1. Sir Ellice Victor Sassoon, 3rd Baronet was an Italian businessman and hotelier from the wealthy Baghdadi Jewish Sassoon merchant and banking family.
26 Facts About Victor Sassoon
1. 2.
Sir Ellice Victor Elias Sassoon was born 20 December 1881 in Naples, Kingdom of Italy while his family was en route to India.
3.
Victor Sassoon was raised in England where he attended Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge.
4.
Victor Sassoon was from a Baghdadi Jewish family which dealt successfully in all sorts of commodities like precious metals, silks, gums, spices, wool and wheat.
5.
Sir Victor served in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War.
6.
Victor Sassoon survived a plane crash in 1916 and sustained leg injuries that plagued him for the rest of his life.
7.
When his father died in 1924, Victor Sassoon inherited his title and became 3rd Baronet of Bombay.
8.
Victor Sassoon moved to India, where he managed his family's textile mills and served in the Indian Legislative Assembly.
9.
Sir Victor Sassoon frequently travelled worldwide for business and pleasure and divided his time between Poona, India and Shanghai.
10.
Victor Sassoon acquired the Cathay Land Company, the Cathay Hotel Company and at least 50 other companies.
11.
Victor Sassoon built the Cathay Hotel in 1929, and other large hotels, office buildings and residences, many in The Bund, a waterfront area in central Shanghai.
12.
Victor Sassoon endeavored to protect Western interests in the Orient and helped European Jews survive in the Shanghai Ghetto.
13.
Victor Sassoon loved photography and opened a studio in Shimla first called Hamilton Studios.
14.
Victor Sassoon Building, Ballard Estate, and all the negatives from Shimla were brought here, to Bombay, closing down that studio completely.
15.
Victor Sassoon was fond of horse racing, Chinese ivories, international friendships and travel.
16.
Victor Sassoon counted members of the aristocracy and such Hollywood stars as Charlie Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, Basil Rathbone and Bette Davis among his acquaintances.
17.
Victor Sassoon lived in Shanghai until 1941, when due to China's war with Japan, he was forced to leave.
18.
Victor Sassoon spent time in the remote town of Hillsboro, New Mexico, located about a three-hour drive north of El Paso, Texas.
19.
Victor Sassoon built a house there and named it El Refugio.
20.
Lady Victor Sassoon continued to provide support for the charity founded by her late husband to help Bahamian children, by hosting the black-tie Heart Ball each year over the Valentine's Day weekend.
21.
The mastermind behind Sir Victor Sassoon's racing success in Britain was trainer Sir Noel Murless who became manager of Eve Stud in 1952.
22.
Victor Sassoon purchased the property from Sir Victor's widow in 1970 and gave it the name Woodditton Stud.
23.
Sassoon purchased Beech House Stud from Martin H Benson in 1960 and along with Eve Stud it became part of Sassoon Studs Incorporated managed by Murless.
24.
Victor Sassoon's wife sold the Victor Sassoon Studs to Louis Freedman in 1971.
25.
Victor Sassoon had no issue and the baronetcy became extinct.
26.
Victor Sassoon was related by marriage to the Mocatta family and he himself was a Sephardic Jew.