Sassoon David Sassoon (August 1832 – 24 June 1867) was a British Indian Iraqi businessman, banker, and philanthropist.

Sassoon was born in August 1832 in Bombay, India.^[1][2] He was a member of the Sassoon family. His father was David Sassoon (1792–1864), a leading trader of cotton and opium who served as the treasurer of Baghdad between 1817 and 1829, and his mother was Farha Hayim of Baghdad.^[1] He suffered from poor health from infancy but travelled widely.^[3]

He was educated in biblical and Talmudic lore in Baghdad.^[2] He also spoke several Oriental languages with great fluency.^[2]

He proceeded to Shanghai, where he conducted the mercantile operations of the Chinese branch of the firm of David Sassoon, Sons & Co.^[2] He went to London in 1858, where he opened a bank on Leadenhall Street.^[1][2] The business grew exponentially during the American Civil War, as they suddenly became the main suppliers of cotton to British spinning mills and the British market.^[1]

He served as president of a committee which had for its object the organization of an expedition to the Jews in China, Abyssinia, and the East. He was also a member of the council of Jews' College and of the committee of the Jews' Free School, which two institutions he munificently endowed.^[1] He was also a warden of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue.^[1] For several years, he acted as examiner in Hebrew to the Jews' Free School.^{[citation needed]}

At the age of 18, he married a cousin Farha Reuben (1838–1919) of Mumbai, daughter of Solomon Reuben Sassoon of Baghdad.^[1] She later changed her name to Flora in England. They had four children giving rise to his grandchildren as follows:

• Joseph Sassoon Sassoon (1855–1918); married Louise de Gunzburg, a daughter of Horace Günzburg
  • Sassoon Joseph Sassoon (1885–1922), army officer
  • Arthur Meyer Sassoon, army officer
  • Frederick Sassoon, army officer
  • four other grandchildren
• Rachel Sassoon (later Beer) (1858–1927), newspaper editor; married Frederick Arthur Beer, son of Julius Beer^[1]
• Alfred Ezra Sassoon (1861–1895); married Theresa Thornycroft
  • Michael Thorneycroft Sassoon (1884–1969)
  • Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967), war poet, writer and soldier
  • Hamo Watts Sassoon (1887–1915), army officer
• Frederick Meyer Sassoon (1862–1889)
  • two granddaughters

They lived at Ashley Park in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey and equally at 17 Cumberland Terrace next to Regent's Park in St Pancras, London.^[1] He died in 1867 in London, leaving an estate of £120,000 (equivalent to £13,420,000 in 2023).^[1] Later, Flora moved to 37 Adelaide Crescent in Hove, East Sussex.^[4]

• Carlyle, Edward Irving (1897). "Sassoon, Albert Abdullah David" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Sassoon, Joseph (2022). The Global Merchants: The Enterprise and Extravagance of the Sassoon Dynasty. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-241-38864-8.