Pages

Support The Stories!


Do you like these stories?
Please help me to continue bringing them to you.
A contribution, no matter how small will help.

https://www.paypal.me/LizChater




Showing posts with label Sonia John. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sonia John. Show all posts

14 August 2020

The Late Mrs. Sonia John - Obituary


Montage by Liz Chater


This is the full obituary For Mrs. Sonia John courtesy of the Indo-ArmenianFriendship NGO Facebook page.

It is with the deepest regret and with a heavy heart that we announce the sad passing of Mrs. Sonia John, on the 10th August 2020 in Kolkata. She was 94 years old.

Born in Shiraz, Iran on July 2 1926, Sonia arrived in India as a young girl with her grandmother, aged only 4 years old. She subsequently attended La Martiniere for Girls School in Kolkata where she excelled at both studies and extracurricular activities. In appreciation of her commitment to getting an education and her overall behaviour at the school, young Sonia was awarded the "Good Conduct" medal by the school authorities. Sonia later went on to become an accomplished hockey player and captained the Bengal Women’s Hockey Team for many years. She also captained and managed the Bengal Womens' Basketball team, along with many clubs during her career. As a keen sportswoman, Sonia was a fierce competition on the Golf Course as well, winning several titles and trophies. In the 1950s, years after her marriage to Arathoon Mackertich John and after having worked as an educator for a few years, Sonia set up the Moir Hall School in Calcutta. Moir Hall School was her focus and passion right up until her passing, believing education of children in Kolkata to be of paramount importance. The school continues to be one of the most affordable places to get an education in the city, with many pupils from low-income households having studied under her guidance free of charge.

As a multi-talented and accomplished person, Sonia also succeeded in her entrepreneurial skills, successfully running a hotel with her husband for many years. Her "Carlton Hotel" was one of the many Armenian-owned hotels in Kolkata. As a patriotic Armenian and a devout Christian, Mrs. John couldn't be indifferent to matters concerning the Armenian Community of India. She helped activate the Armenian Sports Club and was elected a member of the Committee of the Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth. In the late 1990s, when the Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy, built in the year 1821 was at a brink of certain closure, Sonia John, with the help of certain community members came to its rescue and through hard-fought litigation, secured an order from the Calcutta High Court for the school to be placed under the Management of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. This act of patriotism and devotion forced her to be even more involved in the day-to-day running of the Armenian College & Philanthropic Academy (ACPA) as well as the Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth Kolkata for many years, taking the position of Honorary Chairperson of the Church Committee, a position she held until 2005. She was also appointed as Manager of Armenian College by His Holiness Karekin I, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, a position she held on an Honorary basis as well.

As Chairperson of the Armenian Church Committee and in her capacity as the Manager of ACPA, Sonia oversaw the successful renovation of many of the properties of the Armenian Community, including the Churches, the old-age home as well as the Armenian College and Davidian Girls Schools, among others. It is not known to many, that the current building of the Armenian Embassy in India was completely designed by her. It was during her tenure as Chairperson that the Armenian Church donated the plot to the Armenian Government and financed the building of the Embassy in Delhi. For her contribution and service, during his official visit to India in 2003, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan awarded her with an Honorary Passport of the Republic of Armenia, acknowledging her tireless devotion to the Armenian cause. She was also awarded the St. Nerses Shnorhali Medal by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians for her extraordinary services rendered to the Armenian Apostolic Church. Years earlier, in 1999, she had been the only delegate from Asia and Oceania at the National Church Assembly of the Armenian Apostolic Church which was bestowed with the mandate to elect the Catholicos.

Mrs John, as one of her most important contributions to social welfare, oversaw the completion of the Armenian Church Trauma Center as well as Sir Catchick Paul Chater ward at the Rabindranath Tagore Hospital, Kolkata, which the Committee of the Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth financed during her tenure. It is here that she passed away having suffered a heart attack.

Even in her 80’s Sonia never slowed down, and one of many of her finest events was the Armenian Church pilgrimage to Hong Kong in 2005 to honour and remember the late Sir Catchick Paul Chater. In 2017, at the remarkable age of 91, Sonia, in conjunction with the Indo-Armenian Friendship NGO, collaborated with La Martiniere for Boys' School in Kolkata to finance the erection of a bust of the late Sir Catchick Paul Chater in the ground of the Boys' School, where Sir Paul had been educated. As always, she was involved in all aspects of the organisation of this magnificent event and was deeply gratified that La Martiniere chose to honour Sir Paul Chater in this way. Not only was Sonia John a former pupil of the institution but had also served on its Board of Governors for many years.
Sonia continued to run her school, attending and teaching there daily, right up until the COVID pandemic crisis hit in March. Life at the Armenian Community in Kolkata would have been very different had it not been for her devotion, patriotism and many years of dedicated service. Her contribution to community life in recent decades remains unmatched.

