PRO 430613 and HO 144/15897
Rachel Behar, née Rachel Slase, and also known as Rachel Sless, was born on August 24, 1896 at 205 Thistle Street in Glasgow, Scotland, to Russian immigrants Lazarus Slase (known as Lazarus Sless) and Marie Lena Zachs or Slase (known as Marie Lena Sless), both of whom died in Glasgow in 1923. Rachel Behar indicated that her relatives also used the surname “Sless,” as she had done until her marriage.
Behar married Ottoman subject Joseph Behar on February 25, 1916 at 50 Nicholson Street in Glasgow. On April 29, 1922, she joined her husband in Egypt upon his discharge there from the British Army, after having served for ten years. She also traveled to Sudan. She returned from Cairo to England on June 25, 1923 and lived with him at 26 Battlefield Gardens, Glasgow. She registered with Glasgow Police as an alien on October 22, 1923.
Shortly after returning to England, Joseph Behar “became friendly” with a woman he had met in London. This, according to the City of Glasgow Police, “caused domestic unhappiness.” The marriage was dissolved by a decree of the Court of Session at the Parliament House, Edinburgh House on May 12, 1931, on her petition, on the ground of adultery and desertion. From the point of view of the Edinburgh Police, the stigma of the failed relationship and abandonment fell on Joseph; the official noted that there was “nothing known to the Police here detrimental to the applicant’s character, and there is no reason known here why she should not be released by naturalization from the necessity of conforming to the provisions of the Aliens Order of 1920.” By the time of her application, her ex-husband Joseph had also submitted an application for a Certificate of Naturalization. She retained custody of their two British children, Albert Behar and Philip David Behar (born on January 22, 1917 and December 8, 1919, respectively at 157 South York Street, Glasgow). The boys were aged 7 and 4, respectively, by the time their mother applied for the restoration of her British citizenship.
Behar had worked as a “tailoress.” For two and a half years, she owned a gown shop at 12 Maxwell Road in Glasgow, which she had to give up in 1927 on account of illness, which left her unable to work. At the time of her application for naturalization, Behar lived at the home of her sister Annie Sevi and her husband Joseph Sevi at 26 Battlefield Gardens, Langside, Glasgow and was partly supported by the Public Assistance Department of Glasgow on £17 per week.[1] She also occasionally received assistance from a brother in America. Behar applied for the reinstatement of her British nationality in late 1931 and was 35 in early 1932, when her application was successfully processed. She had two referees. One was of “no use” because he did not know Rachel Behar well. The first, a man named Mr. Isaacs, was a British-born jeweler in Glasgow “of Jewish descent” who knew Rachel’s parents since before her birth and vouched for her because he knew them “to be respectable people.” The Home Office deemed him to be of “no use” as a referee because he knew little of Rachel Behar herself. Rachel’s valid referee was Sydney Ginsburg of 43 Glandore Avenue, Belfast, a Commission Agent or credit draper dealing in furs, gowns, and silks. Ginsburg first met Rachel through business 14 years previously and since then had met her frequently on social occasions at the houses of friends and at hotels and business places in England and Scotland.
Subfiles 1-3 and 10-12 were destroyed, an indication that Behar had been attempting to regain her British nationality for several years. This file was originally closed until 2033.
Rachel Behar later immigrated to the United States and declared her intention to naturalize in 1944 (see photo below). She became a U.S. citizen five years later.
[1] The identity and address of Annie Sevi and her husband Joseph are confirmed in a 1938 Register of Voters.