Charles Sydney Goldman

Charles Sydney Goldman
"a self-made African" as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, January 1904
Born	1868 Cape Colony
Died	7 April 1958 (aged 89–90)
Nationality	British
Occupation	Journalist, author, and politician
Political party	Unionist
Religion	Jewish
Spouse	Agnes Mary Peel
Children	Charles Goldman

Charles Sydney Goldman (1868 – 7 April 1958) was a British businessman, author, and journalist who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1910 until 1918.

Born in Cape Colony, Goldman was a uitlander who spent much of his life in the Transvaal. As a young man he built up a fortune in mining, using some of the profits to purchase an extensive estate known as Schoongezicht in the Middelburg District. During the Second Boer War, Goldman was a war correspondent for The Standard. Initially attached to Sir Redvers Buller's relief force, he traveled with them as far as Ladysmith after which he transferred to the cavalry advancing north in order to report on their endeavors. These experiences served as the foundation for Goldman's subsequent book With General French and the Cavalry in South Africa.

After the war, in an effort to gain political influence Goldman purchased the struggling weekly journal the Outlook.^[1] Seeking to develop it into a prominent platform for the cause of tariff reformers, he hired the journalist J. L. Garvin as its editor. Garvin quickly transformed the journal into a publication of note, yet in spite of an increase in both prominence and circulation the paper failed to turn a profit. After a series of disagreements between the two men over business matters, Goldman sold the paper to Lord Iveagh in October 1906.^[2]

Still desiring a political role, Goldman involved himself in politics directly by entering Parliament, winning a seat in the January 1910 general election as a Unionist and serving until the borough was abolished in 1918 (the name was transferred to a new county division). During the First World War, Goldman served as a major in the Cornwall Royal Garrison Artillery. In 1919 he purchased the Nicola Ranch and Town site in British Columbia which grew to some 300,000 acres (1,200 km²). In England Goldman lived at Trefusis House, Falmouth until about 1929, after which he moved to the Jacobean mansion at Yaverland Manor.

Works

• The financial, statistical, and general history of the gold & other companies of Witwatersrand, South Africa (1892)[1]
• With General French and the Cavalry in South Africa (1905)[2]
• (as editor) The Empire and the century: A series of essays on imperial problems and possibilities (1905)[3]
• (as translator) Cavalry In Future Wars (1906)

References

1. ^ Stephen Koss, The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain, vol. 1:The Nineteenth Century (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1981), p. 434
2. ^ Alfred M. Gollin, The Observer and J. L. Garvin, 1908-1914: A Study in a Great Editorship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960), p. 14-15

Further reading

• Who was Who, 1951-1960, p. 430.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Charles Sydney Goldman

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir John Barker	Member of Parliament for Penryn and Falmouth January 1910 – 1918	Succeeded by Sir Edward Nicholl

Persondata
Name	Goldman, Charles Sydney
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1868
Place of birth	Cape Colony
Date of death	7 April 1958
Place of death