Albert Abdullah David Sassoon

Albert AD Sassoon
illustration in Vanity Fair magazine , 1879

Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, 1st Baronet KCB , CSI (born July 25, 1818 in Baghdad , † October 24, 1896 in Brighton ) was a British-Indian merchant and philanthropist .

Life

As the eldest son of the Jewish merchant David Sassoon ( Sassoon family ), Abdullah grew up in Baghdad. As a result of anti-Semitic attacks by the Ottoman government, he and his father fled to Bombay via Persia in 1833 . Educated in India , Abdullah very soon supported his father in the management of the influential trading company David Sassoon & Co. , which he founded and which - especially since the Nanking Treaty in 1842 - had also been active in China and subsequently its owners mainly through the opium trade should bring legendary wealth. After his father's death in 1864, Abdullah took over management of the company. Unlike his younger brother Elias , who permanently moved to China , he stayed at the company's headquarters in Bombay. He is also considered a great benefactor of the city: He not only donated the Sassoon Docks , but also participated, among other things. a. also financially in building Elphinstone High School .

Unlike his father, Albert Abdullah David Sassoon largely abandoned the Oriental-Jewish (Sephardic) family traditions and increasingly adopted British customs and traditions. The first name Albert was also only adopted later in the course of this assimilation process. In 1867 Albert Sassoon was accepted into the Order of the Star of India , and in 1872 he was finally made Knight of the Order of the Bath . A little later he finally moved to England , where he was raised to Baronet , of Kensington Gore in the Parish of St. Mary Abbots, Kensington , in the County of London in 1890 . He died in Brighton in 1896.

literature

• Hugh Chisholm : Sassoon, Sir Albert Abdullah David. In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Volume 24, Cambridge University Press, 1911, p. 227 ( archive.org ).