Behor Behar was born in British India in April 1839, although he sometimes claimed to be a native of Yorkshire.[1] He likely arrived in Britain in the late nineteenth century. His three sons were Vitali Behar, Isaac Behar, and Jack Behar.[2] Initially, Behor and his two eldest sons carried on business as B. Behar & Sons in Manchester and Liverpool. In 1902, Behor retired, and his son Vitali formed “Behar, Sons, & Company.” Reportedly also called the “Oriental Furnishing Company,” the firm was located at 300 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow and sold retail embroidery, Persian carpets and rugs, Damascus furniture, antique silver, and antique lamps.[3] Behor also worked for a time as a merchant at 25 Basil Street, London. In 1911, he had a shop as an Oriental importer at 98 Elizabeth Street in London.[4] His brother Raphael, a Constantinopolitan native and carpetmaker of Colchester Street, London, was arraigned in 1915 for failing to register as an enemy alien. Behor successfully convinced the magistrate that since his brother had been born to British parents who were natives of India, he was a British subject.[5]
Behor Behar wrote his will in 1917. At that time, he lived at 367 Edgeware Road, London, and identified himself as a merchant. He appointed his sons Vitali Behar and Behar, both of 300 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, as executors, and bequeathed all his real and personal estate to them, including “certain stocks of carpets and other goods belonging to me in Constantinople, Smyrna, Brussels, and Italy.” Behor Behar willed that after his debts, funeral, and testamentary expenses were paid off, that the remainder of his estate be held in trust for his son Jack Behar, Vitali Behar’s wife Laura Behar, and the three children of Vitali Behar, in equal shares. His witnesses were N. Nash (15 Haverstock Hill, NW, Auctioneer) and R. E. Roberts (22 Rutland Street, Kensington, Clerk).[6]
In 1918, Behor became a creditor to V. Behar, Ltd. (the company headed by his son) in the sum of £3,286.13.6, the price of carpets Behor had supplied to the company. Behor agreed to accept payment to the extent of £36.13.6 in cash and to accept the balance by an allotment to him in shares in V. Behar Ltd. Vitali Behar directed that £2,200 of these shares would be allotted to his wife Laura Behar, with whom he lived at 4 Kirklee Road, Glasgow.[7]
By 1919, Behor Behar lived at 367 Edgeware Rd., London.[8] In 1920, he lived at 108 High Holborn, London. That year, Behor was charged with an unspecified misdemeanor. He died in a workhouse at 1a Shepherdess Walk, Shoreditch, London, on December 30, 1920 at the age of 81.[9] His estate was valued on July 1, 1921 at £665.16.10, while the net value of his personal estate amounted to £562.12.10. In 1925, Behor Behar still appeared in the V. Behar Ltd. company records as deceased “per Balfour Allan & North, 7 Kings Bench Walk, London.”[10]
[1] TNAUK, FO 371/46181, The Behar Family, 1945.
[2] TNAUK, HO 334/469/12564, naturalization certificate of Jack Behar, 1954.
[3] National Records of Scotland, CS46/1902/10/37, Behar, Son & Coy v. Behar Sons & Coy, October 1902.
[4] Slater’s Manchester, Salford, and Suburban Directory (Manchester: Slater’s Director Limited and London: Kelly’s Directories, 1911), 840.
[5] N.a., “Carpet-Maker’s Nationality,” The Evening News (December 29, 1915), 3.
[6] HMCTS Wills, will of Behor Behar, London, February 28, 1917.
[7] National Records of Scotland, BT2/9282, V. Behar Limited, incorporation and winding down documents, Names, Addresses, Descriptions of the Allottees, July 8, 1918.
[8] National Records of Scotland, BT2/9282, V. Behar Limited, incorporation and winding down documents, Names List of Persons holding Shares in V. Behar, 12/31/1919
[9] Palmer’s Index to “The Times” Newspaper, April, April-June 30, 1920; Decision and Discharge Book, T. W. Norman W. N. Palmer, Master of the Workhouse Institution at City Road, p. 91; HMCTS Wills, grant of Behor Behar, London, December 30, 1920.
[10] National Records of Scotland, BT2/9282, V. Behar Limited, incorporation and winding down documents, List of Persons holding Shares in V. Behar, Ltd., December 31, 1925.