I am a big fan of Turkish Delight and was gifted a box of Hadji Bey at Christmas by my aunt. This brand has a long association with Cork city although the present company is no longer controlled by the original family.
The box comes complete with a reproduced article from the Guardian in 1964, which I cannot find online but excerpts appeared in other newspapers. It references Mr Harutun Batmazian who fled persecution in Turkey for Ireland at the time of the Cork Exhibition (1) in 1902-1903. He was an Armenian Christian who studied law in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) but refused to kiss the Qur’an. He apparently came with no English and no money, like many immigrants.
Genealogy enthusiasts are used to the concept of “rabbit holes” and readers, I fell down a deep one here. I decided to research this Armenian family who came to Cork and introduced Turkish Delight to Ireland. In doing this research, I delved into my own travel history.
My research began with the 1911 census, where I found the Batmazian family at St Patrick’s Terrace in Cork. Harutun and Esther were a young married couple from Turkey, with three children under 9 all born in Cork city. Their religion was “Congregationalist” – a type of Protestant. Considering English would not have been their first language, Harutun’s handwriting and spelling is far more legible than many Irish people of the time!
Harutun was from Erbaa in Armenia, but then part of the Ottoman Empire, and Esther from Smyrna (modern-day Izmir). Esther noted they had been married for 9 years, and had 3 children living and one dead. I was surprised to discover the couple actually married in London, though I haven’t ordered their marriage certificate (UK ST £12.50 + weeks of waiting for a poor postal service!) would have delayed publication.(2)
Their eldest daughter Victoria was born in October of the same year and her birth record reveals that her middle name is Ireland – presumably in honour of their adopted country.(3)
Having opened a shop right away, they moved to larger premises on King St in 1903. This advertisment appeared in various newspapers, this one was in the Cork Examiner.
Further children, Rose, Edward, James and Eva followed their sister. Sadly, Rose died of TB and meningitis at 14 months.
Over the years, the business frequently advertised for new staff and the ads appeared all around the British Isles. This ad was in the Leeds Mercury in 1913. I think it would definitely fall foul of employment law today!
The business was victim to some criminal damage in 1915 when a local jarvey driver took offence to the Turkish flag and sweets on display while a British army regiment was passing – the Ottoman Empire being on the opposite side to Britain in the Great War. He was brought up in court for abusive language.(4) The case was dismissed although the jury noted they didn’t not approve of the manner of his actions, even if the sentiment was true. Let’s call a spade a spade here, this is appalling racism and it’s easy to imagine the Batmazians must have felt very let down by their adopted country.
Perhaps because of this, Harutun became a naturalised British citizen the same year.(5)
In 1918, they put an ad in the paper asking for people to return empty tins, as part of the war effort. (Cork Weekly News 23/2/1918).
In 1919, a huge fire engulfed the parade of shops including Hadji Bey. It must have been devasting, but they rose from the ashes and the business continued. (Weekly Freeman’s Journal, 6/9/1919).
There’s lots of evidence of the family travelling to England and America over the years and it was searching wider that I discovered Esther was staying in London during the 1921 census.(6) She was visiting James Taranto and his wife, who seems likely to be her brother, although she is only recorded as a visitor. Intriguingly, a young staff member from the shop in Cork, Annie May O’Neill, was also there. Perhaps it was a business trip – the Guardian article states they did sell in the UK as well.
It must have been on one of these trips that daughter Victoria met her future husband, Richard Bozian of New York. The Cork Examiner published this lovely wedding photo on 26th October 1929, two days after the beginning of the Wall St crash of the New York Stock Exchange.
Eva – Evangeline on her marriage certifcate, married John James O’Sullivan in Cork in 1933 and their brother Edward followed with marriage to Beatrice Goodall in 1939. It was Edward who carried on the family business. The other brother, James, moved to America, and his same named son graduated from Harvard Law School in 1973.
Esther Batmazian died in 1942 & was obviously much missed. The family inserted “in memoriam” notices in the newspaper about her for many years (7).
Harutun Batmazian actually died in America while visiting family there in 1955.
This nice picture comes from a lovely but huge article in Evening Echo on 1/4/1971. It notes that son Edward was the only one to stay in Ireland, and he was sold the business as he had no children himself.
One last image from my own travelogue. In the summer of 2020, under heavy lockdown conditions, I visited Ballymaloe House for a spectacular meal with my mother. Right beside our table sat this little guy, with a sign stating he was originally in the premises of Hadji Bey in Cork. The Allen family had been friends and customers. He’s completely unPC in the modern world of course. I quite fancy his trousers though.
Sources & Notes: newspapers sources come from a mix of Findmypast, Irish News Archive & Newspapers.com.
- I highly recommend this book by Dan Breen & Tom Spalding on the exhibition. It’s well-written, easily readable and has great photos.
- Q1 1902 Islington, Volume 1B, page 558.
- Victoria Batmazian, 30/10/1902, Cork, GRID: 7207732, www.irishgenealogy.ie
- This article (one of many) was in the Newtown & Earlestown Guardian 4/6/1915, www.findmypast.ie
- The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; Duplicate Certificates of Naturalisation, Declarations of British Nationality, and Declarations of Alienage; Class: HO 334; Piece: 76 www.ancestry.com UK, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870-1916. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
- https://www.findmypast.ie/transcript?id=GBC%2F1921%2FRG15%2F00827%2F0695%2F03&tab=this Did you know the 1921 Census for England and Wales is also now on Ancestry?
- Esther Batmazian, 11/6/1942, Cork, GRID: 2150241, www.irishgenealogy.ie
Great article Claire. King street was renamed MacCurtain St. about 1920. I remember the shop in Cork – I could pass it on my way home from school (if I took a longer route to walk home with a friend). Their Turkish Delight always was a big treat in its yellow tin – later I think that changed to cardboard. It’s odd that Armenian Christians (my mother knew the family) used the trade name ‘Hadji Bey’ which is 100% Muslim (Hajii is an honorific title conferred on a person who has completed the ‘Hajj’ – pilgrimage to Mecca and ‘Bey’ is used for a senior official.
I think Bey is used generally as well in Turkey as “Mr” these days.
There’s definitely some gaps between the published narrative in the articles and what I found in the records.
For example, how does someone who is a law student even know how to make Turkish Delight? Cork seems a million miles from Constantinople in so many ways too. Why there?