HO 144/8857 and HO 334/108/16146
Mihran Garabed Babayan was born in Pera, Istanbul on September 1, 1867 to Garabed Babayan and Annie Babayan, née Arpagian, both Ottoman Armenians and both deceased at the time of his final application.[1] He was educated in Istanbul. Mihran’s only sibling was a brother in Britain named Manes (?) Babayan, whose file is not extant.
Mihran arrived in England at the age of 32 in 1895, but returned to his native city for six months in 1899 to be married to Sophie Babayan, née Ohanian, an Ottoman subject.[2] They were married in the Armenian Church in Istanbul on August 30, 1899.[3] From 1890-1895 and, with his wife and children from October 10, 1914 to July of the following year, Mihran lived in New York.
When Mihran first arrived in London in 1895, he obtained employment as manager for the firm of C. & G. Gulbenkian & Co., carpet merchants, at 15 New Street. He severed his connection with that firm in 1905 and afterwards began business on his own account as a carpet merchant at 5 Victoria Avenue. At this point, Mihran invited his young cousin, Stepan Berhoudar, to join him in London. Berhoudar, the son of a postmaster, was eager to learn the carpet trade.[4] Mihran’s business was fairly successful for a time, but he eventually encountered financial difficulties and moved to Boscombe, Hants, where his wife Sophie opened a small business as a dealer in confectionary and fancy goods. In 1909, a Receiving Order in Bankruptcy was made against him on the petition of a number of his creditors and he was adjudged bankrupt in the County Court of Dorsetshire, Holden at Poole. His total liabilities were returned at over £19,600, of which £18,405 were continent (potential, depending on an unforeseeable outcome, such as a lawsuit). Securities held by his creditors amounted to an additional nominal sum of £16,105. His public examination was concluded the following year, but at the time of his application for discharge in 1912, his assets were insufficient to the extent of about £40 for the expenses of the bankruptcy. Mihran’s application was refused on the grounds that his assets were under £10, that he had continued to trade after knowing himself to be insolvent, that he had contracted debts provable in the bankruptcy without having at the time of contracting any reasonable or probable ground of expectation of being able to pay them, and that he had brought on or contributed to his bankruptcy by “rash and hazardous speculations.”
Soon after Mihran became bankrupt, he obtained employment with the Indo-China Produce Co., Ltd., as manager of the carpet and rug department and subsequently held a similar post with the Eastern Carpet Agency Ltd. In October 1914, Mihran relocated to New York. He returned to London in July of 1915 as agent for Messrs A & M. Karagheusian, carpet merchants, of 354 Fifth Avenue, New York. He purchased carpets in the London market on behalf of this firm to the approximate amount of £50,000 and received commission at the rate of 5%. In London, he and his wife welcomed six children: Nancy Annie Elbys (August 21, 1904; later Mrs. Allen); Marguerite Sophie (June 24, 1907); Alice Archalous (February 4, 1909); Dickren Rupen Mihran (February 28, 1915); Hermine Mavis (September 25, 1916); and Peter Garabed (May 30, 1921).
In 1918, Mihran successfully reapplied for discharge from bankruptcy. As soon as he obtained it, he recommenced business as a carpet merchant at 16 Devonshire Square in London. In the year 1924-1926, inclusive, he had an annual turnover of £14,599, £14,684 and £12,010, respectively. His expenses included an annual storage rental of £105, £40 per annum for his one-room office, and payroll for two employees (one “storeman” and one “girl clerk,” both British subjects, who received a weekly wage of £2 and £2.10, respectively). His net profit after expenses was £337, £604 and £695.
Even after his discharge from bankruptcy, Mihran continued to accrue debts, sometimes to the very companies to whom he had been indebted before 1918. Yet, once Mihran relaunched himself as a carpet dealer, firms recommenced trade with him uninterruptedly. One example is Charles Eastwood, the head of Messrs Eastwood & Holt, importers of Indian Carpets. Eastwood informed the Home Office that he had lost more than £173 as a result of Mihran’s bankruptcy in 1909, but the debt had been written off his firm’s books. In 1924, Mihran had an outstanding debt of more than £1,128 to the same company, but the proprietors considered this amount ordinary business credit. Mihran paid it off subsequently according to arrangements made at the time. In the interview, Eastwood told the Home Office official that he was familiar with the circumstances of Mihran’s bankruptcy and regarded it as “an unfortunate episode.” He trusted Mihran “absolutely” and was willing to extend him credit up to a substantial amount. At the time of this interview in 1927, Mihran owed Messrs. Eastwood & Holt about £300, which Eastwood classified as “ordinary trade credit on account of current business.”
