Zaven Manoukian

(1899-1918)

“In all that company of my intimate friends he alone, I used to think, was moved to spiritual and intellectual agony by the awareness that war could exist. He got a scholarship to Oxford but never took it, for he was killed. His real name was Zaven Manoukian.”*

Many Armenians fought and died in British and Commonwealth armed forces during WWI. Remembrance Day (11 November) marks the formal end of the Great War.

Second-Lieutenant Zaven Manoukian, The Lancashire Fusiliers. Born West Didsbury, Manchester. Died on 3 September 1918, aged 19. He is buried at Houcin British cemetery, France.

SOURCES: Joan George, “Merchants in Exile: The Armenians in Manchester, England, 1835-1935” (Gomidas Institute, 2002), p. 177; quote taken from Victor Gonzales, “More for Timothy,” (Gollancz, London), 1952, vol II, p. 197; Commonwealth War Graves Commission, www.cwgc.org