Sonia is survived by her children, Angela and Paul and grandchildren, Julian, Maria and Noah.

Indo-Armenian Friendship NGO has lost one of its strongest supporters. Her guidance and words of wisdom will be missed greatly. The Armenian Community of India, the Armenian Diaspora and the entire Armenian nation has lost an icon.

Rest In Peace, Mrs John and thank you for everything.

Sonia is buried at the Armenian Cemetery Tangra, Kolkata with her late uncle John Martin.
The tombstone is situated adjacent to another late uncle, Haik Martin.



Further reading about Mrs. John's family, in particular her grandfather, Jordan Martin, and how he was a spy for the British in Persia during WW1, can be found here.

In 2017 Mrs John was the generous benefactor of the Sir Catchick Paul Chater bust unveiled in the grounds of La Martiniere School, Kolkata. View a short video clip of Sonia looking through my private album on Sir Paul Chater and her natural enthusiasm and reactions to it.








27 May 2019

Sir Paul Chater: Remembered


Today is the anniversary of the death of Sir Catchick Paul Chater. A man ahead of his time, a visionary




At the time of Sir Paul’s death, it was suggested on more than one occasion that there should be some sort of memorial or statue in remembrance of his life and contribution to the development of Hong Kong. One anonymous newspaper contributor wrote:

“……By the passing of Sir Paul Chater, the colony has sustained an immeasurable loss and the memory of this, one of the most illustrious citizens of his time will forever be held in the history and future development of this Colony.  As a resident of the Colony, the late Sir Paul Chater had given his full time and money for the general welfare of the island and its inhabitants and stood a noble example of a generous benefactor, a businessman of marked ability, and last but not least, a man born with the true virtues and an Empire Patriot.   It is only fitting that as a recognition of Sir Paul’s wonderful realization of one’s duty of citizenship that a life-size statue of Sir Paul should be put up in an appropriate place.  I would suggest that as Sir Paul was actually the citizen who rendered the greatest service in the public affairs of the Colony, the cost of erection of the statue should be borne by the Government as a permanent memorial to her most noble citizen and benefactor”.

In 1927, a year after Chater died, his staunch and loyal friend Noel Croucher, himself holding a position in society of influence and authority, pushed Hong Kong’s LegCo hard to have a statue of the man erected, but even Croucher was unsuccessful in getting the Grand Old Man permanently remembered in the Statue Square. 

In February 1928, the annual report by the Kowloon Residents’ Association  stated: “a committee has been formed for the purpose of erecting a statue in memory of the late Sir Paul Chater, and they have suggested that as Kowloon has been built up largely by the foresight and keen interest of Sir Paul, it is fitting and proper that his statue be erected in Kowloon, to commemorate the fact that we owe a debt to his memory which is immeasurable.  It was also felt that the statue might form the centre around which a more dignified approach might be made to the gateway of the Kowloon Peninsular.”

Unfortunately, no further action was taken.

However, it was in 2009 that Hongkong Land, the company that Sir Paul created in 1889 in conjunction with John Bell-Irving Chairman of Jardines at the time, commissioned the first real tribute that Hong Kong had made towards him. A bust and a wall plaque were placed in Chater House in Central Hong Kong in remembrance and gratitude to his memory.  

Image courtesy of Hongkong Land


Image courtesy of Hongkong Land



In 2017, in the grounds of the school that gave Sir Paul the preparation and education he used to build the extraordinary life he had, La Martiniere is also the proud custodian of a Sir Paul Chater bust. Created and unveiled in a joint collaboration with the relatively newly formed and dynamic Indo-Armenia Friendship NGO, along with ex student of La Martiniere Girls’ School and a stalwart member of the Armenian community of Kolkata, Mrs. Sonia John.  The result of this unique team work stands tall in the grounds for all to admire. Sir Paul Chater has once again returned to his beloved La Martiniere School and will forever look over the current and all future students who go there to study for a better life.

In the grounds of La Martiniere School

Those of you who know about Sir Paul Chater will know he owned a unique and priceless collection of art, as well as Chinese and Japanese porcelain and bizenware. You may also know that he was a successful race horse owner in Hong Kong with a top class stable that many admired. His triumphs on the race course became legendary, particularly with the incredible record of Derby wins he gained.  Eleven Hong Kong Derby wins jointly with his business partner and best friend Sir Hormusjee Mody, and a further eight Hong Kong Derby winners solely in his own name.  


