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Back to article: BART SIR ALBERT ABDULLAH DAVID SASSOON

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SASSOON, SIR ALBERT ABDULLAH DAVID, 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 Bag-dad 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.