PRO 428994/5 and HO 144/1760

            Dikran Kouyoumdjian was born in Routschouk, Bulgaria on November 16, 1895 to Sarkis Kouyoumdjian, Chairman of the Anglo-Bulgarian Shipping Company, Limited, in Manchester, and Satinik Kouyoumdjian, née Aslanian. Both his parents were “Turkish Armenians.” The family moved to England when Kouyoumdjian was between 3 and a half or 4 years of age. He was Bulgarian originally, but renounced that citizenship “at first opportunity,” and then became citizen of the Armenian Republic, with a passport issued in London in January of 1922. The Representative Armenian Committee of London issued him a certificate certifying that he was of the Armenian race. He also received a similar certificate from His Grace the Archbishop of all the Armenians in Europe.

            Upon immigration to England, Kouyoumdjian lived with his parents in Didsbury, near Manchester. After the death of his father, he moved with his mother to 6 Hesketh Road in Southport, Lancaster, a neighborhood where she had lived for 23 years by the time of Dikran’s application in 1922.  From 1915-1916 Dikran lived at 46 Redcliff Road in South Kensington and then moved to 23 Market Street, Mayfair. Kouyoumdjian was 26 years old the last time he applied for citizenship. At the time, he had one brother on a business visit to Buenos Aires and two other brothers and a sister residing in England. The latter was an English subject.

            He spoke, read, and wrote the English language well. In his 1922 letter to the Home Office, he related that he could “speak nothing but English,” which meant that an Armenian passport was “not a very satisfactory weapon to travel with.”

            Kouyoumdjian was educated at Malvern College and Edinburgh University. He left the latter institution a few months after World War I broke out and moved to London to undertake “literary and journalistic work.” During World War I, he worked with Vickers Aircraft Department at the end of 1916, but had to leave owing to his lack of British citizenship. Thereafter, he volunteered for National Service.

            Kouyoumdjian’s only times out of the country after immigrating to Britain was for several short holidays in 1920 and 1921 to Monte-Carlo (Monaco), Paris, Nice, Cannes (both in southeastern France), Dieppe (northern France), and Deauville (northwestern France).

            Kouyoumdjian registered as an Armenian with police at Bow Street Aliens’ Office. He was originally registered at the Vine Street Police Station as a Bulgarian Alien Enemy. He explained to police officials that he had registered as such “primarily owing to the fact that he was born in Bulgaria but claims that he has been an Armenian all along because of his parentage. And, on the first opportunity of his being able to establish that claim he did so with the Representative of the Armenian Republic in London.”

            Kouyoumdjian had lived in England for 23 when he filed for citizenship in 1922 at the age of 26. He applied because he intended to reside there permanently and sought the rights and capacities of a natural-born British subject. He desired to carry on his profession as a novelist, and his audience was “entirely English. He also wanted to have the protections of British citizenship while traveling abroad on business trips. He described himself as “a recognized English author” of two novels and “many short stories and essays in journals.” In his application, both Kouyoumdjian and his friend Humbert Wolfe refer to The Romantic Lady (1921), Kouyoumdjian’s collection of four short stories, and his novel The London Venture (1920). Kouyoumdjian wanted his nom-de plume to appear on his certificate of naturalization.

            Kouyoumdjian’s agents were Treheme, Higgins & Co. in London. Kouyoumdjian had very well-placed referees. His residence referee was Walter Payne, O.B.E., a Barrister-at-Law and Director of Companies. Other referees included Cecil Matthew Higgins, a banker; Patrick Johnston Ford, an advocate and Member of Parliament; and Sir Edward Denison Ross, Professor at the University of London. All had known Kouyoumdjian socially and had been “intimately acquainted” with him for 10, 8, 5, and 5 years, respectively. They agreed that “in spite of his origin” he was “typically British in all his feelings and sentiments.” Humbert Wolfe, among the most popular British writers, wrote a letter dated March 15, 1922 to Bannatyne to expedite Kouyoumdjian’s case. He describes the applicant as “an Armenian friend of mine, who is very anxious to be naturalised at an early date.” Wolfe continued, “…it really is extremely important for him to have his nationality settled quickly. You may perhaps have heard of him as a writer under the name of Michael Arlen, who published lately a volume of stories called ‘the Romantic Lady’, and from the literary point of view it is really desirable that he should at an early date assume his British nationality.” Humbert, whose parents were Jewish, made his career in the Civil Service, beginning in the Board of Trade and thereafter in the Ministry of Labour. He was honored with both a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) and a CB (Companion of the Order of the Bath). Kouyoumdjian’s British naturalization certificate confirms that he applied as “Armenian.”

            Subfiles 1-4 and 6-7 were destroyed.