Sassoon, Elias Victor, 1881-1961

Sir Ellice Victor Elias Sassoon, Bart., G.B.E. was born December 30, 1881 in Naples, Italy while his family was en route to India. He was raised in England where he attended Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge University. He was from a Baghdadi Jewish family who had made their fortune in the cotton industry in India and still had substantial holdings there. Sir Victor served in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I. He survived a plane crash in 1916 and sustained leg injuries that plagued him the rest of his life. When his father died in 1924, Victor Sassoon inherited his title and became 3rd Baronet of Bombay. He moved to India, where he managed his family’s textile mills and served in the Indian Legislative Assembly.

In the 1920s and 1930s, he transferred much of his wealth from India to Shanghai, China and contributed to a real estate boom thereby by investing millions of dollars in the local economy. Sir Victor frequently traveled world-wide for business and pleasure and divided his time between the Poona, India Sassoon house, Eves, and Shanghai. All Sir Victor’s houses were named Eves, using his initials for the name. He acquired the Cathay Land Company and the Cathay Hotel Company and at least 50 other companies. Sassoon built the Cathay Hotel, now the Peace Hotel, in 1929, and other large hotels,office buildings and residences, many in the Bund district. At one time, he owned over 1,800 properties there. Sassoon endeavored to protect Western interests in the Orient and aid Jews in Shanghai.

Sir Victor loved photography,horse racing, Chinese ivories and international friendships and travel. He counted the aristocracy and such Hollywood stars as Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, Basil Rathbone and Bette Davis among his acquaintances. An accomplished photographer, he made many images of friends, local and foreign landscapes and created numerous photograph albums. He also illustrated his diaries with his own photographs. Sassoon’s many thoroughbred horses won prestigious races in India and the U.K.

He lived in Shanghai until 1941, when due to China’s ongoing war with Japan, he was forced to leave. After the Communist Revolution of 1949, sold his business interests in China and relocated to Nassau, The Bahamas. In 1959, Sir Victor married Evelyn Barnes. He died in Nassau in 1961.

Lady Sassoon founded a charity in Sassoon’s honor to help Bahamian children with heart disease. She continued to provide support by hosting the black-tie Heart Ball every year on Valentine's Day weekend and the Sassoon Heart Foundation continues to this day.

References:

Source: Thomas, Gould Hunter. An American in China: 1936-39, a memoir, (accessed 25 January 2012).

Continental society…. Life, August 29, 1938, 23.

Cover of Horse and Hound, June 14, 1958 with a picture of Sir Victor and his winning horse at the Epsom Derby.

A Curry Named for Eve. Sports Illustrated, October 24, 1960, 74-75.

Jackson, Stanley. The Sassoons. London: Heinemann, 1968.

The Shanghai Boom, p.31-40, 99-102, 104, 106, 109-112; and Appendix I: Men of Shanghai, p.115-116; and Appendix II: The Yanks in Shanghai, p. 118, 120; and Appendix III: Extract from a Taipan’s Budget, p. 120, Fortune, vol. XI, no. 1, January, 1935.

Sir Victor Sassoon Forsakes India for China, Sunday Times, Perth, WA, Sunday, July 19, 1931.

’twas St. Paddy’s Day. Sports Illustrated, June 13, 1960, 34-35.

1909 baronetcy; 1922-1923 and 1926-1929 member of the Legislative Assembly, India; 1927-1948 realtor and hotelier in Shanghai; 1948-1961 Nassau Bahamas; 1929 member of the Royal Commission for the investigation of Labour Conditions in India; 1947 GBE;governing director, E. D. Sassoon Banking Company Limited.

Epithet: administrator in India and banker

Title: 3rd baronet