Lady Woolf

[Jelena JS]

I have question about LP Lord Woolf's wife.

From the Telegraph: Indeed, he [Harry Kenneth Woolf, Baron Woolf]considered becoming a Conservative MP, but he abandoned that ambition when he married Marguerite Sassoon (a cousin of the poet Siegfried Sassoon) in 1961, realising that a political career was incompatible with full involvement in family life.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3603403/The-accused.html

Siegfried Sassoon was a member of the wealthy Baghdadi Jewish Sassoon family. Two Sassoon baronetcies (both now extinct) were created in 1890 and 1909 for members of this family. LP Baron Sassoon also belongs to this family.

Is Lady Woolf  really a member of this family? Who was her father/grandfather?

[John Horton]

To start the ball rolling … Who’s Who says “d[aughter] of late George Sassoon”.

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[G. Willis]

Had a look for births of Marguerite Sassoons; only found one, born 1915, whom further research seems to indicate was daughter of a Joseph Sassoon, and died years ago.

This site- https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/people/lady-marguerite-woolf - indicates Lady Woolf was a director of Bellville Sassoon, a fashion company; details here - https://www.duedil.com/company/gb/01746515/bellville-sassoon-limited/directors- give a Marguerite Leah Woolf, b. 1935, as a director.

This- presumably family-produced- site has the marriage of Harry Kenneth Woolf and Marguerite, daughter of Shaul George Sassoon (1900-1955) and Victoria, née Gourgey. Shaul George Sassoon's father is listed as Murad Haim Sasson. I'm not sure how accurate this information is, simply as I don't know the source, but it's virtually all I could manage to find. Probate search gives the 1955 death of Shaul Gourgi Sassoon, of 43, Lordship Park, Stoke Newington, administration to Victoria Sassoon, widow and Victor Sassoon Sassoon, merchant. This source- http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11950226 - details his 1949 naturalisation, with his origin being Iraq, and he is mentioned in the London Gazette as a merchant and exporter here: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/38841/page/798/data.pdf

Given the notable Sassoon family's origins of Baghdad, Iraq, there may very well be some link, but I don't think I have the resources to find it. 'Cousin', as we all well know, covers a wide range of relationships, after all, and there were so many branches and members of the family (the wikipedia article 'Sassoon family' seems to give a good general overview) it's hard to ascertain from which Lady Woolf might derive! From what I've managed to look through so far, Shaul George/ Gourgi Sassoon and his father don't seem to be amongst the descendants of David Sassoon (1792-1864), treasurer of Baghdad, from whom Siegfried Sassoon descended, but what I've been looking at isn't comprehensive by any means; although David Sassoon was said to have had eight sons and five daughters by two wives, this family tree- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sassoon#/media/File:Sassoon_family_tree.jpg - is less than satisfactorily detailed, and so my tentative conclusion of a more distant relationship between Lady Woolf and Siegfried Sassoon may very well be erroneous.

[G. Willis]

Sorry- omitted this link: http://www.farhi.org/wc49/wc49_105.htm , the family-produced site to which I referred.

[G. Willis]

Further mentions of relationship between the Sassoons and Gourgeys:

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-jewish-chronicle/20081017/281878704198172

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67523688/percy-sassoon-gourgey

[Jelena JS]

Thank you for your answers