London Head Waiter

Paolo Belloni was born in San Colombano al Lambo (Milano) Italy on the 22nd April 1899.  He was the younger brother to Giuseppe Achille Belloni.  At the time of his arrest on the 11th June 1940, Paolo was living at 49 Cleaver Square, Kensington, London, England and his occupation was that of head waiter. In 1922, he had married Elsie Mason and they had one son.

Many men who had married a British subject, have a notation on their record. For Paolo : Next of kin- Elsie (British). Was this for the benefit of authorities or at the insistence of the husbands? Was it a way to say, 'My marriage shows that I have been accepted into the British community' or 'This man has married a British woman, a sign of assimilation and integration'?

While in Australia he had two admittances to hospitals: the Mooropna Hospital, Victoria (a local hospital) and the 28 Australian Camp Hospital, Waranga (the camp hospital for all internment and prisoner of war camps in the area).

Paolo was released to UK from Tatura Camp on the 30th November 1943 and returned to the UK on the SS Themistocles which arrived in Cardiff, Wales on the 14th February 1944. He was one of 13 Dunera Italians on the voyage.

He was re-interned on the Isle of Man then on the 4th August 1944 he was released to the ILB which was possibly an abbreviation for Italian Labour Battalion, raised in the UK.

Tatura, Australia. January 1943. Group of Italian internees from overseas now interned at Tatura Internment Camp. Back row, left to right: L. Servini; B. Rabaiotti; R. Radice; A. Ghisoni; A. Albericci; M. Rabaiotti. Front row: P. Belloni; G. Zaninetta; G. Belloni; S. Albericci. (AWM Image 030188/13 Photographer Colin Halmarick)