AUTOBIOGRAPHY

WILSON SILWANIS HANNA ABDEL NOUR

THE END OF WW1 (AUGUST 1st 1914 - NOVEMBER 11th 1918): In January 1918 Wilson outlined his PEACE PROGRAM in 14 Points, which shortened the war by furnishing the conditions under which Germany sued for the Armistice that ended the fighting on 11/11/1918. As my parents happened to be fond of the name Wilson they named me after him.

HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT MY COUNTRY OF BIRTH, EGYPT
ORIGIN OF THE NAME: COPTIC AND GREEK LANGUAGES: MISR: ORIGIN MISRAIM, GENESIS 10:6

The land of EGYPT:-

• Egypt is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation, about 7000 years B.C. (EGYPT: THE WORLD OF THE PHARAOHS, BY KONEMAN, P 530)
• The gift of the NILE, the longest river in the world
• The land of pharaohs and incomparable ancient antiquities
• The place where the Holy Family fled from Palestine
• The cross road of the world, completing the bridge between Europe, Asia and Africa
• The heart of the Middle East Region
• I believe Egypt was the wealthiest country in the Middle East, specially after the opening of the Suez Canal and the Mixed Tribunals
• Egypt is the "Haven" of immigrants who flooded in from:
  1. The Middle East Region:(Lebanon, Palestine, Syria)
  2. Europe: (Albania, Britain, France, Greece, Italy, Malta)

THE SUEZ CANAL
The Suez Canal was planned and built by the French Count Ferdinand - Marie - De Lesseps (1805 - 1894). It is the shortest navigable route between the East and the West, joining the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Digging of the canal began on April 25th 1859. The Canal was opened for navigation on November 17th 1869 during the reign of Khedive (khedaiwy) Ismail Pacha, son of Mohammed Ali, the founder of "Alawi" dynasty that ruled Egypt from 1805 until 1952. The Canal was inaugurated by Eugenie, Empress of France. To celebrate this great event, The operetta "Aida" was played at the Royal Opera House, Cairo, by the Italian composer Giusseppe Verdi (1831 -1901)

NOTES The British Government was the largest single share holder in the "Companie Universelle Du Canal De Suez "(French language was used within the Company).
The second important share holder was France. The company headquarters are located in Ismailia, named after Khedive Ismail

Following htis brief outline of my country of birth, I need to deal with some significant towns that have a bearing on the history of our family.

EL MANSOURAH (THE VICTORIOUS)

LOCATION	DAMIETTA DELTA
GOVERNERATE	Capital city of El Dakahliya Governorate
HISTORY	Crusades: Military expeditions undertaken by Western European Christians between 1095 and 1270 usually at hte behest of the Papacy to recover Jerusalem and other Palestinian places of pilgrimage from Muslim control. The name crusade is derived from the Latin 'cross', the emblem of the crusaders. During the sixth crusade, Louis IX the king of France (also called St Louis 1214-1270) landed in Damietta (Lower Egypt) in 1249. In 1250, he and his forces were defeated by the Mamelukes (members of a Military Class) originally of Turkish slaves, ruling in Egypt (1250 - 1517). Louis IX was captured in battle and made prisoner in El Mansourah (Damietta Delta) and capital ciyt of El Dakahlia governerate.

After my parents' death Rev, Marcus (my uncle - father's brother) acted as my guardian. Owing to conflict about my heritage, my maternal grand mother (a wise but illiterate old woman) took over from him, presumably with her son Elias's assistance.
He was 22 years old. Regreattably, relations between the two parties were rather thorny and intractable. The only good relation they had was with my cousin William Marcus Hanna.

1st December 1923 Unofficial Engagement
A letter from uncle Elias to Marie's father (maternal cousin) : "Wilson attends an Italian school near our house. He seems to be very happy, learning Italian, French, Arabic, singing and playing with his toys (I was 4 years old). We sent him to school on condition to marry Marie" (Official engagement occurred on 3rd January 1946.

1927 -1928
I went to "College Saint Louis" Mansourah. (French Catholic Friars). The class comprised 37 pupils. I used to walk to school as it was not far from home.

10th January 1929
I wrote a well researched composition about Mansourah for which the teacher awarded me 20 out of 25 marks; While this gave me confidence, it aroused the envy of some of my classmates.

1932 - 1933
I obtained certificate of Secondary Studies on 16th June 1933. On 30th July I obtained "Diploma de Dactylographie" (typing), Institute Stenographique de France. (delivered in Mansourah)
English language was taught by one of the Brothers, French by another and Arabic by two Moslems from El Azhar University. All students regardless of their religious affiliations studied Catechism.
Seven of the 14 students obtained the certificate.
To obtain higher certificate, I had to join High School, either in Tantah (Gharbia Governorate) or Alexandria. Sadly my Uncle's financial situation was rather limited, and that created some difficulties for me at the time.

