Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon

Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, Bart. (1818-1896), British Indian philanthropist and merchant, was born at Bagdad on the 25th of July 1818, a member of a Jewish family settled there since the beginning of the 16th century, and previously in Spain. His father, a leading Bagdad merchant, was driven by repeated Anti-Semitic outbreaks to remove from Bagdad to Bushire, Persia, and, in 1832, he settled in Bombay where he founded a large banking and mercantile business. Albert Sassoon was educated in India, and on the death of his father became head of the firm. He was a great benefactor to the city of Bombay, among his gifts being the Sassoon dock, completed in 1875, and a handsome proportion of the cost of the new Elphinstone High School. In 1867 he was made a C.S.I., and in 1872 a Knight of the Bath. In 1873 he visited England and received the freedom of the city of London. Shortly afterwards he settled in England, and was made a baronet in 1890. He died at Brighton on the 24th of October 1896.