37 Facts About Philip Sassoon

Sir Philip Albert Gustave David Sassoon, 3rd Baronet was a British politician and aristocrat.

Philip Sassoon served as a staff officer during the First World War, from July 1914 to November 1918.

Philip Sassoon was born in his mother's mansion on Avenue de Marigny, Paris.

Philip Sassoon's father was Sir Edward Albert Sassoon, 2nd Baronet, MP, son of Albert Abdullah David Sassoon; his mother was Aline Caroline, daughter of Gustave Samuel de Rothschild.

Philip Sassoon's sister was Sybil Sassoon, who married the Marquess of Cholmondeley.

Philip Sassoon was a cousin of the war poet Siegfried Sassoon.

Philip Sassoon was descended from the banking family of Frankfurt.

Philip Sassoon took advantage of British rule to return to Baghdad to trade.

Philip Sassoon's father was not a successful backbencher, but the political influences had a profound effect on young Philip.

Philip Sassoon was educated at Farnborough Prep school and Eton before going up to Oxford.

Philip Sassoon's father was friendly with Frances Horner, wife of Sir John Horner, a longtime friend of Gladstone who lived at Mells Manor in Somerset.

Philip Sassoon's house master was a member of the secret society of liberals, the Young Apostles.

Philip Sassoon was taught aesthetics by Henry Luxmoore giving an insight into philosophy and social realism.

Philip Sassoon was one of only 25 Jewish undergraduates, but was invited to join the Bullingdon Club.

Philip Sassoon joined the East Kent Yeomanry while still at Oxford and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

Philip Sassoon spoke with a clipped sibilant lisp, and liked to relax in a blue silk smoking jacket with slippers of zebra hide.

Philip Sassoon had fickle, moody fascinations with young men with whom he soon grew bored, but was loyally appreciative of female friends and kept an inner court of elderly, cultivated, ironical bachelors.

Philip Sassoon served as private secretary to Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig during the First World War from December 1915 to 1918.

Philip Sassoon was present at the meeting on 1 December 1914 at the Chateau Demont at Merville in France, when King George V and Edward Prince of Wales met with Raymond Poincare, President of France, and the Generals Joseph Joffre, Ferdinand Foch and Sir Henry Rawlinson.

Philip Sassoon was Unionist Member of Parliament for Hythe from 1912, succeeding his father, initially as the "Baby of the House".

Philip Sassoon was Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Lloyd George in 1920.

Philip Sassoon was appointed a Privy Councillor in the 1929 Dissolution Honours.

Philip Sassoon idolised the Prince of Wales, and supported the King during the abdication crisis of 1936.

Philip Sassoon had a reputation for being one of the greatest hosts in Britain.

Philip Sassoon owned Trent Park and hired Philip Tilden to largely rebuild that mansion located in Cockfosters.

Philip Sassoon had the Victorian additions demolished or altered, except for the west service wing, between 1926 and 1931.

Philip Sassoon conducted excavations of Camlet Moat at Trent Park in the 1920s and was reported to have found oak beams which formed the basis of a drawbridge, Roman shoes and daggers as well as mosaic tiles depicting a knight mounted on a white horse.

Philip Sassoon's Ballets Russes-inspired dining room at Port Lympne with its lapis walls, opalescent ceiling, gilt-winged chairs with jade-green cushions, all surmounted by a frieze of scantily-clad Africans, suggests the outsider confidence of a Rothschild and of an openly gay man.

Philip Sassoon later became the owner of the first Percival Petrel two-engine monoplane, completed in 1938.

Philip Sassoon was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1917.

On 7 October 1919, it was announced that Philip Sassoon had been awarded the French Croix de Guerre "for distinguished services rendered during the course of the campaign".

In 2012 Philip Sassoon's set of decorations was sold at auction.

Philip Sassoon was Chairman of the Trustees of the National Gallery from 1933 to 1935, and as Minister for Works in the 1930s he was responsible for embellishing many of London's monuments and parks.

Philip Sassoon was a trustee of British School at Rome.

Philip Sassoon was said to have lived an openly homosexual life.

Back in his Eton days, if not for Denys Finch-Hatton's protection, he would have been badly bullied for being flamboyant, thus Philip Sassoon became an ardent admirer of Denys and gave him a lavish ruby shirt studs and diamond cuff link as gifts.

Philip Sassoon died on 3 June 1939, aged 50, of complications from influenza.