Victor Sassoon
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Sir (Ellice) Victor Sassoon, 3rd Baronet GBE (20 December 1881 – 13 August 1961) was a businessman and hotelier from the Sassoon banking family.
He succeeded to the Baronetcy on the death of his father Edward Elias Sassoon in 1924. He had no issue, and the Baronetcy became extinct on his death.
He lived in Shanghai up until the Japanese occupation. The Cathay Hotel, now the Peace Hotel, was confiscated by the PRC after 1949. He was also an avid photographer and held extravagant parties at his hotel. Late in his life, Sassoon converted to Buddhism. Sassoon was related by marriage to the Mocatta family and he himself was a Sephardic Jew. One of his former employees, Lord Kadoorie, later founded the Hong Kong based utility company China Light and Power. One of his right hand men in Shanghai was Gordon Currie who was put into a concentration camp by the Japanese and remained there for several years.
A fan of thoroughbred horse racing, he owned a highly successful stable of horses that won numerous prestigious races in the UK including the Epsom Derby, Epsom Oaks, One Thousand Guineas, Two Thousand Guineas, St. Leger Stakes, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes.
Sassoon Road in Hong Kong is named after him.
Preceded by: Edward Elias Sassoon |
Sassoon Baronet of Bombay (1909 creation) 1924–1961 |
Succeeded by: Title extinct |
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Categories: 1881 births | 1961 deaths | Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom | Hong Kong photographers | Hong Kong businesspeople | Hotel owners | Hong Kong Jews | British racehorse owners & breeders | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire | Sassoon family | British Jews | United Kingdom sportspeople stubs | Horse stubs | Business biography stubs | Hong Kong people stubs