PRO 270,498 and HO 144/11584
The applicant’s name varied slightly depending on context. In Turkish, he was known as Elia velidi [“son of”] Raphael Afoumado, in Spanish as Elie Afoumado, in Hebrew as Elie Raphael Afoumado (his birth name), and in English as Elia Raphael Afoumado. He was born in the neighborhood of the Golden Horn in Istanbul on February 28, 1878 to Nessim Sabatai Afoumado and Rachel Afoumado, née Babani, both Ottoman (Spanish Jews). He was educated in the free private French and Hebrew School founded by Baron Hirsch for Jewish children at Haskeray, Istanbul.[1] Afoumado was the eldest of seven children. His eldest brother Aaron Afoumado served in the Survey Department of the Finance Minister, Giza Branch, Cairo. His second brother Victor Samuel Afoumado was killed in action in April 1918 at Bois dAngard while serving with the Foreign Legion of the French Army and was decorated with the Croix de Guerre with Palm. His third brother Isidore Afoumado was, Afoumado believed, in Montevideo, Uruguay, but he had not heard from him for the previous six years. Afoumado’s eldest sister Mrs. Marie Attias, a widow, lived in Alexandria. His second and third sisters, Mrs. Esther Attias and Mrs. Rosa Peray, lived in Galata, Pera, Istanbul and Balat, Istanbul, respectively.
Elie Raphael Afoumado came to England at the age of 20 on August 4, 1898 from Cairo to do business there, at the suggestion of Lord Kitchener, then Sirdar (Commander-in-Chief) of the Egyptian Army and an acquaintance of Afoumado’s maternal uncle in Cairo. At the time of his last application in 1929, Afoumado had lived in England for 31 years and his mother was “very old” and residing “with one or other of her two daughters” in Istanbul. On April 9, 1906, he married Bertha Roberts, a spinster born of British parents in Yorkshire. It is possible that Roberts was a convert to Judaism, since the couple had a religious marriage ceremony on November 24, 1907 at Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham. Afoumado lived in Birmingham, England since 1907 and was registered with police as of “Turkish” nationality. During World War I, Afoumado undertook volunteer work at Hatch House Farm in Smethwick.
The couple had three children. The eldest, Nessim Sabatai Afoumado (born May 24, 1908), attended the King Edward VI Grammar School, Five Ways, for three years and then spent five years at King Edward High School in Birmingham. There, he was in the School Volunteer Officers Training Corps, obtaining an A Certificate with honours. He also won his school colors for Rugby Football and held the School Debating Trophy as being the best debater. He passed the London University Matriculation Examinations (internal and external) with Second Class Honors. He was then accepted for Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge and for Merton College and Queens College Oxford, and attended the latter. There, he played for his College in rugby football, played hockey and tennis and fences. In his second academic year, he read Jurisprudence for his degree, with the intention of proceeding to the Bar. He had “eaten his twelve dinners” and was a Member of the Inner Temple, Life Member of the Oxford Union Debating Society (at whose Meetings he often spoke), Secretary and Treasurer for his College for the League of Nations Union, and held several similar voluntary offices in connection with his College institutions. He was a member of the Oxford University Officers Training Corps and obtained the B Certificate, with the intention of becoming a second Lieutenant in the Corps. His Politics were strongly Conservative.
