HO 405/26835
Sarkis Nazareth Kurkjian was born on February 16, 1897 in Kharpert, Armenia, in the Ottoman Empire, to Nazareth and Nartouhi Kurkjian, née Fabricatorian, both of whom died in Alexandria, Egypt. Sarkis’s father Nazareth Kurkjian (died 1933) was “one of the old Armenian traders” who followed Horatio Herbert Kitchener’s forces into the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan on Britain’s reoccupation of the Sudan in 1898, and was renowned all over that country. Kurkjian père had moved to Sudan the year of his son’s birth. In 1900, the family moved to Cairo, where Sarkis attended a local school. In 1908, Sarkis was sent to the American High School in Istanbul.
From 1911 until the outbreak of World War I, Sarkis attended Neuchatel University in Switzerland. He then joined his father’s produce business in Sudan, which the latter had established there in 1897 in association with other family members. The business necessitated Sarkis to travel extensively between Khartoum and Cairo. Sarkis married Astra S. Sarkis, also known as Astra Astrid (or Asdghig), née Mansourian, who was born December 22, 1905. They married in Cairo, Egypt on October 16, 1927, according to the Armenian rites. The marriage produced two sons: George Sarkis Kurkjian (born Sudan, July 30, 1928) and John Baptist Nazareth Kurkjian (born London, October 14, 1932), who as an adult usually resided in Dublin, Ireland. The Kurkjian family employed an Italian-born domestic servant named Alma Fenoli (born June 29, 1932), whom they paid a weekly wage of £3, plus room and board.
Sarkis Nazareth Kurkjian arrived in the United Kingdom in August 1932 and soon after launched an import and export business in London. He was a produce merchant dealing mainly in the buying and selling of oil seed. He traded as S. N. Kurkjian and shared an office with Eustace Thomas Ltd., importers and exporters, in London. He, his wife, and their two sons were shareholders and directors of that company. Nartouhi Kurkjian, despite her status as a co-director, mainly occupied herself with “domestic duties.” In 1941, she was convicted of and fined £5-0-0 for shoplifting a lady’s hat from C. & A. Modes Ltd. on Oxford Street in London. According to the Home Office, she never gave “any valid reason for what she did,” and authorities surmised “she may have acted on a sudden and foolish impulse.”
The Home Office noted that Kurkjian was “a very shrewd and astute businessman whose knowledge of the Sudan trade is probably unrivalled in the City of London.” He employed commission agents all over the world, with the exception of “Iron Curtain” countries. Kurkjian had for many years served as the commercial representative of Sir Sayed Abdel Rahman El Mahdi, K.B.E., C.V.O., one of the most important cotton cultivators in the Sudan and the country’s religious and social leader. Sarkis Kurkjian traveled extensively on business throughout Western Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, and the United States. Between 1932 and 1959, his business took him to France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Persia, Singapore, India, Siam, Burma, the USSR, Switzerland, and the U.S.A.
Kurkjian was a Trustee of London’s Armenian Church and Honorary Treasurer of its associate organization, the Apcar Trust. From 1943-1952, he also served as the leader of the Armenian community in London. Once in 1945 and a second time in 1955, he traveled to Etchmiadzin in Soviet Armenia as the Delegate of the London Armenian Community and Apcar Trust for the purpose of participating in the election of the Head of the Armenian Church, known as His Holiness The Catholicos.
In addition to his excellent knowledge of English, Kurkjian claimed “to have an expert knowledge of a number of foreign languages.” During World War II, he participated in “firewatching” and also served as “Party Leader,” although the application does not provide details.
Although born in Kharpert, Armenia, in the Ottoman Empire, Kurkjian claimed he was “never recognized as a Turk, and at birth was regarded as of Armenian nationality.” His parents became Sudanese by domicile in 1900, as did he. Kurkjian’s lack of U.K. citizenship was a great inconvenience, necessitating him to request annual residency and labor permits and submit his business accounts to the Home Office. Kurkjian’s naturalization application, filed in 1957 simultaneously with that of his son George Sarkis Kurkjian, also a Sudanese national, was rejected because the Home Office doubted the men’s loyalty to Britain. Partly at issue was Kurkjian’s provisional appointment as Honorary Commercial Attaché for Great Britain and most of the Western European countries for the Sudan, a post that was never ratified by the Sudan cabinet. A coup d’etat in Sudan in 1958 rendered the question moot, with Kurkjian—as an Armenian and a Christian—unsure of what would become of his national status. Kurkjian was finally naturalized at the age of 63, after a residence of 28 years in the United Kingdom. In his application, he indicated that he regarded the United Kingdom as “the best country in the world in which to live.”
This file was originally closed until 2061 and declassified at my request.