UK Armenians & WW1

Hundreds of soldiers of Armenian origin joined the Great War, fighting and dying for their adoptive country.

Stories of the Armenians in the British military forces, based on their descendant’s interviews and research, can be found on this page.

We gathered some amazing stories about Armenian doctors involved in WW1 – Ernest Haik Riddall Altounyan, the Dobrashian family and Varaztad Kazanjian

Knowledge of languages and the local culture have enabled many Armenians to work for the British Intelligence Services, often risking their lives and supplying important information. This section presents two incredible stories.

World War 1 and the Armenian Genocide displaced millions of people, and you can read some of the survivor stories here.

Many people supported the Armenians in different ways – fundraising, donating, travelling to help the refugees, etc. We talk about some of these remarkable people in this section.

A brief introduction of WW1, main theatres of war, facts and figures.

UK Armenians and WW1 was a two-year project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, with the aim of creating an audio-visual archive of the experiences of the Armenian community in the UK during WW1. A number of interviews were conducted with project contributors who kindly shared their personal family stories. Testimonies of War, a short documentary produced by Athena Mandis with material supplied from the project, is based on these interviews. Further research was carried out in relation to Armenian soldiers, doctors, refugees and other community members which are viewable on this website and was also incorporated into an exhibition shown at a number of venues across London and Manchester. We would like to thank everyone who contributed their time, family stories, knowledge and skills in order to record, preserve and document their memories and research for the benefit of future generations.