Robert's father John Benjamin, their oldest son, expanded the grocery into a chain of 250 store throughout the south of England, East Anglia and the Midlands.

[9] In 1937, Sainsbury married his second cousin Lisa Ingeborg Van den Bergh in a secret wedding ceremony.

[10] They had four children: Robert James Sainsbury was a strong supporter of the Beveridge Report, which cradled the welfare state into being.

[12] In 1973, Sainsbury made a gift to the University of East Anglia and hundreds of paintings along with drawings and sculptures from around the world.

[2][14] After the initial gift they continued to acquire artworks for the university and to make endowments for running costs and for new departments specializing in non-Western arts.

[1] He was an early supporter of artists Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and Charles Despiau, and later Giacometti.

[1] In 1933, he bought Henry Moore's major stone sculpture Mother and Child of 1932 for £158, who was at the time the little-known art teacher and with whom he would become a lifelong friend.