John Douglas Goldsmith (6 May 1945 - 31 Mar 2018)

In loving memory of John Douglas Goldsmith who sadly passed away on 31st March 2018

Keith's Eulogy;
First set my eyes on John when he and Di moved in next door to me in Langley in Bretton.
It was the Seventies and living next door to Goldie proved to be the start of a long friendship.
There was never a dull moment.
I think its fair to say Goldie was a colourful character and if you got to know him well he was a very loyal friend. He would always help you whenever he could. If you needed something he could usually provide the solution. Where it came from is anyone’s guess.
I remember Goldie for his banter and his common sense and logic. He used to say to me “You know Dalt for an intelligent man you’ve got no Common sense. And he was right because Goldie was the opposite. He wasn’t a scholar – He lived on his wits.
He loved to get one up on you but it was always done with humour. There were many instances but we used to remember this one years later.- and you maybe had to be there but:
I supported Leeds. Goldie supported Man Utd. And in the 70s there was great rivalry just edged by Leeds. Then Man U rose to the top which made Goldie very happy. He couldn’t resist scoring at every opportunity. I remember visiting a Sports shop on holiday with him and they had the new Man U strip as league champions in at £24. I said to him that’s a good price. He said yes and over there are some even cheaper deals in the special sale. Football shirts for only £11. I said What are they? Theyre Leeds United shirts. Bloke said nobody wants to buy them so theyre dumping them. Well it amused him!
As many will know, Goldie was like all good sportsmen, very competitive and liked to win. I think just before we met, he dominated the BBCs “It’s a Knockout” when the show visited Peterborough. It was only a bit of fun but for Goldie, it was a challenge to succeed at. And he did. I think you can still catch some of it YOU TUBE. He played football at a fairly high standard and not many people got past him in the centre of defence. But it wasn’t just footballing brawn that Goldie had – he had a footballing brain as well and would distribute some lovely passes.
It doesn’t matter what sport he played, he was competitive. Darts, Squash, Snooker, pool, Golf are just some of the pastimes he succeeded at, and he won many trophies.
He also had a caring side.
One evening after consuming a few lemonades we were talking about winning trophies and I confessed that up to then I had never won any trophys . He said well mate you can have one of mine. He went upstairs and reappeared with a big grin on his face and the biggest cardboard box full of medals and trophies. From all manner of sports. I chose a cup from the Peterborough Football League. Its still in my loft.
Of course the winning stretched to his animals. He had a number of quite successful greyhounds and his pride and joy. Pigeons. Di used to say “Sometimes I think he’d rather spend the night with those birds. I suspect after a few heavy nights he probably did.
Goldie used to drive his beloved Homing pigeons to faraway places to take part in local and national races and then return and sit outside for hours waiting for them to come home. Some times rattling a food tin whilst his best bird was sitting on a neighbours roof but refusing to come the extra 20 yards to get clocked in. But he was patient with them. And the bonus was to take the time clocks into the pigeon club and relax with a few beers. Deserved after all that exertion.
We are all blessed with different talents and as I said before, John had common sense and logic. He also was very skilled and although he wasn’t a scholar could tackle some difficult tasks.
Simone said to me that her Dad probably couldn’t spell the word HOUSE. But he could build one.
And he did from scratch. His and Di’s design. Built on a plot in Danes Close. And they moved there from Bretton. Goldie was a scaffolder and builder and it served him well. Not just a house but pigeon lofts as well. And many other projects. He did work for friends and acquaintances as well as clients.
Most of the other houses down Danes Close were privately developed and built so Goldie did some work on quite few of them. Including a small brick front garden wall for a neighbour over the road. The guy delayed paying for a few months. Now Goldie can be caring and patient but he didn’t take kindly to being taken advantage of. After 5 months, most of us would take the guy to court for non payment of the debt. Not Goldie……Having tolerated the situation for 5 months he got up one morning, drove his pick up truck off his drive and reversed it tow bar hook first into the two foot high wall demolishing the middle part and then drove to work. That evening the neighbour came to complain and Goldie told him that if he paid him £250 to repair the wall together with the original debt then that would resolve the situation. He paid.
Goldie wasn’t conventional in his life. He was a character that you don’t forget in a hurry. Especially living next door to him. Life was never dull.
To pinch the line from the Smokie song. “I’ll never get used to not living next door to Goldie”
But unlike the remake, not many people would shout ‘GOLDIE? Who the *is GOLDIE
They wouldn’t….Because everyone knew Goldie .

