HO 144/12383 and HO 334/111 17893
Maurice Moise Arditti, known as Maurice Arditti prior to August 4, 1914, was born in Brussels, Belgium on January 7, 1906 to Rabeno Arditi (a.k.a. Robert Arditti) and Ethel Kadune Lilian Arditti, née Galipoliti. Although he had four younger siblings (as attested to in his father’s naturalization application), his own file casts him as an only child. Maurice came to the United Kingdom at the age of 6 months in August 1906. He was educated in the U.K., first at the Council School in Southend-on-Sea (1911-1916), and then at the Holy Trinity Council School in Sloane Square, S.W. (1917-1920). Maurice left school at the age of 14 to become a carpet dealer.
He entered his father’s business at 6 Montpelier Street, S.W., Knightsbridge, London (which also doubled as the family home). By the time of his naturalization in 1929, he was earning £50 per week, plus board and lodging. He had lived with his parents at that address since October 1917. He was single and without children. He had remained in the U.K. since his arrival in 1906, save for ten days in 1929, when he went to Paris on business. Maurice maintained a small bank account at the Brompton Road branch of Barclays Bank which he used “when making small deals in antique goods on his own account, which his father allows him to do.”
He was issued an identity book as an enemy alien and was registered with the police at Bow Street on February 12, 1924. The Home Office checked his name carefully and after determining that he was known as Maurice Arditti before August 4, 1914, determined that he had passed muster in relation to Section 7 of the Aliens Restriction (Amendment) Order of 1919.
Maurice’s citizenship status was complicated. Although his mother was of British birth, she had lost her citizenship upon her marriage to Rabeno. She was re-naturalized through her husband’s naturalization in 1929. Since both of Maurice’s parents had been Ottomans, the British government considered him Ottoman as well. This barred him from acquiring Belgian nationality, despite being of Belgian birth (as substantiated by his birth certificate). A loophole for Belgian citizenship had arisen after his 21st birthday, but only had he been living in Belgium at the time and only had he performed military service in the Belgian Army. Maurice was effectively stateless. His father Rabeno had unsuccessfully attempted to naturalize him as part of his own application, but Maurice had just barely missed the cutoff age for being subsumed under a father’s application. Since Rabeno had just been accepted by the Home Office as a “Spanish Jew,” Home Office officials reasoned that Maurice might be “similarly accepted without a further test.”
While Maurice did not have to submit documentation about being a “Spanish Jew,” he did have to submit to the usual language tests and loyalty oath. The Home Office found that Maurice spoke, read, and wrote the English language fairly well and could easily read and understand the newspaper clipping officials gave him as a test.
Maurice’s agents were Messes Pierron & Mosley, Commissioners for Oaths, 11 & 12 Southcombe Street, Hammersmith Road, London, W.14, the same agents his father had used for his naturalization case. Maurice also used two of the same referees: Charles Blake, a retired Metropolitan Police Constable, thereafter a Commissionaire, living at 82 Claverton Street, S.W., who had known Maurice for over 22 years, was related to Maurice’s mother by marriage, and was in constant touch with the family, exchanging frequent social visits; and Henry William Doll, a medical practitioner of 42 Montpelier Square, S.W. who had known Maurice for 9 years while serving as the family’s doctor and attending antique sales of the family. In addition, Maurice secured as referees Thomas Alfred Hendra, a dairyman of 2 Montpelier Row, S.W., who had known Maurice and his family for 11 years as a neighbor and friend; and Roland Lloyd Webb, of Romina, Lyonsdown Road, New Barnet, in the County of Hertford, the Manager of the Timber Trades Journal, who had known Maurice for 5 years socially because Maurice and Webb’s son were “intimately acquainted,” frequently exchanging social visits.
Maurice applied for citizenship in April of 1929 and was naturalized as an “Ottoman (Spanish Jew)” by the end of that year. In his application, he noted that he wished to remain permanently in the U.K., had lived in England since he was about 6 months old, when he had been brought to England by his parents from Brussels, and had never been out of England since. Further, he had been educated in England and was in business with his father in England. All his friends and associates were English, and he had no interests or connections with any other country.
This file was originally closed until 2031 and declassified on March 27, 2009 at my request.