during the
Second Sino-Japanese War. Ellice Victor Elias Sassoon was born 20 (some sources cite 30) December 1881 in
Naples,
Kingdom of Italy. He was born to the
Baghdadi Jewish Sassoon family, which dealt successfully in commodities including precious metals, silks, gums, spices, wool and wheat. Later, the firm specialised in trading Indian cotton yarn and opium from Bombay to China. Sassoon lived in
Shanghai as a "wealthy bon vivant who worked tirelessly to protect Western interests in the Orient" Sassoon loved
photography and opened a studio in Shimla first called Hamilton Studios. In 1928 he established his hobby and opened a studio in Bombay State at Ballard Estate by the same name as Hamilton Studios at E.D.Sassoon Building (one of his property), Ballard Estate, and all the negatives from Shimla were brought here, to Bombay, closing down that studio completely. He was also fond of
horse racing and Chinese ivories (his vast collection was eventually bequeathed to the
British Museum in 2018). During the 1950s, Sassoon lived at his home on
Cable Beach in
Nassau. He also spent time in the remote town of
Hillsboro, New Mexico, located about a three-hour drive north of El Paso, Texas. He built a house there and named it El Refugio. It has since been turned into a bed and breakfast. Late in life he married his American nurse, Evelyn "Barnsie" Barnes, who remained in Nassau long after Sassoon's death in 1961. Lady Sassoon continued to provide support for the charity founded by her late husband to help Bahamian children, by hosting the black-tie Heart Ball each year over the
Valentine's Day weekend. ==E. D. Sassoon & Co.==