ALIAS DAVID SASSON (BOMBEI)

Elias David Sassoon:

Indian merchant and banker; born in 1819; died at Colombo 1880. He was the first of David Sassoon's sons to go to China (in 1844) to open a branch there. After his return he conducted his father's business in Bombay with great skill and energy, and avoided becoming involved in the crisis of the share mania. He left his father's firm in 1867, and opened branches in Hongkong and Shanghai. Sassoon contributed to the erection of the Maternity Hospital at Puna, and to the David Sassoon Infirm Asylum in the same city. He also built a synagogue in Hongkong