HENRY FINNIS BLOSSE LYNCH: TRAVELLER IN ARMENIA OR ARMENIAN TRAVELLER?
By Christopher Young
Thursday, 29 October 2009 at 7:30 pm
Armenian House, 25 Cheniston Gardens, W8 6TG
(Tube: High Street Kensington)
Admission: £5, £3 for Friends of Armenian Institute
H. B. C. Lynch (1862-1913) made two journeys to Armenia in the 1890s. These form the basis of Armenia: Travels and Studies. But why did he go, and what did he hope to achieve? Lynch's paternal forebears were Irish landowners, distinguished as administrators, soldiers, entrepreneurs and oriental scholars with strong links to the east. His mother, however, was half Armenian, and there was a strong Armenian presence in his home and extended family. Thus, were his travels a personal Odyssey? His book has a strong political note, but what concerned him more? Was it an end to the oppression of Armenians, or the threat that Russian intervention would pose to the British position (and his own business interests) in the Persian Gulf? We shall follow Harry Lynch through Armenia with the help of his personal diaries and one of the ice picks used in the ascent of Ararat will be at hand.
Wine and snacks to follow the lecture. On this occasion we will serve French red and white wine (Château des Hourtets, Gaillac, Tarn) produced by an Armenian couple, Anne and Edouard Kabakian.
Christopher Young retired from the Bench in 1997 and returned to his student days. After an MA in Mediterranean Studies, with a strong emphasis on Byzantine History, he went to Oxford to write a Doctoral Thesis on Lynch and the Euphrates and Tigris Steamship Company. He has travelled widely in Eastern Turkey and Armenia. Professor Dickran Kouymjian, a friend, first drew Christopher’s attention to Lynch, who had followed a similar route.
Photograph of H. F. B. Lynch courtesy of Christopher Young.
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