Sassoon is buried in St. Andrews Church, Mells, Somerset. His father was an Iraqi Jew, his mother an Anglo-Catholic who liked Wagner’s music.
He converted to Catholicism towards the end of his life, under the influence of the priest and writer Ronald Knox who is buried nearby.
Photograph: Niall McDevitt
He was known amongst his WWI fellows as ‘Mad Jack’ since he enjoyed going out on night raids armed with a cosh. He once destroyed a machine-gun pillbox single-handed but failed to report back, so losing an opportunity for his company to exploit the advantage. When they finally caught up with him he was laying down reading a book of poetry, and for this reason failed to receive a decoration for his efforts.
Comment by Dave Tomlin on 30 May, 2012 at 1:10 pmMonsignor Ronald Knox used to visit us at home when I was a nipper. A very eminent fellow, and quite fun too.
Comment by Jolyon on 18 January, 2016 at 10:45 pm