Osmond d'Avigdor-Goldsmid

Sir Osmond Elim d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, 1st Baronet DL JP (9 August 1877 – 14 April 1940) was a British financier and baronet.

Life

D'Avigdor-Goldsmid was born to Jewish parents. His father, Elim Henry d'Avigdor, was a noted civil engineer.^[1][2][3] He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.^[2]

First World War

D'Avigdor-Goldsmid served in the France during the First World War (1914–19). He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and was twice mentioned in dispatches.^[2]

Public life

He served as High Sheriff of Kent in 1912, Chairman of the Jewish Colonisation Association (1919), President of the Anglo-Jewish Association (1921–26), President of the British Board of Deputies of British Jews (1926–33), and Treasurer of the Jewish Memorial Council.^[4][5]

Baronetcy

Born Osmond d'Avigdor, he "added the name Goldsmid on inheriting the estates of his cousin Sir Julian Goldsmid".^[6][7] He was created a Baronet of Somerhill in the County of Kent on 22 January 1934.^[8]

Personal life

In 1907 D'Avigdor-Goldsmid married Alice Landau, Russian banker Yakov Polyakov's granddaughter. After his death, his son Henry D'Avigdor-Goldsmid inherited his peerage.

He was a member of the Athenæum.^[2]

Memorial

The Israeli settlement of Avigdor was named after him.