Born in 1892 at Queenstown, Eastern Province, South Africa, he was educated at Rhodes University College, Grahamstown, and at the King's College Hospital, London. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he enlisted in the London Rifle Volunteers and saw service in France as a combatant, with the rank of corporal. He then completed his medical training, was commissioned in the Indian Medical Service, and served as medical officer in a troopship in the Mediterranean. After the war he held house appointments and was Sambrooke surgical registrar at King's College Hospital under Sir John Thompson-Walker and John Everidge. He began to practise as a urologist in London, but returned to South Africa in 1922. He set up as a urologist in Cape Town, and in 1930 was appointed surgeon to the Somerset Hospital. For many years before his retirement in 1947 he was head of the department of urology at the University of Cape Town and the Groote Schuur Hospital. During the war of 1939-45 he was Honorary Colonel in the 3rd Field Ambulance and a part-time urological specialist in the South African Medical Corps. He was also a Vice-President of the Boy Scout Association. Goldschmidt was active in the Medical Association of South Africa, at first in the Cape Western branch of which he was President in 1945, and thereafter on the Federal Council. He was prominent in the South African Red Cross Society, especially in connection with the Children's Hospital at Rondebosch. At the end of his life he was the prime mover in the incorporation of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of South Africa. He was an active traveller, huntsman and photographer of wild animals, a keen fisherman, and a good golfer. He was also interested in farming. He was at one time on the Board of Control for boxing, and served as President of the Cape Town Philatelic Society. He was a hospitable host at his home, Kingslyn, Hof Street, Cape Town. He married in England in 1918 Nora Rosalie Adlington of Worcester, who survived him with two daughters and two sons, Dr Basil Goldschmidt and Mr Reith Goldschmidt, who was a student at King's College Hospital medical school when his father died. Goldschmidt died on 18 August 1955 aged 63, and a memorial service was held in Cape Town Cathedral.