HO 405/122 and HO 334/175/24533
For Aram’s wife Flora Alice Abadjian, née Yakoubian/Yacoubian, click here. For his brother Hrant Abadjian, click here.
Aram Abadjian was born on July 26, 1904 in Smyrna to Krikor and Haiganoush Abadjian, née Tabibian, whom the Home Office authorities noted were citizens of “Turkish Armenia.”[1] Both parents were deceased by the time he submitted his final naturalization application in 1946. He was educated at the American College in Smyrna, earning a degree in commerce.
Abadjian left Smyrna in 1922 via Athens and Paris with his older brother Hrant and landed in Dover on December 7, 1922. Although not stated in his application, it is likely that they fled the Turkish military capture of Smyrna in September 1922, the culmination of the Graeco-Turkish War (1919-1922). The invasion is best known for the large-scale rape and massacre of Christians, mostly Greeks and Armenians, looting by Turkish soldiers and mobs, and a fire that broke out on September 13 and left the city in ashes.
After his arrival in England, Abadjian worked for his father who, with two other partners, ran a business as importers and chemical washers of Oriental carpets and rugs under the style of Saghirian & Abadjian. In 1927, Abadjian became a partner of this firm. In 1933, the Home Office permitted the firm’s name to be changed to Abadjian and Company. It operated at 393 Chapter Road in London and employed about 30 persons, all of whom were British, save one. The other partners of this firm were Abadjian’s uncle Leon Abadjian and Abadjian’s brothers, both naturalized British subjects. The company, which imported and processed Oriental carpets, cleaned all types of carpets, and also specialized in blanket washing for the Royal Air Force, raked in sizeable profits, particularly after World War II. In 1939, the company charged a total of £9,441 for the processing of carpet exports to the value of £80,000 to £100,000. By the time of his application, Abadjian had doubled his firm’s processing capacity and, given the anticipated high prices of Oriental carpets, expected to process goods for export to the value of about £500,000.
During the war, Abadjian and his partners formed the Factory Enterprises Ltd., a manufacturer of military equipment for the Ministry of Supply and Ministry of Aircraft Production that operated out of their business premises in London. This munitions factory was somewhat profitable, as indicated by the increase of its nominal capital from £500 to £5,000 and a police report generated by Abadjian’s naturalization application. By 1947, Factory Enterprises Ltd. was directed by Aram, his uncle Leon, and Nathan Azizollahoff, an Iranian Jew and registered alien. It had become inactive following the cessation of hostilities and its were premises absorbed into the carpet washing branch of the business. For his final naturalization application, Aram Abadjian requested expedition based on his wartime volunteer work at the aforementioned factory. During this time, Abadjian supervised about 30 people, most of them foreign and enemy aliens, working 24 hours in two shifts on the most essential war contracts.
Aram Abadjian also had an interest in The Sun Welding Company, founded in September of 1945 by his uncle Leon and comprised of welding and constructional engineers whose offices were located on the same premises as the carpet company. In 1946, The Sun Welding Company was reregistered as a partnership, the partners being George Thomas Stokes, a friend of a former employee of Factory Enterprises Ltd., George Patrick Marsh, a former employee of that factory, and Leon, Aram, and Hrant Abadjian.
Aram Abadjian’s naturalization application highlights the competitiveness of his carpet firm. He explained that his knowledge of mercerizing Oriental carpets, which entailed toning down garish colors and bringing out the sheen, was “very highly specialized,” and that all parallel efforts in other countries to compete with his firm had thus far failed.[2] In the whole of Europe, only two such companies existed in Europe, both of them in London. Abadjian’s carefully guarded trade secret maintained for London its status as “the centre of distribution of Oriental Carpets.” Once these Oriental carpets had been processed, they could be certified by his company for Export as “British Goods,” through authorization of the Board of Trade.
Aram Abadjian filed for naturalization at least twice; once in 1942 and again in 1946, by which time he had resided in the United Kingdom for 24 years. Between his arrival in 1922 and 1939, he had made frequent trips abroad. In his 1946 application, he indicated that he had to travel to Sweden, Switzerland, France, Holland, Belgium and Denmark as soon as possible. Abadjian’s efforts to expand his effort trade meant that he would have to travel extensively and required a “proper passport” to do so unhindered.
Aram Abadjian married British-born Flora Alice Yakoubian (born 1917) in July of 1945 at the Church of St. Sarkis in London. The Home Office permitted her to retain her British citizenship. Flora Alice work was employed as a secretary for her father Loghofet Yakoubian, a carpet dealer trading as Yakoubian Bros. at 1&2 New Street in London. Loghofet was refused a certificate of naturalization in 1931 because of his inadequate knowledge of English, but was finally naturalized in 1947. Aram and Flora Alice lived at 111 Canfield Gardens in London in a house jointly owned by him, his brothers, and his sister, a resident of Greece. The house was divided into three flats, one being occupied by Aram, his wife, and his father-in-law, and the other leased.
Aram Abadjian was registered as an alien in 1923. He was in possession of two Armenian passports, one issued in Athens on September 11, 1922 and the other at Parish by the Armenian Delegation to the Peace Conference on the November 13, 1920. The British High Commissioner at Constantinople issued him a temporary pass on March 27, 1920. A Metropolitan Police report dated 1947 indicates that Abadjian was born “at Smyrna, Armenia,” either a clerical error or an expression of Abadjian’s nationalism. Elsewhere in the application, Abadjian listed his nationality as “Armenian.” His naturalization certificate identifies him as “of uncertain nationality.”
Abadjian’s four referees hint at a wide, powerful, and often overlapping social and business network. Jacob Mordecia [sic] Menasse, was a solicitor and commissioner for oaths who had met Abadjian through social visits and partly through business relations; Ernest P. Fridaye, an insurance broker, knew Abadjian through both social visits and business relations; Herbert Edward Hill, a large estate owner and principal of a chartered accounting firm in London, knew Abadjian in both a “social and business capacity” and his wife since childhood; and Frederick Reginald Sturridge was a tenant in a house owned by Abadjian, located adjacent to his factory. Abadjian was naturalized in April of 1947.
Subfiles 1 and 2, which probably represent Abadjian’s earlier attempts at naturalization, were destroyed. This file was originally closed until January 1, 2048. A Freedom of Information request was submitted by me to The National Archives of the United Kingdom on August 19, 2024. The file was opened September 4, 2024.
[1] Smyrna is what is today Izmir (İzmir in modern Turkish). Joan George briefly mentions Aram Abadjian in Merchants to Magnates: Intrigue and Survival-Armenians in London, 1900-2000 (London: Gomidas Institute, 2009), 168.
[2] My analysis of what this mercerization may have entailed is based on Antony Wynn, Three Camels to Smyrna: Times of War and Peace in Turkey, Persia, India, Afghanistan & Nepal, 1907-1986, The Story of the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Company (London: Worldwide Antony Wynn, 2008), 237.