Hotel cathay victor sassoon biography

Businessman and hotelier (–)

Sir Ellice Victor Sassoon, 3rd BaronetGBE (20 December – 13 August ) was an Italian businessman and hotelier from the wealthy Baghdadi JewishSassoon merchant and banking family.

Biography

Sir Ellice Victor Elias Sassoon was born 20 (some sources cite 30) December in Naples, Kingdom of Italy while his family was en route to India. He was raised in England where he attended Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was from a Baghdadi Jewish family which dealt successfully in all sorts of commodities like precious metals, silks, gums, spices, wool and wheat. But, later, it specialised in trading Indian cotton yarn and opium from Bombay to China.

Sir Victor served in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War. He survived a plane crash in and sustained leg injuries that plagued him for the rest of his life. When his father died in , Victor inherited his title and became 3rd Baronet of Bombay. He moved to India, where he managed his family's textile mills and served in the Indian Legislative Assembly.

In the s and s, he transferred much of his wealth from India to Shanghai, China and contributed to a real estate boom there by investing millions of US dollars in the local economy. Sir Victor frequently travelled worldwide for business and pleasure and divided his time between Poona, India and Shanghai. He acquired the Cathay Land Company, the Cathay Hotel Company and at least 50 other companies. Sassoon built the Cathay Hotel (now the Peace Hotel) in , and other large hotels, office buildings and residences, many in The Bund, a waterfront area in central Shanghai (including Hamilton House, Metropole Hotel and Embankment). At one time, he owned over 1, properties there. Sassoon endeavored to protect Western interests in the Orient and helped European Jews survive in the Shanghai Ghetto.

Sassoon loved photography and opened

Footnotes:

[1]Etan Smallman, “China’s Kaifeng Jews date back 1, years and have an unlikely ambassador - a teenager from Hong Kong,” Post Magazine, Mar. 8, ,  

[2]Madison Jackson, “The Jews of Kaifeng: China’s Only Native Jewish Community,” My Jewish Learning,  

[3] Jonathan Spence, “Essay; Leaky Boat to China,” New York Times, Oct. 19, ,  

[4] Michael Pollack, Mandarins, Jews, and Missionaries: The Jewish Experience in the Chinese Empire. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America,

[5] Madison Jackson, “The Jews of Kaifeng: China’s Only Native Jewish Community,” My Jewish Learning,  

[6] “First Wave of Jewish Immigrants,” Chinese Jews,  

[7] Jonathan Kaufman, The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish DYnasties that Helped Create Modern China, United States of America: Penguin Books,  

[8] Jonathan Kaufman, The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish DYnasties that Helped Create Modern China, United States of America: Penguin Books,

[9] Jonathan Kaufman, The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish DYnasties that Helped Create Modern China, United States of America: Penguin Books,

[10] Jonathan Kaufman, The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish DYnasties that Helped Create Modern China, United States of America: Penguin Books,

[11] Jonathan Kaufman, The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish DYnasties that Helped Create Modern China, United States of America: Penguin Books,

[12]Jonathan Kaufman, The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish DYnasties that Helped Create Modern China, United States of America: Penguin Books,

[13] “E.D. Sassoon & Co.,” Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, Aug. 13, , %26_Co. 

[14] See Jonathan Kaufman, The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish DYnasties that Helped Create Modern China, United States of America: Pengu

Hotel in Shanghai, China

For the Hong Kong action western, see Peace Hotel (film).

The Peace Hotel (Chinese: 和平饭店, pinyin: Hépíng Fàndiàn, Shanghainese: Wubin Vaedi) is a hotel on The Bund in Shanghai, China, which overlooks the surrounding areas. The hotel has two different buildings. The Sassoon House, originally housed the Cathay Hotel and is today the Fairmont Peace Hotel run by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts of Canada. The South Building was built as the Palace Hotel and is today a residence and studio for artists, known as The Swatch Art Peace Hotel. The two buildings both face the Bund, but are divided by Nanjing Road.

North Building

The larger North Building is called Sassoon House. The building was built by Sir Victor Sassoon, of the Sassoon family, which built a Shanghai business and real estate empire in the early 20th century. He was a British Sephardic Jew of Iraqi origin, educated at Harrow School and Cambridge University. His family owned the trading company "E.D. Sassoon & Co.", which managed extensive business interests in Bombay, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

Sassoon House was the first high-rise building built by Victor Sassoon, and one of the first skyscrapers in the Eastern Hemisphere. Sassoon bought a full city block on a prominent spot on the Bund prior to construction. When built the Sassoon House topped out at fifty feet taller than the next tallest building on the Bund. It was designed by architects Palmer and Turner, with a reinforced concrete structure. Construction began in , and was completed in

The Cathay Hotel incorporated a high standard of luxury and modern amenities such as indoor plumbing, which made it a more esteemed establishment than other nearby hotels such as the Kadoorie family owned Majestic and Astor House Hotels. The Cathay featured a floor of rooms referred to as the “national suites,” with each