One of the best boys in camp

Nilo Rando Bertoia was one of the youngest UK Italian internees.  He was arrested in Glasgow Scotland on the 11th June 1940 at nineteen years of age. Bertoia had worked with his father as a terrazzo layer with a well-known company Toffolo and Jackson.

While he survived the sinking of the Arandora Star, his cousin Luigi Bertoia did not.

Sketch of Rando Bertoia by Dr Michael Manfredi 1943 (from the collection the Tatura Museum

Rando Bertoia January 1943 Tatura Camp 2A (AWM)

Captain Borghi, the leader of the Dunera Italians reported that Rando was ‘one of the best boys in the camp’. He was released for parole and work with the Civil Aliens Corps on the 16th May 1944 to work with the Forestry Commission.  He then found himself work with an Italian terrazzo company in Melbourne.  He departed Sydney on the 22nd August 1945 onboard the Mauretania.

On the 16th June 1990 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Arandora Star Rando Bertoia and 21 Italian survivors were awarded the honour of Cavaliere al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by the President of Italy.

In 1943, Rando Bertoia, a terrazzo layer from Scotland was sketched by Dr Michael Manfredi, a rubber planter from Malaya as above. The Dunera Italians shared Tatura Camp 2A with a mixed group of internees including Italians who were arrested in the Malaya Straits/Singapore, like Dr Manfredi, who arrived in Australia onboard the Queen Mary into Sydney on the 25th September 1940 and into Tatura Camp 3 on the 27th September 1940.

On the 16th October 2013, The Herald published Dr Terri Colpi's Eulogy for Rando Bertoia who died on the 11th October 2013.