Harold and Sir Jimmy

James Michael ("Jimmy") Goldsmith, 43, is the flamboyant, ardently Tory chairman of Britain's huge Cavenham food empire, third largest in Europe. Last month quite a few British eyebrows were raised when London's right-wing Daily Express reported that Harold Wilson had recommended Goldsmith for a peerage in the resignation honors list customarily submitted by Prime Ministers leaving office. Peerages, as well as lesser awards, are usually given to individuals who have rendered outstanding service either to the P.M. personally or to the country as a whole. But what possible public service had

Goldsmith rendered to anyone other than the shareholders of Cavenham, Ltd.? Speculation intensified following press reports that the Political Honors Scrutiny Committee, which must approve political nominations, objected to three of Wilson's candidates.

Last week No. 10 Downing Street belatedly released Wilson's nominees. As it turned out, Goldsmith would not be awarded a peerage after all, but rather the lesser rank of knighthood, a more appropriate distinction for a businessman of Goldsmith's stature. British editorial writers and commentators gave Wilson's list of 42 nominees high marks for its surprise value and about a C-minus for taste and distinction. Among the recipients:

> Sir George Weidenfeld, chairman of Weidenfeld and Nicolson, publishers: a life peerage. A Viennese-born, onetime BBC news commentator, Weidenfeld had earlier been knighted at Wilson's request in 1969, and is the publisher of Wilson's memoirs.

-- Sir Joseph Kagan, chairman of Gannex-Kagan Textiles and a longtime personal friend of Wilson's: a life peerage. Kagan is best known in Britain as the manufacturer of the Gannex "mac," as much a part of Wilson's attire as his ubiquitous pipe.

+ Sir Lew Grade, chairman of Associated Television Corp., Ltd.: a life peerage. Rotund, cigar-chomping Grade, a Russian immigrant (ne Win-ogradsky), began life as a music-hall performer and became a prominent showbiz impresario.

The list contains customary recognitions of various sorts for a host of Wilson's aides, including his personal physician, a chauffeur, two secretaries, a cleaning woman, and a Downing Street switchboard operator. Also honored were two actors, Stanley Baker and John Mills, and a nightclub and TV performer noted for his Wilson impersonations. But the most remarkable feature of the list was the number of businessmen --eleven in all--given either peerages or knighthoods by a Prime Minister who at least theoretically is committed to socialism.

Of the entrepreneurs, Goldsmith is by far the best known, both for his aggressive business style and his uninhibited private life. Raised in France and educated in Eton, where he was a successful afterhours bookmaker, Goldsmith since 1965 has expanded Cavenham from a modest confectionery maker to a multinational with sales in 1975 of $3.1 billion. For years, Goldsmith has maintained a highly visible double life; he has a wife and two children in Paris, plus a mistress (Lady Annabel Birley, after whom London's upper-crusty discotheque and dining club "Annabel's" is named) and two more children in London.

Labor Party M.P.s howled with particular anguish when Goldsmith turned up on Wilson's honors list. Sir Jimmy is not only an admitted conservative, but is a close friend of former Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath and a man who once warned that the Labor Party was "riddled with extremists." Said one disgruntled Laborite: "The names on the list have nothing to do with socialism. This is utterly alien to the ideas of our movement." For his part, Sir Jimmy professed surprise at the honor and said only: "I am deeply honored and I consider that the honor has been bestowed not only on me but on all the men and women who have worked together to create Cavenham."

Why had Wilson honored Goldsmith? And as the London Times asked: "What secret hunger for the company of capitalists led [Wilson] to form so many ultra-capitalist friendships?" For the moment, the former P.M. has no answer. Perhaps he was recalling that in the 1960s he frequently attacked the "onerous practice" of bestowing political honors.

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