THE STORY OF THE GOLDSMITHS
Above: In 1875, Edward Goldsmith and his wife Annie
(nee D’Arcy)
moved to the Channel Island of Guernsey between France and England.
EDWARD GOLDSMITH AND THE MISSES D'ARCY
At this juncture, we might detour from the story of the D'Arcy's to follow that of their fellow passengers, the Goldsmiths, who fared rather less well in Australia. Edward Goldsmith, author of the diary that chronicled the voyage to Australia, got into all sorts of knots when he married one of Bertha and Knox D'Arcy's sisters - and had an affair with another. Upon arrival in Australia, Edward's elder brother William Goldsmith had married another of the Southern Ocean's passengers, Dora Higgens, in 1867 and settled in Toowoomba. However, he died of an abscess in his ear just six months later. Edward sold up much of their farming interests and became engaged to Anastasia (Annie) D'Arcy, who was already complaining that she did not enjoy life in Australia. They were married on 2nd February 1869, and their firstborn, Constance Emily Goldsmith, was born on 14th January 1870. The work-shy Edward and his family returned to England soon after the death of William D'Arcy in 1871 and settled at Cams, a lovely, sequestered Jacobean house in Hambledon.
Above: The view from Cams Hill in Hambledon
where
the
Goldsmith’s lived upon their return from Australia.
THE GUERNSEY CONNECTION
In 1875, after the birth of their second daughter Marion, Edward and Annie Goldsmith left for the island of Guernsey where Mrs. D'Arcy was staying with her daughters, Maria, Mary and Frances. While in Guernsey, Edward and Frances, then in her twenties, embarked upon an illicit affair. 'If this was a case of 'careless rapture', then it was clearly more careless than rapture, for a child was born', wrote their granddaughter. 'Though the child did not live, its arrival had a devastating effect; the D'Arcys had to leave Guernsey, Edward fled to Australia and Frances removed herself to a convent'. Edward returned home in 1878 and, with tail firmly between legs, he called upon both Frances and Annie. Frances was in a convent and Annie, persuaded by Frances and Mrs D'Arcy, 'forgave Edward and returned with him to Cams'.
THE DEMISE OF A MARRIAGE
Annie bore Edward two further daughters - Maud in 1880 and Lucy in 1882 - and a son, John (known in the family as Jack) in 1882. At Jack's birth, the Hambledon church bells were rung. The Goldsmiths marriage continued to wane with Edward's ineptitude at holding down a career. He was obliged to move to a lodging near Littlehampton, while Annie stayed with her difficult mother and unmarried sisters Maria and Mary at 55 Arundel Road. It was there that her youngest son, (Edward) Philip Goldsmith, was born in 1887. Annie had by now 'rashly and tactlessly became a Roman Catholic, which maddened Edward, who held very strong, low-church views'. The baby was baptized in the Roman Catholic Faith at Arundel church 'with the doors locked against his father'.
THE WANDERERS
The Goldsmith's marriage collapsed entirely when Annie drove off, leaving the family for good, taking her 18-month-old baby Philip with her. She fled first to Southampton, then to Guernsey, where she stayed a year or more, and then with the FitzJameses at Clifton. In 1890, she moved to London, staying first with her sisters Maria and Mary D'Arcy, and then at Mount Waltham with her sister Bertha whose husband, Dr. Benson, had since deceased. Further years of wandering ensued with Annie determined to hide from her estranged husband. On one occasion he came upon them on the streets of London and horrific row ensued as Annie and Edward tried to drag poor Philip in opposing directions. In time, she went to stay with her brother Knox D'Arcy at his houses in Paris and Brussels where Philip went to school at a convent. In 1893 Annie and Philip returned to England and stayed with Knox and his wife, 'Aunt Elena' at Stanmore Hall. Philip later recalled how very kind Elena was, until he was sent as a border to Hodder, a Jesuit preparatory school 'of the harsher kind where he was very unhappy and dreadfully homesick', and then on to Stoneyhurst.
Above: HMS Bellerophon photographed in 1909. Bertha Benson's
grandson D'Arcy Benson served on the ship at the battle of Jutland in 1916.
THE REUNION OF THE GOLDSMITHS
The story of Philip Goldsmith's reunion with his estranged brothers and sisters is poignantly recalled in his daughter's memoirs. He joined the Royal Navy's Paymaster branch and, in 1905, was appointed Assistant Clerk in H.M.S. Commonwealth, a new ship in the Atlantic Fleet. By 1910, he was Captain's Secretary [Captain's Clerk as it was called in those days] on the Cadet Training Cruiser, H.M.S. Cornwall, on which happy ship he 'made many friends, rode cross-country in Spain, shot wild duck in Greece, fished for salmon in Canada, climbed the pyramids in Egypt, kissed the Pope's hand in Rome, staked money on the tables of Monte Carlo, played cricket, rugby, soccer, tennis, hockey, and golf - not a negligible achievement for the shy, 'unmanly', lonely boy escaping from his less-than-satisfactory parents into the Royal Navy'. Back at Plymouth the following year, he met 'my young cousin', D 'Arcy Benson who was serving on H.M.S Bellerophon. The ship was known by its crew as 'Billy Ruffian'. In March 1913, he entertained his cousin D'Arcy Benson to lunch at Devonport while the whole port was 'stiff with Dreadnoughts' and commented 'thought him much improved & a very cheery fellow'. [D'Arcy Benson was the grandson of Annie's sister Bertha].