I have been treated well

Ugo Ugolini was born in Firenze, Italy on the 13th August 1880 (1882).  He was arrested in London on the 11th June 1940 and lived with his daughter Enza Ugolini and her three children at 4 Woodfield Avenue. Ugo was a widower, his wife having been killed in London air raids in 1917.

Before his arrival in England in 1911, he had conducted a straw hat business and a hairdressing salon in Florence. He entered into a partnership in hairdressing in London in 1911 until he returned to Italy for military service in WW1.  Discharged in December 1918, he returned to London and was appointed secretary of the Italian Legion ex Servicemen’s Club until its closure in 1932.  He took to journalism and was the London correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Tribuna.

He was considered by Tatura Camp authorities to be an industrious and willing worker; an anti-fascist who had always worked on camp projects. He was involved with mop manufacturing and fender making.  In August 1943, he wrote to Mrs Cools at Woodfield Avenue: I shall bring home with me a grateful memory of this people because I have been treated well (in Australia) considering that England sent me over here as a dangerous man. (NAA: Mp70/1, 37/101/185 Tatura Part 2.

In January 1944, he had sent out of camp samples of his literary works which he had hoped to have published in Australia.  One article was The Influence of Edda Ciano in Mussolini’s declaration of war.

Ugo had been a freelance journalist for the Italian press until he was blackballed for writing an article criticising the Italian Abyssinian Campaign.

Ugo had been hospitalised three times in the 28 Australian Camp Hospital, Waranga: 8.4 – 12.4.44; 25.844 -; and 13.1.45 – 24.1.45. He had applied for release in Australia pending employment opportunities but he would remain in camp until repatriation.

On the 19th February 1945, he was released from Tatura Camp to Liverpool Camp, NSW to await embarkation on the Dominion Monarch on the 4th March 1945.  He arrived in Liverpool, England on the 19th April 1945, but was reinterned until his release on the 9th July 1945.  The ship’s register noted his address as 13 Cold Harbour Way, Croydon.

Ugo died in 1946.

Tatura, Australia. January 1943. Group of Italian internees from overseas now interned at Tatura Internment Camp. Back row, left to right: G. Tome; S. Corna; U. Ugolini; E. Sampietro; G. Costan; A. Cima. Front row: L. Strola; O. Tome; G. Consoli; N. Bertoia; R. Chiocconi. (AWM Image 030188/11 Photographer Colin Halmarick)