Stan's Eulogy;
John Goldsmith – the man I knew.
First of all I would like to say what an honour it is to be asked to speak about John/Goldie and share some of my own and others personal stories and experiences.
Many of the stories revolve around sport & “socialising” – John’s 2 favourite pastimes.
1st time I met him:
Around 16 years ago this whirlwind of a guy walked into the Duck and Drake announcing himself as Goldie. I was sat playing cards with Stu & Kev – he walked over introduced himself and stated that he had never lost a game of cards in his life!! – typical John. We invited him to join us , he then went on to lose every game. If memory served he blamed the cards – latterly this would turn in to Stu for supporting Leeds or Kev for being a Tottenham tosser or John Garlic for being John Garlic. The pub was never the same….
The sports pundit:
Man Utd were there best, I know that because he told me so on many many occasions!! Liverpool, Leeds and especially Spurs were crap. If Man U ever lost they were just giving the others a chance….
The Sportsman (not the pub):
Pigeon fancier:
John raced pigeons for many years with some success – either way it usually involved a drink before & afterwards. John used to love going to Blackpool for the annual pigeon show – he also used to visit his good friend Andre in Belgium. On one of his trips to Belgium he actually got there and back on Simones passport – not sure how that could happen but John did it!!
Greyhounds:
John trained and raced greyhounds – he had stopped by the time he moved to Yaxley but still used to go to the track now and again. On one of these occasions Tommy went with him, bet & lost on every race – John just looked at the form, watched the odds & then went and asked his mate for a tip!! John won a packet – Tommy didn’t…. Talking of poor bets John loved a flutter on the horses and would regularly give us the good news that he had been given a dead cert and it had come in at odds of whatever – I took his advice once, went to the bookies put my tenner on. To my knowledge the horse still running!!
Fishing:
John loved his fishing and I had some great times with him on the bank. Fishing with him was always entertaining for a multitude of reasons. He introduced me & Simon to the Kings Lynn club – its great that a lot of them are here today. We had some great laughs travelling all over to the back of beyond – places we had never been before. Simon tells the tale of going to somewhere near Ipswich when they got lost coming home going round the same junction at least 5 times. There was a young girl standing on the corner – John commented that she had started and left school in the time they had been driving……..
Myself and John used to fish for winners beer every week – it was always the best pint of the week whoever bought it where we would come up with any old excuse as to why we had won or lost. My favourite one from John was that Barry had tied his hook on backwards – classic John!!
John viewed everyone elses swim as his own if you were catching and he wasn’t. You would quite regularly end up with his float or feeder in your swim – all done with a smile on his face. Johns eyesight wasn’t always the best – one time we were at Decoys, John was on peg 2 but fancied the look of peg 1. He dully cast into the corner and tightened up his line waiting for the tip to wrap round. I went to have a chat with him asking him if he had had any luck yet, he replied no (or words to that effect) I told him I was not surprised as his feeder was actually in the carpark!! – He later admitted to hitting a van parked in the carpark on at least 2 occasions during the match.
I took John fishing to Biggin lake as recently ago as September with Kev Gilbert. To be honest he was struggling a bit by then but we had a great time. He had a smile on his face all day. And yes he bloody beat me!!
The driver:
John could drive a car no problem – towing a trailer was a different matter. Tommy tells the story when John got himself a trailer, filled it up for a tip run, reversed in and proceeded to jack knife it smashing in to right hand side of the car. John was not surprisingly unhappy at this – to even out the damage he proceeded to do the left hand side at fishing the next day!! Not sure he reversed much after that.
On another occasion John also decided that it would be a good idea to jump start the car down Winsor road – on his own… I think it was then that he realised he had finally lost his yard of pace as he was seen chasing the motor down the hill – stopping neatly in a neighbours fence!!
Travelling:
John loved his apartment in Torrevieja and spent many happy breaks there. On one trip he took Stu and Tony with him. In the airport John informed Tony that he needed get a hurry up and get in the boarding queue as the flight was due to go. Tony dully got in the queue got all the way to the plane door that was headed elsewhere in Europe – Tony finally got to the Spain flight turning the air blue – all the time John was laughing like a drain. Tony must have made a good case as an old lady on the plane clipped John round the ear for being so mean!!
John used to go on baccy runs to Belgium – maybe bringing a bit more than he was allowed back with him… I drove on one of the trips & we got pulled by customs. John, Terry & myself got taken off to separate rooms for a chat. John & Terry kept their swag – I lost mine (to be fair I did have a fair bit more than they did). I was (obviously) not happy when they gave me the news but couldn’t help laughing when they told me that the only reason I had not had my car impounded as well was because John had become ill and needed to get home asap to take his medication for a condition unknown!! I chuckled all the way home.
The friend:
John was a mans man no question but his friendship was hard earned, based on trust. I had the need to ask Johns for help twice when I was really in trouble. Both issues were with my windows that had been vandalised – I rang him up, told him the score – he was straight round on both occasions, did the job and never mentioned the circumstances again. No money changed hands but as I remember I paid for two hangovers!!
From a personal perspective my lasting memory of John is that he always made me smile, first and last to the bar if you let him – I was never unhappy in his company. A great drinking mate & a very good friend. I miss you big fella.