Categories: HistoryPeople

From the History of Raffi’s Family

After the passing of Raffi, his wife Anna – Assyrian by nationality – along with her two sons moved to London. There, the family was the driving force behind the local Armenian community. Son Arshak was appointed Ambassador of the First Republic of Armenia to the UK. He put a lot of effort and resources into accommodating Armenian refugees.

About the second son, Aram, nothing is known.

The sons and mother met death in the UK.

Arshak was married to a woman named Alexandria whose mother was an Armenian and her father an English doctor. Alexandria taught Armenian in a school. Arshak himself earned money by teaching Russian to British officers (the photo below is from his college).

The family lived modestly. When Arshak was invited to Buckingham Palace, he didn’t visit the monarch’s residence since he couldn’t afford a beautiful dress for his wife to wear for the occasion.

Raffi’s sons had no children, so the Raffi dynasty ended with them.

In 1947, Alexandria handed a box containing the manuscripts and documents of Raffi over to the Soviet embassy in London for transportation to Armenia. In the box were also the second and third volumes of Raffi’s novel Salpi, which were handwritten and had not been published before. But this box would “disappear.”

HAYASA

Vigen Avetisyan

View Comments

  • How could the box disappeared? Was it destroyed, cause that was usual for that time of politics, or it’s hidden somewhere, it’s very worthy to follow the story and make an investigation.

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