Background
The eldest son of Sir Osmond d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, 1st Baronet, d'Avigdor-Goldsmid went to Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford. On the death of his father in 1940, d'Avigdor-Goldsmid inherited Somerhill House near Tonbridge, Kent.
politician Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
The eldest son of Sir Osmond d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, 1st Baronet, d'Avigdor-Goldsmid went to Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford. On the death of his father in 1940, d'Avigdor-Goldsmid inherited Somerhill House near Tonbridge, Kent.
Balliol College; Harrow School.
He joined the Royal West Kent Regiment and the 53rd Reconnaissance Regiment, Reconnaissance Corps and was twice mentioned in dispatches. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross in 1945. He was made a Freeman of the City of London and became a Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant (1949) and High Sheriff of Kent for 1953.
His business career as a banker and bullion broker was marked by being Chairman of the Anglo-Israel Bank from 1961, and Chairman of Pergamon Press from 1969 to 1971. He was recruited by Duncan Sandys, then Minister of Housing, to be his Parliamentary Private Secretary but held the post for only a year. In that Parliament, Henry served as Chairman of the Select Committee on Nationalized Industries and of that on Public Expenditure.
He stood down from Parliament at the February 1974 general election. In memory of her, Sir Henry commissioned a series of stained glass windows at All Saints' Church, Tudeley, which were designed by the famous artist Marc Chagall, installed between 1967 and 1985.
[41st United Kingdom Parliament. 42nd United Kingdom Parliament. 43rd United Kingdom Parliament.
44th United Kingdom Parliament. 45th United Kingdom Parliament]
Following the Second World War, d'Avigdor-Goldsmid left the army and became a member of Kent County Council from 1946 to 1953. At the 1955 general election, d'Avigdor-Goldsmid was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Walsall South.
In 1973 he was appointed a member of the Horserace Totalisator Board.