Friday 23 August 2013

The Sarkies Brothers and the E&O Hotel in Penang


From the book: The E&O Hotel. Pearl of Penang by Ilsa Sharp (2008).

Page 28: The Armenians are devout Christians. The four Armenian Sarkies brothers who founded the E&O Hotel in 1885 were Martin, Tigran, Aviet and Arshak. The Armenian name Sarkies could have come from Sarkissian or their father's first name, who was named Sarkies Martyrose Ter Woskanian. Tigran was the first brother to settle in Penang (there is no date mentioned). However, Martin (b.1852) had visited Penang in 1869.

Page 29: Shows a family photo of the Sarkies.

I attended the Penang Story Lecture: "Penang and the Hajj 2013" on 17-18 August 2013 at the E&O Hotel. Present were Rukiah Hanoum Omar Farok and her second cousin, Mohd Aiyob Mohd Aziz. She is the granddaughter of Sir KM Ariff. Mohd Aiyob is the the grandnephew of Sir KM Ariff.

I was walking from the dining hall to the Palm Lounge with Rukiah Hanoum when we stopped and I took her photo in the corridor. There were three oval frames on the back wall which at the time were unknown to me. However, when I returned to Kelantan and I was reading Ilsa's book, it contained the same portraits of the three gentlemen, and they were actually the founders of the E&O Hotel in Penang.

I then went through my digital album and got to the photo of Rukiah Hanoum with the three gentlemen's portraits on the wall. True enough, the three portraits on the wall were the founders of the E&O Hotel. I worked all morning today, to edit the photo - to crop just the three gentlemen. The middle portrait was a bit difficult to work on as the top of the frame was not in the photo (truncated). I had to tweak it to make a new photograph altogether. Then I created some text to go with the three portraits. I think my new photograph of the three gentlemen is better now. I have included the three names so I know who they are.



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