An intelligent, industrious type

Riccardo Lombardelli was born in Monticelli D’Ongia (Piacenza) on the 8th  August 1912. He and his wife Maria Luisa (née Carrara) operated the Rendezvous Restaurant at 58 Humberstone Gate, Leicester, England when he was arrested on the 10th June 1940.

In 1934, Riccardo had arrived in England and worked at Quaglino’s Restaurant and the Cumberland Hotel in London as a waiter.  He then went to Belgium for work, returned to Leicester and married in 1938.

His Australian reports documented that he worked on camp maintenance and was an intelligent, industrious type. Due to his membership in the Fascist Party in England and Italy, his association with known fascist in camp and the use of the fascist date on letters, Riccardo was seen as a fascist who was ‘prepared to go with the wind’.

Riccardo Lombardelli was forced to change his views in less than two months as is recorded in letters.  To his mother in Genoa, he wrote with hope on 17th July 1943: take courage, for everything will end as we wish it to end. Because if it does not, we shall be down-trodden for ever… (NAA: MP70/1, 3/101/185 Tatura Part 2) 

On 7th September 1943 Riccardo wrote to his wife Maria Luisa in Leicester: …In these last weeks I have re-considered my position, and after having reflected upon things that have happened to me in the past, I must say that I have been a man as thousands of others who have absorbed what should have been rejected with all their exertion…from now on I will not take part in anything that may happen outside my house… No Luisa, it is my duty to discuss these serious things with you… (NAA: MP70/1, 37/101/185 Tatura Part 3) There is not only a feeling of betrayal on Riccardo’s mind but also disillusionment.

From the 8th March 1944 until the 8th August 1944, Riccardo was in Loveday Camp 14D, SA with 27 other UK Italian internees.  On the 8th August 1944, Riccardo was released to work with the Civil Aliens Corps in forestry. In November 1944, after medical examination and letters requesting work of a less strenuous nature, Riccardo was assigned to light work.

In early February 1945, Riccardo embarked as a ‘released internee’ on the Athlone Castle which arrived in Liverpool on the 29th March 1945.

On the 16th June, Riccardo along with 21 other survivors of the Arandora Star tragedy was bestowed the honour of Cavaliere al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.