HO 405/380A5884/7 and HO 334/387/36297

            Max Mardiros Alpiar was born in Smyrna on December 7, 1901 to Agop Alpiar and Lucie Alpiar, née Almassian, both Ottoman subjects, and both Armenian natives of Smyrna. Agop was a chemist and owner of a soap factory. He acquired Portuguese nationality and served as Vice Consul or Chancellor of the Portuguese consulate in Smyrna for about 10 years prior to World War I. At time of his death in 1920, he was still of Portuguese nationality. Lucie, née Elmassian was stateless at the time of her death in 1953.

            Max was educated by a governess until 1912, when he went to live with his mother in Lausanne, Switzerland. There, attended the “Lemania” school at Lausanne for two years. The two then moved to Paris, where Agop joined them in 1915. Max continued his education in Paris at the “Ecole Duvignau de Lanneau” preparatory school and completed his studies at the “Lycée Henri IV” school, where he stayed until 1919. At some point, he and his parents also lived in Roumania.

            After his father died in 1920, Max returned with his mother and brother to Smyrna, where they tried to continue his late father’s soap business. But after two years, they had to flee the country, in the words of a police report, “on account of the Massacre of the Armenians by the Turks, which took place in 1922.” In his 1954 application for naturalization, however, Max referred to his previous nationality being lost “following the action of the Turkish Authorities in September 1922, forcing all Armenians out of the country and depriving them of their nationality at birth.” Max then returned to Paris as a stateless refugee. He worked there as a clerk on the American newspaper the Chicago Tribune until 1925, when he was hired to return to Roumania and work for an overseas branch of the Manchester firm Messrs. Iplicjian Ltd., Textile Convertors and Export Merchants.

            In 1928, while on holiday in Paris, Max met and married British-born May Stephen, and they returned to Roumania, where he continued learning the business of the aforementioned firm and travelled for orders. Their life in Roumania was punctuated by months-long visits to the United Kingdom in 1928, 1929, and 1939. In August 1939, he came to England with his wife and son and lived in Southport until April 1940, when he was sent by Messrs. Iplicjian Ltd. to Roumania to close down their branches in that country because of the “serious situation there.” He was unable to secure permission to return to England until after the war. Once he was allowed to leave, he went to Paris, obtained permission to visit his wife and son in Southport, England in November 1946, and after several short visits from Paris, was authorized in April 1948 to remain in the United Kingdom permanently and to be employed by Messrs. Iplicjian Ltd. in Manchester. That year, the family settled in a large, detached house in Southport, owned by his wife, sister, and brother, each having a third share. Since 1948, he served as Director of Messrs. D. Stephen Iplicjian (Manchester) Ltd. at an annual salary of £1750. In addition, Max owned 1,000 fully paid shared of £1 each in his firm and 3,140 fully paid shares of £1 each in the Standard Textile Co. Ltd., Johannesburg, a Subsidiary of Messrs. Stephen Iplicijian Ltd. This firm was a family business. In addition to Max Alpiar, the directors were his brother-in-law Richard Stephen, a cousin of Alpiar’s wife, Stephen Artin Stephen, and one Miss Annie O’Brien, who had been with the firm for 40 years.

            The couple’s only child, Ronald Agop Alpiar, was born December 11, 1929 at Southport. He graduated Pembroke College, Cambridge University and was a student of theology at the Theological College in Ely. He became a priest and was appointed to the parish of Plaistow, London, a friary for Anglican Franciscan monastic brothers, as “Reverend Brother Gregory Alpiar.”

            Max’s referees were his neighbor, a stockbroker and partner in the firm of Messrs. John Arnitt, Dear & Company, Liverpool, who was also a local Councilor for seven years and chairman and secretary of the Southport Conservative Association for fourteen years; the principal of Messrs. Montgomery and Company, Chartered Accountants of Manchester, a man “mildly conservative in his political outlook; his co-director Anne O’Brien; and a Solicitor in Manchester who was, like Max, Armenian.  

            Max’s naturalization certificate lists him as having no nationality. He carried a Nansen passport issued in Paris in 1949 and was registered with police. He first applied for naturalization at age 53 in 1954 and was naturalized in 1955 after seven years of permanent resident in the country.

            Subfiles 1-6 are missing or destroyed. This file was originally closed until 2056 and declassified in 2007.