{{Short description|English banker and socialite}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2014}} {{Use British English|date=March 2014}} {{Infobox person | name =Arthur Sassoon | image = | caption = | birth_name = Arthur Abraham David Sassoon | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1840|05|25}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1912|03|13|1840|05|25}} | death_place = Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire | death_cause = | resting_place = Golders Green Jewish Cemetery, London | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation =Banker | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = Eugenie Louise Perugia | children = | parents =David Sassoon<br/>Farha (Hyeem) Sassoon | relatives = }} '''Arthur Abraham David Sassoon''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MVO}} (25 May 1840 – 13 March 1912) was an English banker and socialite.
==Biography==
===Early life=== {{see also|Sassoon family}} Arthur Abraham David Sassoon was born on 25 May 1840.<ref name="EncH&Pv12p164">{{Harvnb|Middleton|2003|loc=Vol. 12, p. 164.}}</ref> He was the fifth son of David Sassoon (1792–1864), a Jewish trader of cotton and opium in China who served as the Treasurer of Baghdad from 1817 to 1829.<ref name="obituary">[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91339309 Obituary: Mr. Arthur Sassoon.], ''Kalgoorlie Miner'', 15 March 1912</ref><ref name="npg">[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp96556/arthur-abraham-david-sassoon National Portrait Gallery: Arthur Abraham David Sassoon (1840–1912), Fifth son of David Sassoon]</ref> His mother was Farha (Hyeem) Sassoon (1814-1886), a philanthropist. One of his brothers was Reuben David Sassoon (1835–1905), a banker,<ref name="npg"/> and Sir Edward Sassoon, 2nd Baronet, of Kensington Gore was his uncle.<ref name="EncH&Pv12p164"/>
===Career=== He was an original member of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Bank, which later became known as The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Hong Kong subsidiary of HSBC ({{LSE|HSBA}}; {{nyse|HSBC}}).<ref>Jonathan Goldstein (ed.), ''The Jews of China'', M.E. Sharpe, 1999, Volume 1, p. 147 [https://books.google.com/books?id=8Z6DlzyT2vwC&dq=%22arthur+sassoon%22&pg=PA147]</ref> For many years he was a director of David Sassoon & Company of Leadenhall Street, London, a trading company founded by his brother Reuben David Sassoon.<ref name="EncH&Pv12p164"/>
===Personal life=== thumb|right|8–14 King's Gardens, Hove. Arthur and his wife resided at number 8. In 1873, he married (Eugenie) Louise Perugia (1854-1943), daughter of Signor Achille Perugia of Trieste, Italy, whose sister Marie Perugia (1862–1937) was married to Leopold de Rothschild (1845–1917).<ref name="obituary"/><ref name="janeridley"/><ref name="canadian">[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=883&dat=19170622&id=uuFOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4UsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5290,350788 'The Late Leopold de Rothschild'], ''Canadian Jewish Chronicle'', 22 June 1917</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.woodsideparksynagogue.org.uk/willesden-cemetary-part-1.html |title=Willesden Cemetery Walk Part I |access-date=25 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203220223/http://www.woodsideparksynagogue.org.uk/willesden-cemetary-part-1.html |archive-date=3 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The couple lived at Albert Gate, Knightsbridge.<ref>{{cite web |title=Knightsbridge North Side: Parkside to Albert Gate Court, Albert Gate Pages 46-53 Survey of London: Volume 45, Knightsbridge. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol45/pp46-53 |website=British History Online |publisher=LCC 2000 |access-date=1 October 2023}}</ref> Louise became a leading socialite in London high society,<ref name="canadian"/> and her work with poor Jewish girls led to her being appointed CBE.<ref name="EncH&Pv12p164"/> Her portrait was painted by George Frederic Watts (1817–1904) in 1882.<ref>[https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/mrs-arthur-sassoon-202751 Art UK]</ref> It is displayed in Tate Britain.<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/watts-mrs-arthur-sassoon-n04449 Tate]</ref>
For many years the couple resided in Hove, East Sussex. In 1881 they were recorded as living at 6 Queen's Gardens, part of a sea-facing terrace of seven late-19th-century mansions. (These were damaged by bombs in World War II and demolished in the 1960s; flats called Kingsway Court now occupy the site.)<ref name="EncH&Pv11p2">{{Harvnb|Middleton|2003|loc=Vol. 11, p. 2.}}</ref> With a staff of 13 servants, cooks and butlers, they were "one of the largest employers of domestic staff in Hove".<ref name="EncH&Pv12p165">{{Harvnb|Middleton|2003|loc=Vol. 12, p. 165.}}</ref> Sassoon's brother Reuben lived next door at number 7.<ref name="EncH&Pv11p2"/> From 1883 until Arthur Sassoon's death,<ref name="EncH&Pv12p165"/> they lived at 8 King's Gardens, a Grade II-listed building.<ref name="janeridley"/><ref name="jewishtrails">Marcus Roberts, [http://www.jtrails.org.uk/trails/brighton-and-hove/history?page=2 Brighton & Hove: History], ''National Anglo-Jewish Trail''</ref><ref name="NHLE-1187568">{{NHLE|desc=King's Gardens (terrace) 8–14, Kingsway, Hove|num=1187568|grade=II|accessdate=7 December 2013}}</ref>
