James Goldsmith

Sir James Goldsmith (1933 - 1997) was a British businessman and founder of the euro-sceptic Referendum Party. The party stood for the UK 1997 general election, as part of which Goldsmith mass-mailed thousands of homes with a VHS tape expressing his ideas. It has been suggested that he made plans to broadcast nationwide to the UK during the election from his own offshore pirate Referendum Radio station. His party was ultimately unsuccessful, however, and it effectively died with him.

Goldsmith dropped out of Eton College in 1949, observing, "A man of my means should not remain a schoolboy." His business successes included winning the British francise for Alka-Seltzer heartburn relief medicine and acquiring the Bovril company. He was also notable as a greenmail corporate raider; in the 1980s he made $90 million from his attempted hostile takeover of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. He retired from business dealings in 1987.

Goldsmith is also well known for his legendary legal attack on the magazine, Private Eye. In 1976 the millionaire issued over sixty libel writs against Private Eye and its distributors, and nearly bankrupted the magazine. This story is detailed in the book, Goldenballs!

Goldsmith was married three times. His first wife was the Bolivian heiress Maria Isabel Patino; she died in 1954 shortly after the birth of their daughter Isabel. His second wife was Ginette Lery, with whom he had a son and daughter. In 1978 he married for the third time; his new wife was his former mistress Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart, daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry; the couple had three children, Jemima (born 1974), Zak and Benjamin (born 1980). Goldsmith is believed to have coined the phrase "When you marry your mistress you create a job vacancy."

Goldsmith died in 1997 of pancreatic cancer.

External reference

Ingrams, Richard (1993). Goldenballs! London: Harriman House. ISBN 1897597037.

External Link

Referendum Radio, see: http://www.geocities.com/sirjamesgoldsmith/