Sir Frederick John Goldsmid

Sir Frederick John Goldsmid (born May 19, 1818, Milan—died Jan. 12, 1908, Brook Green, Hammersmith, Eng.) was a major general in the British Army who, through negotiations with several Asian countries and supervision of a cross-continental construction project, made possible the Indo-European telegraph, the first rapid communication system linking Europe and Asia.

After military service in China (1840), India, and Turkey (1855), where he mastered several Asian languages, Goldsmid became connected with the British plan for linking East and West by telegraph in 1861. After negotiating telegraph treaties with leaders of India, Baluchistan (now in Iran and Pakistan), and the Ottoman Empire, in 1864 he supervised the carrying of telegraph wire from Europe to India and became director general of the Indo-European telegraph in 1865, a post he held until 1870. His knowledge of Asian languages enabled him to arbitrate boundary disputes between Iran and Baluchistan in 1871 and between Iran and Afghanistan in 1872. He was knighted in 1871.