The second child, Gertrude Malka Afoumado (born March 2, 1910), was educated at an elementary school in Birmingham and won four scholarships, enabling her to attend King Edward VIs Grammar School at Handsworth, Birmingham, where she studied for 3 years. She then became a Foundation Scholar, enrolled in King Edward VIs High School in Birmingham. After a year there, she won the Handworth Close Junior Scholarship. After two more years, she won the Handsworth Close Senior Exhibition. In 1916, she enrolled in Birmingham University, taking 4 honors. In 1928, she sat, as an external candidate at Birmingham University, for an Examination in Biology and for a Preliminary Medical Examination. On the result of these, the Smethwick Educational Committee awarded her a Major Scholarship of £100. The Smethwick Education Committee, in honor of her obtaining the Scholarship for Somerville College, Oxford, granted a whole day holiday to the teachers and pupils of the Elementary School at Abbey Road, Smethwick, Birmingham where she was first educated. She gave an invited speech to the 30 teachers and about 1,000 pupils of the School. In 1928, she received the Cambridge Higher School Certificate with one distinction and was recommended for a State Scholarship. At the end of that year, she obtained, with 86% marks, a Scholarship for Somerville College, Oxford, value £30 per year for 3 years. She also received honors in examinations in Music. Her intention was to complete her education at either Oxford or Cambridge.[2]
The youngest, Benjamin Isidore Afoumado (born July 27, 1916), attended the same elementary school in Birmingham before enrolling in the King Edward VI School at Five Ways, Edgbaston, Birmingham. By the time of his enrollment, the rules of the school had changed, disqualifying Benjamin for competing for a scholarship. But the school’s headmaster notified Elie Afoumado and his wife that “had such not been the case this boy would have almost certainly gained a Scholarship.” Benjamin, like his elder brother, played football and intended to join the British Navy in order to become an Admiral. Benjamin was at the top of his form at the school and in its first cricket team. For reasons I do not understand, all three Afoumado children were registered as British subjects.
Elie Raphael Afoumado was an Oriental rug, carpet, and embroideries importer who also self-described as a dealer in Eastern carpets, rugs, and embroideries. For twenty years, he rented a storage room at the Brine Baths Hotel in Cheshire for six months of every year (usually April-October), where he also had his showroom. He lived at the hotel during the week and returned home on weekends.
Afoumado applied for naturalization for four reasons: 1. because he desired to “have the same rights and privileges as an Englishman;” his three children were British-born subjects studying for professional careers; he wished that both he and his wife would have the right to vote (full suffrage was extended to women in 1928), “to which right he believes he is justly entitled after having so many years in England and paid Local and Parliamentary Taxes; 2. Because his wife, both of whose parents were British subjects, and his three children were all British-born subjects. 3. Because he did not want his children’s careers to be hampered by “their having a foreign parent,” and particularly his two older children, “following brilliant educational successes;” and 4. His customers were all “English people (many very prominent in Society)” and Afoumado was “often asked by them whether he is naturalized.” Afoumado applied as an Ottoman (Spanish Jew), after obtaining a letter from the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation that he was a “Spanish Jew.”[3] He was in possession of an Egyptian passport from Alexandria, which he used when he came to England from Egypt in 1898.
Afoumado applied for naturalization through agents in 1914, 1916, 1920, and 1928. In addition, he applied at large to the Home Secretary in 1922 or 1923, 1924, and 1925, all without result, which he found “very disappointing and inexplicable.” He filed his seventh application in 1929 and was naturalized that year.
Files 1-6 of his application were destroyed by the Home Office. The final application was originally classified until 2031.
Postscript
Elie Raphael Afoumado’s eldest son Nessim Sabatai Afoumado (1908-2000) received his B.A. and B.C.L. degrees from The Queen’s College, Oxford. He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1931 and then joined Geoffrey Tyndale’s chambers, where he was advised to Anglicize his name. In 1939, he formally became known as Rawden Temple. He served as an officer in the Royal Artillery and the War Office during World War II. After the war, he practiced in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division. In 1951, he took silk and in 1960 was appointed Vice-Chairman of the General Council of the Bar. He was appointment Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1964. In 1969, he was appointed a National Insurance Commissioner; in 1975 he was appointed Chief National Insurance Commissioner. He was knighted in 1980 and retired the following year. He served as Bencher from 1960 and was Treasurer of the Inner Temple in 1983. He married Margaret Jessie Wiseman (died 1980), daughter of Sir James Gunson, CMG, CBE.[4]
[1] Haskeray was the quarter where most Istanbul Jews lived. John Alexander Armstrong, Nations Before Nationalism (University of North Carolina Press, 2017 [1982]).
[2] She became a physician. Her married name was Gertrude Malka Bonnella. The Medical Directory 1973 (London: J. & A. Churchill, 1973), 231.
[3] The congregation followed the Orthodox Ashkenazi ritual. https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/community/b00-bhc/index.htm (accessed August 9, 2024).
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rawden_Temple (accessed August 9, 2024); Robin Dunn, Sword and Wig: Memoirs of a Lord Justice (London: Quiller Press, 1993), 143; “Sir Rawden Temple,” The Times (June 8, 2000): 25.