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SS Arandora Star
Remembering the sinking of SS Arandora Star
By Janine Pulford
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On 14 November, people throughout the country will be attending Remembrance services. I hope to travel to Llandudno where, for the first time, my maternal grandfather will be honoured with the fallen. Why has it taken so long for this to happen? Let me explain the tragic circumstances.
My grandfather, Egidio Friggi, was Italian and he was married to my grandmother Phyllis, a Yorkshire woman. They had four young children (one being my mother Sylvia).
A chef by trade, Egidio had lived in Britain for 20 years. He, like many other Italians, looked upon this country as their home. They were hardworking men, many with their own successful businesses.
Phyllis and Egidio
Arrested
When WW2 broke out, Italians were indiscriminately arrested as ‘enemy aliens’ and placed in internment camps. Churchill is famously rumoured to have said, “Collar the lot,” and amongst the ‘lot’ was Egidio who was working as a chef in Southampton when he was arrested. From there, I’m afraid nobody knows his story until he reached Liverpool. He was put on the Arandora Star with over 700 Italians plus other ‘alien’ nationalities, mainly Germans.
Overcrowding and shortfall of lifeboats
Some 1,300 internees were crammed aboard the commandeered liner along with 200 guards and 174 crew.
The Arandora Star was designed to carry 400 passengers and because of this, the number of lifeboats was woefully inadequate. To make matters worse, no boat drill had been carried out and 80 per cent of the crew had been signed on the morning the ship sailed.
A tragedy that should never have happened
Her destination was Canada. The ship’s livery had been repainted in battleship grey and had not been marked with a Red Cross as a POW ship. She had no convoy. This led to her being mistaken for a troop ship. In the early hours of 2 July 1940, while she was crossing the Irish Sea, a German U-boat fired a single torpedo at Arandora Star and she sank within 20 minutes taking many with her.
No apology, no compensation
The sinking of the Arandora Star is largely ignored possibly because it is an embarrassment to the British government. It should never have happened. Many of the families torn apart by the tragedy were left, like my grandmother, to fend penniless after their husbands died. They received no apology and no compensation.
Of the 700 men who lost their lives, 446 were Italian. Over the following months large quantities of bodies were washed ashore in Ireland and Scotland. But many heartbroken families never knew if their loved ones were among them as it was not always possible to identify their remains, and they were buried in unmarked graves.
Egidio Friggi, like many others, was simply recorded as a ‘victim.’ I don’t know to this day where my grandfather’s body rests.
Hometown commemorations
The grief affected my grandmother and her children for the duration of their lives. How proud they would be to learn that for the first time this year Egidio Friggi will be commemorated in his hometown of Llandudno following extensive research by the Home Front Museum.
Egidio’s image will be amongst those of the fallen during WW1 and WW2 from Llandudno that will be projected on the wall of Marks & Spencer for two days before Remembrance Sunday. A poppy will also be laid at his home address.
My mother Sylvia already appears on a Roll of Honour in Llandudno Library along with her friends who served their country during the war. I still have her King George VI War Medal for her service in the ATS as an ambulance driver at the end of the war. Her father would have been so proud of her.
Final letter
At some point in Egidio’s story, he found time to write Sylvia a letter, which he would have prayed would not be his last. I found this cherished correspondence safely stored with my mother’s personal effects. It was to be the last time she heard from her dear papa. She was 13.
Like all Egidio’s children, Sylvia has passed away, but had she been alive, I know this year’s tribute to her father would have filled her with pride. It would have gone a long way to heal her inner grief on Remembrance Day to know that the father she adored has finally been commemorated in the Welsh town where he lived as a casualty of WW2.
Egidio's last letter