Sassoon was a personal friend and confidante of King Edward VII (1841–1910).<ref name="obituary"/><ref name="janeridley">Jane Ridley, ''Bertie: A Life of Edward VII'', Random House, 2012, p. 430 [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZgINPRluu2UC&dq=%22arthur+sassoon%22&pg=PA430]</ref><ref name="theargus">Adam Trimingham, [http://www.theargus.co.uk/magazine/nostalgia/10501738.A_grand_day_out/ A grand day out], ''The Argus'', 1 July 2013</ref><ref name="hibbert">Christopher Hibbert, ''Edward VII: The Last Victorian King'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, p. 287 [https://books.google.com/books?id=Xv4VdYIGLAoC&dq=%22arthur+sassoon%22&pg=PA287]</ref> The King would often stay with him on his visits to Brighton, sometimes to visit his mistress Alice Keppel (1868–1947).<ref name="janeridley"/><ref name="theargus"/><ref name="hibbert"/> Moreover, Arthur Sassoon would accompany him on day trips to the Worthing Pier and the gardens of Beach House, the private residence of Sir Edmund Giles Loder, 2nd Baronet (1849-1920).<ref name="theargus"/> Another guest was Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890).<ref>Isabel Burton, ''The Life of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton'', Asian Educational Services, 1999, p. 135 [https://books.google.com/books?id=smDczyoyYKkC&dq=%22arthur+sassoon%22&pg=PA135]</ref> Known visits by the King to the Sassoons' house were in 1898, 1907, 1908 and 1910, but other visits are believed to have gone unrecorded. He felt his bronchitis and asthma improved when he visited the Sussex coast, so his visits were not merely social. Edward VII was also an occasional guest of Arthur Sassoon at Tulchan Lodge, Advie, Morayshire, during the shooting season on the Scottish moors.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bishop|first1=Bruce B.|title=Lost Badenoch and Strathspey|date=2011|publisher=Birlinn Ltd|isbn=978-1-84158-963-3|page=58}}</ref> After the King's death in May 1910, Arthur Sassoon paid £100 towards a memorial sculpture. The Peace Statue, also known as the King Edward VII Memorial Statue,<ref name="EncH&Pv12p165"/> was designed by Newbury Abbot Trent and unveiled in 1912 on the seafront at the ancient parish boundary of Brighton and Hove.<ref name="Antram114">{{Harvnb|Antram|Morrice|2008|p=114.}}</ref>
He died on 13 March 1912 while staying at the Leighton Buzzard home of Leopold de Rothschild, his brother-in-law.<ref name="EncH&Pv12p165"/> Sassoon's photogravure, done by Walker & Boutall in 1897, rests in the National Portrait Gallery in London.<ref name="npg"/> He is also commemorated by four stained glass windows in the Middle Street Synagogue, Brighton.<ref name="EncH&Pv12p165"/> His fortune, which exceeded £650,000, passed to the children of his brother Reuben.<ref name="EncH&Pv12p165"/>
Both Brighton and Hove were closely associated with the Sassoon family in the 19th and 20th centuries. Henry Labouchère once quipped "Brighton is a sea-coast town, three miles long and three yards broad, with a Sassoon at each end and one in the middle".<ref name="EncH&Pv12p165"/> This referred to Albert Sassoon at the east end, Reuben Sassoon in the middle and Arthur Sassoon at the west end.<ref name="EncH&Pv12p166">{{Harvnb|Middleton|2003|loc=Vol. 12, p. 166.}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} *{{Cite book|last1=Antram|first1=Nicholas|last2=Morrice|first2=Richard|title=Brighton and Hove|series=Pevsner Architectural Guides|publisher=Yale University Press|location=London|year=2008|isbn=978-0-300-12661-7}} *{{cite book|last=Middleton|first=Judy|title=The Encyclopaedia of Hove & Portslade|year=2003|publisher=Brighton & Hove Libraries|location=Brighton}}<!-- No ISBN available --> {{refend}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sassoon, Arthur}} Category:1840 births Category:1912 deaths Category:People from British Hong Kong Category:People from Hove Category:English bankers Category:Hong Kong bankers Category:HSBC people Category:Members of the Royal Victorian Order Arthur Category:English Jews Category:Edward VII Category:Burials at Golders Green Jewish Cemetery Category:19th-century English businesspeople Category:English people of Indian-Jewish descent Category:British businesspeople of Indian descent Category:Baghdadi Jews Category:Hong Kong businesspeople