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Arandora Star: analysis and ‘Embarkation Listing’ of Italians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2024

Alfonso Pacitti*
Affiliation:
Independent genealogist and researcher, Leamington Spa, UK
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Abstract

This paper critically reviews and examines the available data concerning Italians embarked on the SS Arandora Star on 30 June 1940. It encompasses their fate on 2 July when the ship was sunk, their subsequent journeys and the sources used to verify the conclusions. The principal aim is to establish, as far as is possible, the precise number, correct names and other details of those who were embarked on the ship. A fully validated ‘Embarkation Listing’ is published here for the first time.

Italian summary

Italian summary

Questo articolo rivede criticamente ed esamina i dati disponibili relativi agli italiani chi furono imbarcati sulla SS Arandora Star il 30 giugno 1940. Racchiude il loro destino il 2 luglio quando la nave fu affondata, i loro viaggi successivi e le fonti utilizzate per verificare le conclusioni. L'obiettivo principale è stabilire, per quanto possibile, il numero preciso, i nomi corretti e altri dettagli di coloro che sono stati imbarcati sulla nave. Un ‘Elenco di Imbarcati’ completamente validato viene pubblicato per la prima volta.

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for the Study of Modern Italy

Introduction

This paper critically reviews and examines the available data concerning Italians embarked on the SS Arandora Star (AS) on 30 June 1940. The aim is to establish, as far as is possible, the precise number, correct names and other details of those who were embarked on the ship. Until now, no systematic investigation has been carried out to assess and correct the original government lists: the initial error-ridden Foreign Office Embarkation List, 1940 (FO 371/25210) and the later, more accurate, Home Office Lists of Missing Persons, 1942 (HO 215/429). The intent is to iron-out the mistakes, inaccuracies and anomalies in this documentation created in a situation of wartime confusion and absence of proper record keeping. By consulting and cross-checking against a wide range of data sources,Footnote 1 this research not only provides an accurate verification of those on board, both lost and saved, and offers embarkation analysis, but also delivers a revised, corrected and expanded ‘Embarkation Listing’. The research thus enhances the historiography of the AS regarding Italian internees, and also contributes an accurate source for any future memorialisation, especially those that might wish to include survivors as well as victims.Footnote 2

Embarked Italians

The flawed FO Embarkation List, revised several times shortly after the sinking and accessible through the Brazilian Embassy, was eventually produced as a printed version indicating 486 Italians lost and 226 saved, a total of 712 men on board. Illustrating the degree of government disorder, other FO documents give a total of 734 Italians (FO 916/2581), while the HO and War Office recorded 717 Italians aboard (HO 213/1722; WO 361/4). The generally accepted figure from the HO Missing Persons List, first published in 1991 when access became available at the National Archives, is that 446 Italians perished (Colpi Reference Colpi1991, 271–278). Revised and corrected data, as presented here, amends these figures to 442 drowned and 265 rescued, giving a new and definitive total of 707 Italians embarked onto the ship. Although the reworked 707 figure appears close to the FO total of 712, the latter total conceals the extensive errors and anomalies that the FO Embarkation List contained.

Victims – 442

The HO Missing List total (446) contains four erroneous entries, three of which are listed as ‘unconfirmed’. Investigation revealed that two of these unconfirmed entries did not board the AS: A Olivelli, who was interned in Canada, having been deported on the MV Ettrick (HO 396/115); and A Massari, who was interned on the Isle of Man (HO 396/290). The third unconfirmed man, G Felloni, did board, but was an AS survivor subsequently interned in Australia (MP 1103/1). No trace or record of the fourth discounted name (S Santi) could be found across multiple data sources. Extensive modifications, especially with regard to places of birth, were, however, required to correct the Missing List, and a few spellings of names were also amended.

Survivors – 265

There has never been a conclusive, validated list detailing those who survived the sinking. Misspellings and inconsistent alphabetical order as well as transposition errors and other errors of omission, duplication and wrongful inclusion in the FO Embarkation List meant that using this list as the starting place for compiling a new survivors’ list was not feasible.Footnote 3 To highlight this point, analysis exposed that 36 men were incorrectly recorded as lost, nine entries were duplicated, seven men listed as survivors did not in fact board the AS, one man recorded as a survivor perished and six others, recorded elsewhere as survivors, are not recorded at all in the FO list. Accordingly, to achieve both an accurate total of those embarked and a reconstructed survivors’ listing, the FO document was only used as a base-list of names for cross-checking. A combination of significantly more reliable data from two other sources formed the foundation upon which the new listing of survivors could be built.

The first of these two sources comprises the embarkation list of HMT Dunera (FO 371/25210; HO 215/1), the ship that subsequently transported AS survivors to internment in Australia. This is considered exact in its listing of the 200 Italians on board, with only some misspellings of names, and has been cross-corroborated with internment records for Australia (MP 1103/1). Nonetheless, to reconstruct the new and complete ‘Embarkation Listing’, as presented below, giving survivor data comparable to the amended and originally more detailed HO Missing List, research across wide-ranging sources was required (see Note 1). Secondly, by accessing and retrieving the data from the Admissions Register of Mearnskirk Hospital in Glasgow for the first time, an irrefutable level of evidence concerning those survivors who were hospitalised after rescue is provided (HB 64/4/1). This comprehensive primary source forms the missing link in the overall data analysis of survivors, listing 63 Italians admitted to the hospital on 3 July 1940 (Figure 1). Taking the total to 265, two further confirmed survivors were Cesare Bianchi,Footnote 4 one of the men not recorded at all on the FO list, and one of two men called Paolo Treves. The Paolo Treves who embarked the AS and survived the sinking was not Paolo Treves of anti-fascist and literary fame, but the other man with the same name (Lo Biundo Reference Lo Biundo2022, 85). Both Bianchi and Treves the AS survivor were subsequently interned on the Isle of Man (HO 396/210; HO 396/294). Paolo Treves the anti-fascist was released directly from the transit internment camp at Warth Mills (FO 371/25210). It remains unknown, given their lack of requirement for hospital treatment, why Bianchi and survivor Treves were not rerouted to Australia amongst ‘i due cento’.

