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At the Hotel Metropole, Swansea, on Friday, Messrs. Ronald and Roy Goss, sons of Mr. Herbert J. Goss, chartered accountant, of Wind-street, were entertained to a banquet on the occasion of their going to South Africa with the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry. A toast list, which was both appropriate and patriotic, was gone through. Several articles which would be useful to the troopers in the campaign were presented to them. Mr. Herbert J. Goss responded on behalf of his sons, and thanked those present for their kind sentiments.
Evening Express, Monday 26th February 1900

Messrs. Goss recently joined the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry, and will sail for the seat of war on March 6th. There was a large company present, including Mr. H. Morton Hedley, who presided, and he was supported by the guests of the evening, Privates Ronald and Roy Goss, who were accompanied by Privates Robert Walters (North-West Mounted Canadian Police) and E. W. Falkner.
The Chairman, in submitting the toast of "Our Guests Ordered Front," referred to the high esteem in which the brothers Goss were held by their numerous friends in Swansea, and recalled the many pleasant hours he had spent with them at the Mumbles when they were very small boys attired in men-at-war suits.
On behalf of their many friends he handed the brothers a magnificent pair of field glasses, a pocket filter, compasses, and collapsible drinking cup; combination spoon, knife and fork, and other useful articles. The toast was received with musical honours, the company singing "For they are jolly good fellows."
....Mr. Reginald Williams, who had organised the banquet....presented the brothers with a purse containing £40.
Edited from The Cambrian, Friday 2nd March 1900

News has been received at Swansea that Mr. Ronald Goss, the son of Mr. Herbert Goss, accountant, Swansea, has been murdered in the district of Darjeeling, in Northern India, by natives. There are no particulars to hand of the tragedy.
Mr. Goss went out with his brother at the time of the South African War as a member of the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry. In the early part of the war he was struck down by dysentery and enteric fever and was sent to Cape Town to recuperate. When better he was given a sea trip to Ceylon. He returned to the South African war, and was at Bloemfontein and Fauresmith, where on one occasion he had a horse shot under him. He was rendered unconscious for 24 hours, and subsequently recovered.
Evening Express, Saturday 24th February 1906




Full details of the murder of Mr. Ronald Goss, third son of Mr. Herbert Goss, Swansea, are now to hand. The Calcutta correspondent of the "Western Mail" telegraphs : - Widespread attention has been directed to a very unusual tragedy, that of the murder in cold blood of an Englishman by a native.
The victim was Mr. Ronald Goss, a native of Swansea, who has been engaged for some time in the Darjeeling district as a planter.
The tragedy took place on the night of the 16th inst.
Mr. Goss had retired for the night, and was sound asleep when two natives made their way into the house, and crept stealthily to his bedroom.
One of the men had in his hand a kukri, or native dagger.
He managed to reach the bedstead of the sleeping man without causing him alarm, and the first intimation Mr. Goss had of his danger was a blow which the assassin dealt him with the weapon.
The wound first inflicted was a comparatively trifling one, and Mr. Goss, springing to his feet, made a desperate effort to reach a gun which he always kept standing loaded near his bed.
The assassin, however, managed to get between him and the gun, and a struggle for life ensued.
Mr. Goss received repeated stabs, and, finally, fell dead upon the floor of the bedroom.
The second man, who had taken no part in the actual attack, was the first to be arrested.
He immediately collapsed, turned King's evidence, and made a full confession of the crime.
Acting upon his information, the police laid a clever trap for the actual murderer, and succeeded in arresting him in the bazaar at Darjeeling two days after the murder.
The actual murderer proved to be a coolie, who has for some time been employed upon the estate.
He also has made a confession, and it is understood that this indicates that the crime was not due to vulgar robbery, as was at first supposed, but from motives of revenge for some real or fanciful insult which the murderer had sustained at the hands of Mr. Goss.
The Cambrian, Friday 2nd March 1906


It will be re-called in the trial of two natives at Darjeeling for complicity in the murder of Mr. Ronald Goss, the Swansea tea-planter, one was acquitted and the other sentenced to penal servitude for life, on a charge of aiding and abetting. Judgment was recently given in the appeal made by the convicted prisoner, and the High Court in the result quashed his conviction, and commented in severe terms on the "scandalous manufacture" of evidence by the police and also on the maltreatment of prisoners.
Evening Express, Thursday 23rd August 1906

Other than Ronald, about whom I found nothing other than being mentioned in early 1900, the Goss brothers were rather unfortunate.

GOSS. - On November 22nd, 1909, at St. Paul's Hospital, Saskatoon, Canada, from pneumonia, Hubert Exton Goss (late of Swansea), aged 30. Dearly loved and deeply mourned.
Evening Express, Tuesday 14th December 1909



There appears unfortunately no doubt that, as stated in our late edition of Saturday, Mr. Vernon G. Goss, son of Mr. Goss, accountant, of Wind-street, Swansea, is one of the crew of the Kurdistan, which (as stated in another column) has been lost at sea.
An intimate friend of Mr. Goss told a "Post" representative that he last heard from him at Liverpool on the 19th of last month. Mr. Goss was previously on the Arabistan, and that boat and the Kurdistan were lying together in the Mersey when young Goss received orders to transfer himself to the Kurdistan as second officer. This he did, and wrote to his friend mentioning the fact, and also giving a list of the addresses on the voyage. Since then the friend has heard nothing of Mr. Goss.
Mr. Goss is only 23 years of age and a Swansea boy. He was educated at the Swansea Grammar School.
Two of his brothers met their deaths in tragic circumstances. One was shot by a native servant in India, and the other was attacked by pneumonia in a lonely part of Canada. He managed to struggle into the nearest camp, where he expired.
Mr. Goss's name was first announced as "V. G. Goff" in the list of the crew.
The South Wales Daily Post, Monday 7th November 1910