A family portrait of the Menemencioğlu family taken around 1909 in front of their house in Pera, top left Numan, top right Muvaffak, with a seated father of them Menemenlizade Rıfat bey, and the apparently newly wed wife of Muvaffak, Catherina née Laya, sitting confidently with crossed arms.

The photo dated from 1936, a boat trip hosted by Ataturk (middle), with King Edward VIII on the left and Numan Menemencioğlu positioned between them in the rear. Mrs. Simpson, present here next to Ataturk, or as he would formally and politely have seated her, on his right, affair was still not in the British public domain as the press in those days were far less intrusive, and they couldn’t have published such a photo. But in Istanbul, neither Edward and Mrs S. nor the Turks made any attempt to hide their relationship. According to the note on the rear of the photo, the group are enjoying watching the sea races at Moda on 6-9-36.

Photo of grandfather Jasper, location unknown.

Wife of grandfather Jasper, Nina (?) Yamali, location unknown. She married in 1900 probably in Istanbul and died in England during WW2. Her family were originally Greeks from Crete and the surname was adopted by an ancestor who rebelled against the Turkish occupying troops, was captured, and was marked on his face with a knife blade as punishment, the word for scarred in Turkish being ‘yamalı’, and he was proud of this patriotic deed and its legacy, so adopted this as his surname.

Isabel aged about 15 with her brother, my father, photographed in a Pera studio (Apollon).

Isabel photographed probably after her marriage to Agabekov when aged 22.

Father Jasper during war time, looking rather dashing.

Father Jasper this time shaking hands with US president and supreme commander Franklin D. Roosevelt. According to the typed note on the reverse of the photo, gives a date of 7-3-44 and notes ‘two Middle East RAF officers have been awarded the United States Legion of Merit, for services rendered to the U.S. Air Forces in connection with the great raid by American Liberators on the oil fields at Ploesti, Rumania. The awards were presented by Major General Ralph Royce at a ceremony held before he relinquished command of the U.S. Forces in the Middle East. Present at the ceremony were Brigadier General Benjamin Giles, the new U.S. Commanding General, and Air Vice Marshal E.B.C. Botts, RAF, Middle East. Major General Ralph Royce congratulates S/Ldr J.S. Streater on whom he has just conferred the Legion of Merit’.

The certificate of Legion of Merit awarded to Jasper Streater following the Ploesti raid, signed by Roosevelt.

Namik Kemal, mother Nermin’s great-grandfather.

British Ambassador during the war years, Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessan (of the Cicero affair fame) and Nermin Streater in Ankara WW2 acted as an interpreter, probably at the gates of the Turkish foreign ministry in Ankara.

Top ministers in a railway station in Turkey, from left, Fevzi Çakmak the C.&C. of forces, ambassador Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessan, the future British prime minister Sir Anthony Eden, the foreign secretary at the time, and Şükrü Saraçoğlu, the foreign minister of Turkey - taken Feb 1941.