Who was James Goldsmith

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A.� Sir James Goldsmith, tycoon, founder of the Referendum Party, fearless businessman, gambler, serial adulterer and the man who wanted to close Private Eye magazine. Thanks to jujijan for the question.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� He's no longer with us

A.� No. Goldsmith, born on 26 February 1933, died from cancer on 19 July 1997. The Goldschmidts came from Frankfurt, distant cousins of the Rothschilds and their banking dynasty. Most of the family left Frankfurt for Paris in 1866. Goldsmith's grandparents then moved to London and within a year the family had a stylish house in Mayfair and a 2,500-acre estate near Newmarket in Suffolk.

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Q.� And James's father

A.� He was Frank, who arrived in Britain at the age of 16 and was first member of the family to adopt the name Goldsmith. He became MP for Stowmarket but became unpopular with his constituents when anti-German feeling swept the country in the First World War. Frank, who bought up a chain of hotels throughout the world, was 55 when James was born. James's mother, a beauty from a peasant family in the Auvergne, was 25 years younger.

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Q.� And young James

A.� He was something of a delinquent at his parent's home in Paris and was soon sent away to boarding school in Canada. At the age of 10 he took off for New York and booked himself into the Waldorf-Astoria, staying several days before discovery. Later, in attempt to turn him into an English gentleman, he was sent to Eton. He was pretty hopeless there, although good at maths - and even better at betting. Just months before he turned 16, he bet �10 on a three-horse accumulator and won �8,000.

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Q.� He blew that

A.� More or less. He immediately threw a dinner for his friends and soon absconded to see his brother Teddy in Oxford. He fell in with Teddy's undergraduate friends, such as John Aspinall, later the casino-owner and zoo-keeper, and the publisher Anthony Blond. It was not long before he had lost all his money.

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Q.� And faced his parents' wrath

A.� He returned to Paris, owing �2,000. His debts were paid off by his father, on the condition that Jimmy did National Service in Britain. He became a second lieutenant and later admitted he found the experience rewarding. After demob, he returned to Paris and was introduced to Isabel Patino, 18-year-old daughter of the Bolivian tin magnate Don Antenor Patino. They fell in love. Patino was not impressed - so the two eloped, pursued by private detectives and reporters, and married in Scotland. She died soon afterwards from a cerebral haemorrhage, 12 hours after giving birth to their daughter.

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Q.� His business interests

A.� He needed to make money and decided to expand a near-worthless pharmaceutical company handed to him by his brother Teddy. He obtained French distribution rights for certain US drugs and expanded the business rapidly. Chemist's shops followed and then, with a �1 million loan from Sir Isaac Wolfson, founder of Great Universal Stores, renamed his company Cavenham and expanded it rapidly through acquisitions. He bought Bovril in 1971 and Allied Suppliers, the vast grocery chain controlled by Unilever, the next year. Goldsmith's last great corporate adventure was in 1989, when he teamed up with Kerry Packer and Lord Rothschild, to bid �13 billion for BAT Industries, the tobacco and financial services company.

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Q.� What about Private Eye

A.� He sued the satirical magazine many times as they investigated his activities and eventually tried to get the editor prosecuted for criminal libel over allegations that he helped spirit away his friend Lord Lucan after Lucan's nanny was murdered.

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Q.� Politics

A.� In later years he led the Referendum Party. He had been elected as a French Member of the European Parliament in 1994 but became disillusioned and devoted himself to warning against the growth of a superstate. His party pledged to hold a referendum before entering a European single currency. Goldsmith found his political failure in Britain hard to bear and made an extraordinary outburst at when he polled only 1,500 votes in Putney in the May 1997 election.

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Q.� And family

A.� James Goldsmith had one daughter by his first wife, a son and daughter by his second wife Ginette Lery, two sons and one daughter (Jemima, now the wife of the former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan) from his marriage to Lady Annabel Birley. He also had a daughter and a son by his last long-term mistress, Laure Boulay de la Meurthe.

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By Steve Cunningham