Armenian College Old Boys' Union Souvenir 1909-1959

Armenian College & Philanthropic Academy (ACPA) Old Boys' Souvenir 1909-1959. A random selection of pages.

 

Repairs To A Monument: A Stonemason With A Sense Of Humour

A stonemason
with a sense of humour!

Some years ago I was in Dorset and I found this wonderful stone inscribed with a lot of jobs the stonemason had completed. One of the inscriptions on this stone says: 

"Revived flames of hell put new tail on the devil mended his left hoof and did several odd jobs for the dammed."

For my Armenian friends there's one that says "decorated Noah's Ark". Presumably before he Sailed for Ararat.

Sir Paul Chater: Remembered and Continually Acknowledged by La Martiniere School Kolkata

This is the commemoration stone of one of the new school blocks at La Martiniere school Kolkata in perpetual recognition of Sir Paul Chater's financial contribution which allowed the school to stay open in the 1920's and continues to flourish today. A second school block of the same type was also named after Claude Martin the founder of La Martiniere.

It is indeed a testament to La Martiniere School and each successive head master that they never allow the names of their founder and their benefactor to get lost in the annals of time. They appear PROUD to carry the Martin and Chater names on a daily basis in the school prayer. It is nice they have named one of their new school constructions after Sir Paul. It is here in the 1850's he attended and gained the education required to carry him through his pioneering and innovative career as a leading business figure in Hong Kong and South East Asia.

Apcar Line Vessel Built in Glasgow in 1861

The Apcar Line ship,  'Arratoon Apcar' was built in Glasgow. Here is a newspaper snippet reporting that it was conducting sea trials after launch in 1861.  Later in 1863 it is commandeered by the military for use in New Zealand.

Armenian From Madras: 1808 Sarquis Agavelly, An Indian Armenian Lost In the Passage of Time.

The small church at St. Thomas's Mount Chennai
(Madras) has been well cared for over the years.
The influence of the Armenians and the legacy
of Sarquis Agavelly can be clearly
seen in both the altar and the pulpit.

He may have passed but his legacy lives on in the 21st Century in a small quiet church in Chennai.

It would appear that it is a rather overlooked fact that a Madras Armenian built the pulpit at the church at St. Thomas's Mount, Chennai which is a national shrine.

Extracted from Sarquis Satur Agavelly’s Will dated Madras 1808:

“…….It is my will and desire that on my decease and after the performance of all the ceremonies rites ordained by the Armenian church my body to be taken to the church at St. Thomas’s Mount and there buried under the pulpit which was made by my Uncle the late Sarquis Agavelly and a tomb stone be put on my grave with proper inscription in the Armenian and Latin languages……….”

The will
The statement 
The church
The pulpit 
The grave

 Perfect genealogical provenance

The more well known and popular fact is that the Madras Armenian Petrus Woskan (aka Uscan) built the steps at St. Thomas Mount but who knew its pulpit was made by the hand of another Armenian?

The Once Flourishing Armenian Community of Madras is Now No More - 1927

Extract from: The Times of India December 17, 1927

MADRAS LETTER
VESTIGES OF A GREAT PAST

Madras, December 14.

The celebration of a Requiem Mass at St. Mary’s Armenian Church on Sunday the 11th  [December 1927] instant in honour of the General Andranik, who died in America on August 31, serves to remind us, of the existence to this day the city of a small but rapidly disappearing community of Armenians, the descendants of a once flourishing class who possessed vast wealth and made generous public benefactions.

It was a fitting tribute that this small community paid on Sunday to a great Armenian solider who did much to sustain the morale of the small and badly equipped Armenian Army during the great war.  There are many vestiges in Madras City and its suburbs of the commercial enterprise and prosperity of the Armenians and of their glorious past.  Armenian Street, in which the Church is situated, is no longer occupied by Armenians as in days of yore, but there has grown up in it numerous commercial houses and trading establishments and today it is the centre of much business activity.

In Royapuram there is an important road called Arathoon Road, named after a one-time wealthy Armenian gentleman, whose remote descendants can still be traced in Madras.  There is an important bridge on the road to St. Thomas’ Mount, near the Little Mount Church, which owes its existence to the generous benefaction of an Armenian name Petrus Uscan, who constructed it in the year 1726, and which to this day, is a standing example the substantial type of structures guilt in those early days.  The same gentleman, who possessed a markedly religious turn of mind, was responsible also for constructing the long flight of inclined planes and solid stone steps which conduct Roman Catholic pilgrims to the ancient church situated at the summit of St. Thomas’s Mount.

Legal Age for Armenian Marriage in India in 1850

I have come across this interesting snippet.

In “The Procedure of the Civil Courts of the East India Company in the Presidency of Fort William” by William MacPherson , Barrister at Law of the Inner Temple, Published in 1850, comes the following interesting extract.

“Male Armenians would probably be considered as of full age at eighteen.

The Vicar* of the Armenian Church at Calcutta, on being asked by the Sudder Court what was the age of legal majority in females under the Armenian law, and whether a minor wife was considered to be under the tutelage of her husband; replied that: “the age of majority with females is considered to be the age of marriage; and the age of marriage commences from the twelfth year. The wife either a minor or of full age, remains under the tutelage of her husband.” “

*In my calculations the Vicar referred to would be one of three possible Armenian priests at the time.
Rev. Barseigh Galstanian (Archpriest)
Rev. Martyrose Ter Hovakiamian or
Rev. Mackertich Ter C. Gregorian