In memory of Giovanni Tambini

Portrait of Giovanni Tambini of NewportGiovanni Tambini, born in 1899, was one of many Italians who settled in Britain in the first decades of the 20th century. He had moved from Bardi, Italy.

By 1940, he and his wife Luisa were living above their café at 96 Commercial Street, Newport. The café was at the south end of Commercial Street, facing the junction with Cardiff Road. The couple had four young children, including Dorina who was born in early 1940.

Police came to the café in June 1940 to question Giovanni and later arrested him as an enemy alien. Italy had decided to fight alongside Germany in the Second World War, and the authorities feared that Italian civilians in Britain could secretly help the enemy.

While the police were on the premises, a large crowd – about 1,000 people at one point – gathered on the road junction outside. Some shouted for the Italians to be brought out and killed by the mob. A police cordon held most of the protestors at bay, but at least one café window was smashed. Forced to leave Newport, Luisa and the children went to stay with relatives in Builth Wells.

Soon afterwards, Giovanni was one of 1,200 Italian and German internees and prisoners of war who left Liverpool on the cruise liner Arandora Star, bound for Canada. Also on board were 400 troops to guard the prisoners, and the ship’s regular crew.

The ship had only reached the north-west coast of Ireland when it was sunk by a U-boat on 2 July 1940. More than 800 of the people on board perished, including Giovanni Tambini.

With thanks to Shaun McGuire and the late Maria Jones (Giovanni’s elder daughter)

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