Abraham Minkin

Abraham Minkin* (c.1883-?) was born in Odesa, which was then in Russia. It is not clear when he arrived in Britain. He can be found in the 1911 census, living alone in Islington, at 21 Camden Passage. He was single, and gave his nationality as ‘Jewish’. His occupation is listed as ‘compositor orental’, presumably a mis-spelling of ‘oriental’. He probably specialised in compositing in Hebrew script for Jewish newspapers and other publications, of which there were many at the time.

A family photograph indicates that he was still in Odesa in the late-1890s, but family stories relate that he was settled in London by the time his much younger brother Bert joined him in 1905. The date is important. Both Abraham and Bert would have been entitled to settle without having to prove their credentials for purposes of the 1905 Aliens Act, which came into force on 1 January 1906. It was the first modern legislation to regulate alien immigration to Britain, denying entry to paupers, criminals, and those in poor health – but specifically exempting asylum-seekers.

Any Jew escaping Odesa in 1905 should, in principle, have had little difficulty establishing a claim to asylum. 1905 saw Odesa suffering some of the worst pogroms to date in its unhappy history of antisemitic violence. But Bert and the rest of the family were by then well away from Odesa, gradually moving north- and westwards into less menacing parts of Europe, and eventually (at least in Bert’s case) to London.

The brothers were able to remain in Britain on the outbreak of war in 1914, when conscription into the British army was voluntary. By 1917, however, agreement had been reached with Russia that Russian men in Britain, of military age, would have to be available to serve in either the British Army or its Russian counterpart. With the Tsar deposed, Abraham chose promptly to join up in Russia. He wrote to his brother from Moscow on 15 October that year, after which all attempts at contact with him fail.

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*with thanks to the Minkin family. See also a fuller account here: www.jewishislington.co.uk/untoldstories-contributed-stories