FOND MEMORIES
I recall occasions while playing in the school yard, Fr. Dussis used to chase the children and frighten them with his dentures.

During one English class, a classmate, "Elias Khoury" played up a bit and gave the teacher a hard time. After he got under his skin, and as a punishment, Fr. Bernard ordered him to write a sentence 50 times. On hearing the teacher's pronouncement, Elias raised his arm and with a loud voice answered "I will not do it" (Je ne ferai pas!) Then the teacher increased the penalty to 100, then to 200 times but Elias kept on returning the same answer. Flustered and frustrated, the teacher opened the lid of Elias's desk and threw all his books outside the class.

Same English class, a classmate blew up an envelope which made a loud bang and created havoc in class. The teacher screamed "WHO DID THAT?" No one answered. Then he ordered us to stand up and started collecting from each of us five reward cards. When he reached my mate "Alexander" the latter asked "Do you want me to tell you who has done it, Sir? It is X". In response, the furious teacher confiscated 10 cards from him for not telling the truth at the very beginning.

Another incident stands out in my mind. I was wearing shorts, a green shirt, tarbouche (fez) and carrying a stick - for some reason somehow (I am now carrying a different kind of stick!). After visiting a class mate at his place, I happened to lose my way back home late at night, and I ended up wandering aimlessly for hours on end. When my uncle Elias became worried about me, strangely enough for some reason he suspected that my uncle Marcus might have kidnapped me. Together my uncle Elias with friends of his managed to find me distraught but quite safe six hours later. I was thankful I did not create any family feud between the two of them.

Alexander's nickname was Aleco (Greek). A cheeky classmate, Ramzy Abdallah, used to go to Alex's home and call him in a musical tone: "A-leco", whose response in a poor Arabic "Emshy ya walad ya Ramzy" i.e. get lost you mongrel.

I have a school photo taken in 1932 showing the two classmates standing beside each other. Seventy five years later, in April 2007, to be exact, I dreamt of Ramzy whom I had not seen since leaving school. A few days after this dream I happened to meet for the first time an Iraqi gentleman named Ramzy Abdallah. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

During the school vacation, we had to borrow a book from the library, and deliver its summary afterwards. Seeking some help, a schoolmate "Hassan Mohamed" from Daghistan (Central Asia) asked me to help him by reading his book and summarise it for him. Although it was copied by him, the teacher realised at once that it was my style. He made an annotation on Hassan's book "See Wilson's" and on mine "See Hassan's". Who said we could fool our teachers?

Before Uncle Elias' marriage, Teta and I were living with him. My uncle got married in 1925. His wife came from Miniah (Upper Egypt) Her name was "Wadia Khalil". Marriage took place in Cairo. After the birth of their first son on 3rd May 1927, his wife expelled us without any plausible reason. Nothing happened from Teta or me. It just happened . Therefore, a new existence started, sharing a widow's apartment (Bahga). Our entourage consisted of women related to the widow or to my Teta. I used to accompany Teta to visit her friends, walking of course. I was still at school at the time and I must admit my uncle kept on supporting us financially.

As my uncle could not cope with his family's financial responsibilities and supporting us, he decided to find a job for me. One day he took me to the office of Maitre Jacque D. Sabethai, lawyer before Mixed Courts, a Jew, from Greece.

The office was situated in an impressive building near Mansourah railway station. At the age of fourteen I started working "officially". Only to experience a confrontation with a classmate "Nicola Segredos" who was older than me. In 1930 - 1931 we were in the same class. He was my boss at the lawyer's office. When he left I became the boss. Later on my assistants happened to be either former school or classmates.

The French typewriter keyboard was different from the school's. I started to use the Arabic typewriter for the first time.

The lawyer treated me well. Gradually, I enhanced my maturity and experience. A new phase started when I became independent, looking after Teta and myself. We moved to a pleasant flat near Mansourah railway station. In 1942 my monthly salary was raised up to 12 Egyptian Pounds. My salary was based on undertaking three tasks (The French typewriter keyboard was different from the school's. I started to use the Arabic typewriter for the first time):

1. Typing law documents prepared by the lawyer; writing legal forms; attending to lodgement of appeals; customer and translation service.
2. Preparation of activities reports for sequestration expert.
3. Collecting tenats' monthly rentals for one of the Roman Catholic churches.