Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain G. R. Goldsmith, Royal Garrison Artillery, a Channel Islander born and bred, who was ‘mentioned’ during the Great War and sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment by the German Kommandant of Jersey in January 1945

Fined and incarcerated for hiding two radio sets, he was extremely fortunate to have been caught in the twilight of the War when the process of expulsion to northern France and transfer to a labour or concentration camp - in the footsteps of many a convicted islander - was no longer a viable option

1914-15 Star (13389 Sjt. G. R. Goldsmith. R.G.A.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Capt. G. R. Goldsmith.) nearly extremely fine (3) £240-£280

M.I.D. London Gazette 5 June 1919.

George Richard Goldsmith was born on the island of Jersey on 7 August 1888, the son of James Henry Goldsmith. His father served as Battery Sergeant Major in the Royal Artillery, resulting in George and his five siblings spending their early childhood living at ‘Volunteer Redoubt’ in the parish of St. Lawrence. Moving to the ‘Old Guard House’ in 1901, Goldsmith is later recorded in 1911 as a 22-year-old Bombardier in the 20th Company (Jersey District), Royal Garrison Artillery. At the time this unit was barracked at the 400-year-old Elizabeth Castle, a picturesque fortress built upon a tidal island in St. Aubin’s Bay.

Advanced Sergeant, Goldsmith transferred to the 8th Siege Battery, R.G.A., and served in France from 9 December 1914. Deployed behind the front line and emerging lattice of trenches, his unit was tasked with the destruction of heavy guns, supply routes, railways and stores, using heavy-howitzer guns firing large calibre 4, 6, 8 or 9.2-inch shells in high trajectory. Appointed to a commission on 25 August 1915, Goldsmith was ‘mentioned’ for his services during the Great War, but returned home to a family grieving the loss of a brother, R.S.M. James Hudson Goldsmith, who died in Turkish captivity.

An Island under Occupation
The story of Jersey and the Channel Islands during the Second World War is well documented, but what is less well known are the individual acts of passive defiance which proved a thorn in the side of the German Authorities from 1 July 1940 to the cessation of hostilities and liberation on 8-9 May 1945. In 1942 it was decreed that all radio sets had to be handed in, effectively cutting off the population from all external sources of information. Where once listening to a broadcast had largely been tolerated (provided it was German), especially in a car or lorry, the loss of radio sets caused significant upset amongst the local population. Tensions heightened with random house searches by German guards and an encouragement towards residents to betray their neighbours. In consequence, the Jersey islanders determined to build their own makeshift radio sets in secret, hiding them in outbuildings and lofts. The Germans retaliated with threats of fines and imprisonment and soon their courts were beset with an escalation of misdemeanours; before, the Germans and Jersey islanders had managed to live in relative harmony, the atmosphere soon changed, exacerbated by food and fuel shortages to a level where the population was all but starving by the winter of 1944, and heavily reliant upon Red Cross parcels delivered by the SS Vega. 

According to The Jersey Evening Post, 22 Jersey islanders died as a consequence of being deported and sent to German prisons, work camps or concentration camps. This included those of persecuted faiths, but also island men such as Arthur Dimmery, who was sentenced for digging up a buried wireless set for the Saint Saviour wireless network. Another man, William Howard Marsh, was sentenced for spreading BBC news, and another, Frederick William Page, for failing to surrender a wireless set. One woman - hotel worker Miss June Mary Sinclair - was sentenced for slapping a German officer who made improper advances; she was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, tragically dying there.

Others faced prison sentences and fines: from a Channel Island wartime population of approximately 66,000, approximately 4,000 were sentenced for lawbreaking (around 2,600 of those on Jersey). George Goldsmith was no exception: he was caught in possession of two wireless sets in the winter of 1944-45, and at the age of 57, was sent to a prison on the island and fined 300 Reichmarks. Given the deteriorating atmosphere on Jersey, he was fortunate not to be transferred to Brittany - but the isolation of the garrison in consequence of the Normandy invasion and capture of Saint Malo had removed this option. One might also add that the German command on the islands had one eye looking towards the possibility of convictions for war crimes; a very real prospect given the appalling treatment handed out to many foreign labourers.

Sold with the recipient’s original Great War card identity tags (2) to ‘Lieut. G. Goldsmith. C.E. R.G.A.’, and copied German documentation relating to his conviction, including identity card bearing a portrait photograph.