A Uruguayan Italian

Luigi Cappuccini was born in Montevideo, Uruguay on the 10th March 1887. His family was from the Massa and Carrara province of Italy.  At the time of his arrest in London, on the 11th June 1940, he was operating a café at 189 Wardour Street, London, England with his wife Teresa and family.  Three of Luigi’s four sons were interned on the Isle of Man: Andrea, Pietro and Amelio.

Luigi was related Lodovico Rosi (cousin) being from the Grondola and Pontremoli in the province of Massa and Carrara, Italy.  Upon his arrival in London in 1920, Luigi worked for Rosi at a Charing Cross Road café for 5 years. He then worked for Marioni for three years at Hammersmith. He then opened a café at 189 Wardour Street.

He wrote to son Pietro on the 12th February 1943 explaining life in an Australian internment camp and makes a brief mention of the Dunera voyage: Andrea tells me that you others have your walk. We instead have a walk when a change of camp is made, walks of 24 hours by train, but better than going on foot. Here in Australia you eat a lot, sleep a lot and always within boundaries, night and day, and never having the consolation of going, at least once a week for a walk. We have a lake also, but it is seen only, perhaps they are frightened that going to swim we’ll drown ourselves. We are not frightened of water, we saw water for 14 thousand miles… (NAA:A367, C74691)

Before his internment, Luigi had been in a London Hospital. He was a sufferer of TB and from 11th May 1943 onwards he spent time at the 28 Australian Camp Hospital (ACH), Waranga and the 115 Australian General Hospital Heidelberg (AGH).  A note on his file: permanently living at hospital conveys the seriousness of his condition.

Luigi returned to Liverpool, England on the Dominion Monarch which arrived on the 19th April 1945. He continued his internment until the 26th May 1945 when his release was authorised. 

Luigi died on the 24th June 1946 in the Charing Cross Hospital, London.

Tatura, Australia. January 1943. Group of Italian internees from overseas now interned at Tatura Internment Camp. Back row, left to right: L. Cappuccini; P. Cabrelli; G. Barovero; L. Becci; L. Barbieri; A. Terroni. Front row: S. Beschizza; L. Rosi; L. Beschizza; P. Pinagli.