Mihran’s emergence from bankruptcy is an object lesson for how some carpet dealers buoyed each other up in times of crisis. Mihran informed the Home Office that, aside from the final distribution of his assets, he never fully paid off all of his creditors following his bankruptcy in 1909. The Home Office official noted: “In explanation of this attitude he said that he had not received any payments on accounts of monies owing to him when he became bankrupt and in consequence he did not feel disposed to make any payments himself.” Moreover, since his discharge from bankruptcy in 1918, he continued business relations with several of his previous creditors and “none of them has asked for payment as the matter is regarded as closed.”
By the time of his successful application in 1927, Mihran’s financial position had markedly improved. His turnover for the year 1927 was more than £9,362 and his carpet stock was valued at around £2,016. Additionally, he earned over £19 for carpet repair. After accounting for trade expenses, discounts granted for cash sales, interests paid on loans, and dock charges in warehouses, he had a gross profit of more than £1,711 and his net profit exceeded £839. His assets in the business were over £4,812, and his liabilities amounted to over £3,015, leaving a balance of assets over liabilities of around £1,797. Together with his household effects (which included furniture and china) and two endowment life assurance policies, due to mature imminently, his total assets amounted to more than £3,547.
Mihran’s trading partners were ethno-religiously diverse, but most were of Ottoman origin. They included Wells & Co.; Hv. Phasey, Leak & Thorp; E. G. Benlian; Midland Drapery Co.; S. Stevens; N. Menasse (likely Nissim Elia Menasse of 49 Hall Lane, Liverpool, an Oriental Dealer and native of Istanbul); M. Minassian; J. Sassoon; Armenak Elmassian; S. Afia; Bodigian Ridley & Co.; N. Calpakian; Levi Sons, and The Ideal Carpet Company, owned by his wife and daughter. Despite his previous bankruptcy, Mihran was a homeowner. In 1919, he purchased a house on Harrow-on-the-Hill, and the following year, the adjoining house as a rental.
Mihran and his wife Sophie were registered with British authorities as Ottoman (Armenians) and he was in possession of an Ottoman passport issued by the Consul General for Turkey in London on October 6, 1914. He also carried an enemy alien identity book dated March 31, 1916. His decision to apply for an Ottoman passport a few months after the outbreak of World War I may have been tied to his desire to maintain ties with his family extended family and facilitate buying trips and direct imports. Mihran did not engage in public or military service during World War I.
Mihran’s previous applications had been refused, probably for financial reasons. In his successful application, Home Office clerks noted in their minutes that the applicant’s “financial position is now regarded as satisfactory,” although they also commented: “there is always a considerable element of uncertainty in the financial affairs of these Armenian carpet merchants.”
His referees were a departmental manager at Maple & Co. Limited, a civil service clerk, an engineer, an antiques dealer, and a tailor. By the time of his final application in 1927, Mihran had lived in England upwards of 31 years and his five children had all been born and educated in that country. He had carried on business in England as a carpet merchant for thirty years, fifteen years as a manager and another fifteen years on his own account. The Babayans had lived at 50 Bessborough Road, Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex, since March 1919. Mihran was naturalized on June 21, 1928 and died on Apil 19, 1945 at the age of 50. Subfiles 1-10 were destroyed. This file was originally closed until 2029 and was declassified on November 10, 2017.
[1] He was mistakenly known as Mehran due to his solicitors’ error. In his naturalization application, he corrected his mother’s name from “Annig.” He later presented a birth certificate stating that his birth was September 2, 1868.
[2] An error in the file, later corrected, identified her as “Sophia.”
[3] An error in the file, later corrected, gives the date August 20, 1899.
[4] George, Merchants to Magnates, 16, citing “Miss Stephanie Stevens, daughter of Stepan Berhoudar (later Stevens). Berhoudar spoke Armenian, Turkish, Greek, and French, but no English.