberal and Socialist ideologies.

In consequence, in 1994 James Goldsmith founded and financed The Referendum Party in the United Kingdom, modelled upon the Majorite pour l'autre Europe, with the objective of seeking a referendum for its national withdrawal from the European Union, which would go on to stand candidates in the country's general election of 1997.

An acrimonious confrontation between Mellor and James Goldsmith developed on stage after Mellor, in what was to be his valedictory address from politics, personally insulted James Goldsmith's candidacy.

James Goldsmith was terminally ill during the election, a fact which he had kept secret beyond his closest personal circle, and which had limited his ability to campaign.

Two months after contesting the 1997 general election, James Goldsmith died from the effects of pancreatic cancer at a farmhouse that he owned in Benahavis, southern Spain, on 18 July 1997.

When James Goldsmith proposed the marriage to Don Antenor Patino, it is alleged his future father-in-law replied, "We are not in the habit of marrying Jews".

James Goldsmith is reported to have replied, "Well, I am not in the habit of marrying [Red] Indians".

The marriage was brief: rendered comatose by a cerebral haemorrhage in her seventh month of pregnancy, Maria Isabel Patino de James Goldsmith died in May 1954.

James Goldsmith was brought up by Goldsmith's family and was married for a few years to French sportsman Arnaud de Rosnay.

Speculation about Goldsmith's romantic life was a popular topic in the British media: for example, there was speculation in one newspaper that James Goldsmith was the father of the family friend Diana, Princess of Wales, due to his friendship with Diana's mother and, later, with Diana.