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Reuben Sassoon

English businessman

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ16031293
Source-derived summary

Reuben David Sassoon, MVO (1835–1905) was an English businessman.

Biography

Early life

Reuben David Sassoon was born in 1835 in Baghdad. His father was David Sassoon (1792–1864), a Jewish trader of opium and cotton in China who served as the Treasurer of Baghdad from 1817 to 1829. One of his brothers was Arthur Sassoon (1840–1912).

Career

He worked for his father's company, serving as director of David Sassoon & Co. for East India and China.

By 1865, he also served on the board of directors of the China Steamship and Labuan Coal Company alongside T. C. Bruce, Sir J. D. Elphinstone, Harry Borradaile, H. B. Loch, Henry Alers Hankey, William Miller, Edward Pereira, G. Lathom Brown, Alexander Sinclair, James N. Daniel and John Hickie.

In 1890 he was a guest at Tranby Croft, and was the croupier for the Prince of Wales on the successive nights of the royal Baccarat scandal. He saw nothing amiss.

Judaism

Together with Abraham Jacob David and Marcus David Ezekiel, he was involved with the Ohel Leah Synagogue near Staunton Street in Hong Kong by 1898.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Reuben Sassoon” is english businessman. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Reuben, Sassoon and English, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1835, 1905, 1792, 1864—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1835. For this dossier, Reuben, Sassoon and English is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “english businessman” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16031293. VIAF identifies the subject as 9884151656343308400008. The Library of Congress control number is no2018004404. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1835, 1905, 1792 and 1864.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Reuben Sassoon”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Reuben Sassoon primary sources, Reuben Sassoon archive and Reuben research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Reuben Sassoon”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Reuben Sassoon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.