R. E. Sassoon

Article written by John Turley

There is no doubt that the jump jockeys of yesteryear were a brave if not foolhardy bunch given the scant protection available for their bodies at that time. The spirit of the age was typified by Captain R. E. Sassoon, one of the wealthiest amateur jockeys of the inter-war years and a man noted for ignoring medical advice to pursue his first love.

Captain Sassoon had already displayed great courage while serving with the Irish Guards during the Great War. On 8^th January 1918 he led a group of men who captured an enemy concrete stronghold and two machine guns, an act that led to him being awarded the Military Cross.

In 1931 Sassoon defied his doctors after a bruising fall at Wolverhampton to partner his recent expensive acquisition West Indies to win the Valentine Chase at Aintree. He had bought the mare for £6,000, a princely sum in those days, with a view to having a serious tilt at the Grand National the following year. But West Indies was killed in a fall before the big race.

Sassoon was not on board West Indies when she suffered her fatal fall as he had broken his collarbone. An understandably despondent quote from the owner and the scratching of all of his entries prompted rumours that Sassoon was pulling out of racing, which he had to deny.

But Sassoon’s adventurous life came to a sudden and tragic end when he was still just 39. Riding his own horse Clear Note in the Weald Handicap Chase at Hurst Park on 11^th January 1933, he suffered a terrible fall and internal injuries when the horse rolled over him. Despite being rushed to a nursing home in Marylebone and being given a blood transfusion Sassoon succumbed 5 days later.

Sassoon’s given names were Reginald Ellice. Born in Shanghai, he had extensive business interests in the Far East and on the Indian Sub-continent that led to him being described in the papers as a millionaire. The Sassoon’s were an Iraqi Jewish family who made their fortune from banking, shipping and the nineteenth century opium trade. Reginald was related to the leading owner/breeder Sir Victor and the great war poet Siegfried.

After Sassoon’s death, his string of horses, numbering around 16, was sold at a Tattersall’s auction. These included Alpine Hut, which was entered in the Grand National and had given Fulke Walwyn his first win as a jockey being acquired by Sassoon.

Sassoon is buried at Hoop Lane cemetery in Golders Green, in keeping with his family’s faith. He mother created a race in his name at the Hurst Park February fixture. Restricted to amateur riders, the inaugural running of the R. E. Sassoon Memorial Cup on 10^th February 1934 was won by Captain Cecil Browning on Mellburne. Fittingly the winning horse was trained by Percy Woodland, who trained most of Sassoon’s horses.

A further memorial to Sassoon stands in St Mary’s Road in Camberwell. London. His mother commissioned a block or workers’ flats and the five storey building, R. E Sassoon House, still stands there today. On the side of the Grade II Listed building is an artistic image of a horse and rider.