 Arpad Busson's father, Pascal Busson, was a former French army officer and Algerian War veteran, who later turned financier.His mother, Florence "Flockie" Harcourt-Smith, was English former debutante.His parents met in Paris and named their son after the Hungarian-born banker Árpád Plesch (1889–1974), who not only was Florence's step-father (he was the second husband of her mother, Marysia Ulam Krauss Harcourt-Smith), but had also been her step-grandfather (Plesch's first wife, Leonie Caro Ulam, was his second wife's mother).