Figure 1. Page from Mearnskirk Hospital Admission Register 1940

Survivors interned in Australia

After the Canadian destroyer HMCS St Laurent completed its rescue mission in the Atlantic, the survivors were disembarked at Greenock, Scotland (DeWolf 1960). Those internees deemed fit to travel were taken back to Liverpool for shipment to Australia. Of these 200 internees, five men died while in captivity, and their remains are today interred at the Italian National Ossario in Murchison, Victoria.Footnote 5 Six internees were drowned when being transported back to the UK in 1942 for tribunals to assess whether they could be released. Their ship, MV Abosso, was torpedoed by U-575 and sunk off the Azores (ADM 358/2980). Between 1941 and 1946 the majority of internees were repatriated to the UK (HO 396/159), two of whom brought back Italian-Australian wives. Eight men remained in Australia after release, becoming Australian citizens (MP 1103/1).

Survivors interned on the Isle of Man

As mentioned, the sick and wounded survivors were hospitalised at Mearnskirk, appropriated as an Emergency Medical Service Hospital. Of the 63 Italian patients, 59 were discharged from hospital on 11 July 1940, the remaining four followed during the second half of August (HB 64/4/1). All were initially taken to an internment camp at Donaldson's School, Edinburgh. One internee, Uberto Limentani, an anti-fascist employed by the BBC, was released from Donaldson's on 31 July 1940 (Limentani Reference Limentani1980). The others were subsequently sent to internment camps on the Isle of Man in October 1940. Two of these internees died while in captivity, Osvaldo Girolami who is buried at Douglas Cemetery, and Giustino Notorianni, buried at Mount Vernon Cemetery, Edinburgh (CWGC).

Epilogue

The Italian internees comprised part of the total embarked onto the Arandora Star at Liverpool. Published figures range from 1,564 to 1,673 men aboard (Rumble this issue). In addition to the 707 Italians, there were approximately 478 Germans and Austrians (FO 371/25210) and 430 Military Guard and Crew (ADM 199/2133) on the ship, giving a total of 1,615 on board. A total of 861 men were rescued (DeWolf 1960, 21).

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Terri Colpi for her patience and guidance in helping me formulate this paper.

Competing interests

The author declares none.

Alfonso Pacitti is an independent genealogist and researcher into the Arandora Star tragedy. Both his maternal and paternal grandfathers perished on the ship and his father was also interned for over 50 months during the Second World War. He is a trustee of the Arandora Star UK National Memorial.

Appendix: Arandora Star ‘Embarkation Listing’: Italians

Footnotes

1. In addition to the specific references cited in the text, additional resources used in cross-checking data were: ‘Soldiers’ Effects Records, 1901–1960’, National Army Museum, London, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60506/ (accessed 14 January 2024); BT 334 ‘Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea’, 1891–1972, The National Archives; Schedario del 1933 del Regio del Consolato Italiano in Glasgow, ‘1933 Censimento’, Italian Consulate General, Edinburgh; 1921 Census of England and Wales https://www.findmypast.co.uk (accessed 20 January 2024); 1921 Census of Scotland, https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk (accessed 20 January 2024); 1939 England & Wales Register, https://www.findmypast.co.uk (accessed 20 January 2024); Births, Marriages and Deaths, England and Wales (1837–2007), https://www.findmypast.co.uk (accessed 20 January 2024); Births, Marriages and Deaths, Scotland (1837–2007), Registrar General for Scotland, Edinburgh, https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk (accessed 20 January 2024); Italian Birth Records (1806–1923), Italian State Archives, https://antenati.cultura.gov.it (accessed 3 February 2024); French Birth Records, Filae, https://en.filae.com (accessed 3 February 2024); Colpi Reference Colpi1991, 271–278; Balestracci Reference Balestracci2008, 367–381; Capella Reference Capella2015, 15–105; Guida Generale degli Italiani in Gran Bretagna, 1939.

2. This research has been carried out as part of and in parallel with an ongoing project to create an ‘Arandora Star UK National Memorial’, planned for 2025–2026.

3. Error in the FO list is further compounded by sub-division by internment camp of origin and nationality – German, Austrian, Italian. British military and crew are not listed.

4. ‘Arandora Star Victims’, Liverpool Daily Post. 9 July 1940, 1. Bianchi also featured in the Warth Mills Project, 2017.

5. The Italian National Ossario is an ossuary, war cemetery and war memorial built in 1961 and holding the remains of 130 Italians who died in captivity during the Second World War. See ‘Monuments Australia – Italian National Ossario’. https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/conflict/ww2/display/32797-italian-national-ossario/photo/4 (accessed 23 February 2024).

1. Names are those most commonly used and recorded in documentation at the time of the tragedy and reflect any anglicisation adopted. This especially affects surnames originally commencing with the letter ‘I’. Surnames such as Iaconelli, Iannetta and Iardella are listed under the letters ‘J’ or ‘Y’.

2. AS = Perished on Arandora Star (442); Dun = Rescued and sent to Australia on Dunera (200); UK = Rescued, hospitalised and then interned UK (65).

3. Current Italian provincial boundaries and abbreviations have been used. For individuals born outside Italy the provincial denominations indicate province of familial origin or connection.

4. Last known UK residence prior to internment.

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Figure 1. Page from Mearnskirk Hospital Admission Register 1940

Figure 1

1.