Certificate of Identity

Documentation for Michele Coia and Ermenigildo Guido sheds light on procedures and documentation required for the men for their journey home.

It makes sense that upon release from Tatura camp, they would need to carry a Certificate of Registration with them. They would need documentation to allow them to move from for example the Civil Aliens Camp to Melbourne on their days off; or from their residence to their place of work in Melbourne. Michele Coia mentioned his Certificate of Registration in the letter below.

Equally as important if not more so, is the Certificate of Identity. Upon return to the UK as a ‘released internee’ identity papers were required. Their Italian passports or/or British identity documents which would have been relinquished at an internment camp or lost on the Arandora Star. But the men would need an identity document to travel from Australia to the UK with some repatriation ships docking in Auckland, New Zealand and New York, USA.

It is with thanks to Ryan Lawrence, great-great grandson of Ermenegildo Guido, that we can see the Identity Card the men would have departed Australia with.

Do any other families have their grandfather or father or great-grandfather's Certificate of Identity?