With a degree in Economic and Financial Sciences, he began his diplomatic career as a legation attaché, in December 1901, at the Directorate General for Commercial and Consular Affairs. In July 1939 he was sent to Budapest as a plenipotentiary minister.
In 1944, German troops occupied Hungary and installed a new, more subservient government. Persecution of Jews intensifies, with confiscation of assets, mandatory use of the yellow star, closure in ghettos, etc.
In April 1944, responding to a request from the allies to reduce the level of diplomatic representation in Budapest, Salazar calls Sampaio Garrido, leaving the head of business, Teixeira Branquinho, in his place. Later, Sampaio Garrido left for Berne, taking his Jewish secretary with him, having continued to guide Teixeira Branquinho in supporting the Jews, namely by sending him lists with names for which he asked for assistance and asylum in the Portuguese legation. Always in relation to Garrido, Branquinho obtained from Salazar the authorization to assign Portuguese passports to Hungarian Jews, provided that they have a family, cultural or economic relationship with Portugal or Brazil.
Altogether, with Salazar's authorization, around 1000 protection documents were granted by Portugal, of which 700 provisional passports with no indication of Portuguese nationality, as required by Salazar, so that later they could not claim for it.
In February 2010, the Commission for the Designation of the Righteous, created by Yad Vashem, awarded him the medal of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Marta Silva, 6A