Image: Liz Chater's Private Archive


No other owner has been able to attain the heady heights of 19 Hong Kong Derby wins in their career.  In his trophy room in Marble Hall, his tables must have been groaning under the weight of silver they were displaying.
Image: Liz Chater


But what of that silver? After he died, he left his collection of art to the government of Hong Kong, perhaps hoping they would create a museum. Extraordinarily, in 1936 it was reported that: “…..portions of the household effects bequeathed to the Colony by the late Sir Paul Chater have in turn been bequeathed by the Hongkong Government to various charitable organisations as they are considered worthless from a collection point of view…………”

After years of being loved and admired, parts of Sir Paul Chater’s home were deemed “worthless”.
In the last 93 years, there have been no sightings of any of the silverware Sir Paul Chater once owned. That is, until now.

At a recent auction sale this beautiful silver tray, inscribed to Sir Paul Chater came on to the market. I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase it. A gift from the 93rd Burma Infantry to Sir Paul in 1904.

Although it has always been thought that his art collection and silverware never made it after the Japanese invaded Hong Kong during WW2, I can safely say, at least one piece of silver did indeed make it and I am very happy to share the photograph here.

Image: Liz Chater's private archive











17 March 2018

A Friend In Need, Is A Friend Indeed


 
One of the many hundreds of papers I have received in the documents donated to me by Mrs. Sonia John, a 92 year old Armenian in Kolkata was a Pottah certificate issued by the Calcutta Christian Burial Board. It is for the burial plot of Sonia’s grandmother, Elizabeth Martin. I was intrigued by the fact it was made out to Elizabeth Gregory. Confused by this, I continued to look through the papers and I came across this short letter, written by Elizabeth Gregory to Elizabeth Martin in 1964 transferring ownership.

The next natural question was “who was Elizabeth Gregory?”

The answer to that was easily found on the back of the Pottah certificate, 



it stated the name of Elizabeth Martin recently buried on the 12th November 1965 and the relationship of the grantee was “friend”.  The two Elizabeth’s were unrelated.

Curious about Elizabeth Gregory, I started to do a little research on her. I could see from her letter of transfer that she lived at 1 Linden Gardens, London in 1964. On checking the voters list for the 1960s[1] I not only found Elizabeth Gregory, I also found a Mary and George A.V. Gregory living at the same address. Knowing that trying to find the correct “Mary Gregory” would be almost impossible, I decided to see if I could find any reference to George A.V. Gregory. There in the baptism records for Rangoon India in 1936[2] was George Aramais Vivian Gregory.

George’s father was Simon Joseph Gregory, I found his grave in my cemetery records for India.[3]   Simon had been born on 17 February 1902 in Tehran and died in Calcutta on 24 March 1942. His wife Elizabeth Gregory was the author of the above transfer letter. She had been born in Calcutta on 6 December 1906[4] and I quickly found her death record for August 2004[5] in London. It helpfully had her date of birth on it, and as it matched exactly to that recorded in the Armenian Church records, I was confident I had found the correct Elizabeth Gregory.

Elizabeth and her son George had left Calcutta in July 1947[6] during the disturbances in India, and prior to partition in August that year. They sailed from Bombay to Liverpool on the ship ‘Cilicia’, the name would not have been lost on her, it was an Armenian Kingdom. Family records indicate that George died in Herefordshire in 2008.

As a friend of Elizabeth Martin, Elizabeth Gregory transferred the Pottah she had reserved for her own burial right next to her husband Simon Joseph Gregory in the Old Armenian Cemetery in the Lower Circular Road. One can only surmise that Elizabeth Martin must have asked her friend if she would be willing to transfer the plot now that Elizabeth Gregory was settled in the UK.  Elizabeth Martin obviously wanted to be buried as close to her own late husband, Jordan Martin who had died in 1953 and had been buried in the same cemetery just a few plots away. You can read the remarkable story about Jordan Martin being a spy for the British in an earlier blog by following this link.

Thanks to Elizabeth Gregory, instead of husband and wife lying side by side, two family friends do instead.

LEFT: Sacred to the memory of Simon Joseph Gregory beloved husband of Elizabeth Gregory and eldest son of the late Joseph Simon Gregory and of Maria Gregory Of Julfa, Ispahan, Iran.  Born at Teheran  on the 17 February 1902 Died at Kurseong on 24th March 1948. [remaining script indecipherable].

RIGHT: In cherished memory of our dear mother Elizabeth Widow of the late Jordan Martin Born 16-8-1875 Died 11-11-1965 R.I.P. [bottom right inscription: J. Maderia & Co]



[1] Ancestry.com
[2] British Library N1-570-79
[3] Liz Chater. I have photographed almost every Armenian grave in Calcutta
[4] Armenian Church Calcutta Baptism Register No. 1888
[5] Ancestry.com
[6] Ancestry.com travel and immigration records