Sybil Sassoon, Marchioness of Cholmondeley

Sybil Sassoon, Countess of Rocksavage by John Singer Sargent, oil on canvas, 1913

Sybil Rachel Betty Cecile Sassoon, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, CBE (30 January 1894 – 26 December 1989) was Chief Staff Officer to Director WRNS, WRNS HQ, Admiralty (HMS Pembroke III) from 12 November 1939 until 1946. On 9 February 1945 she was appointed as Supt. of the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) and the following year was made CBE. She belonged to the prominent Sassoon and Rothschild families.

Family

Sassoon was born in London, to a Jewish family (from India and Iraq on her father's side, and Germany and France on her mother's side). She was the daughter of Sir Edward Albert Sassoon (1856–1912), 2nd Bt., and Baroness Aline Caroline de Rothschild (1865–1909)

Married on 6 August 1913 to George Cholmondeley, 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley (19 May 1883 – 16 September 1968);[1] they had two sons and one daughter:

The Sybil Sassoon gardens at Houghton were opened to the public in 1996. Lady Sybil's grandson, the current marquess, developed the gardens in honour of his grandmother. In 2008, the garden was named Historic Houses Association and Christie's Garden of the Year.[2] In "the pool garden", the entwined initials "SS" are represented in the outlines of the clipped box-hedge which surrounds plantings of lavender and rosemary.[3]

Sassoon died in Cheshire.

Through her son George Hugh Cholmondeley, Sybil is the great-grandmother of actor Jack Huston.

Titles

She was identified by a number of changing titles during the several phases of her life:

Honors

See also

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lundy, Darryl. "5th Marquess of Cholmondeley (#85433)". The Peerage.
  2. Caroline, Donald. "The new garden at Houghton Hall, King’s Lynn, Norfolk", The Times (UK); 11 May 2008.
  3. Houghton Hall Gardens webpage; accessed 26 March 2014.

References

External links