Following is a translation for a newspaper article written in 1955 in Liberta. It provides the details of Dino Accini's life and also his survival in the Irish Sea after the sinking of the Arandora Star.
Six hundred survivors out of two thousand passengers - The extraordinary vicissitudes of his existence did not disturb the serenity of Mr. Dino Accini, restaurant owner in London.
Dino Accini, born in Vernasca, had his first introduction with London at the age of three months. His father, Andrea Accini, also a native of the same town, emigrated from his native village in 1872 and, after a short period in Paris, moved to the British capital. Five of his children were born in London. The sixth and last, Dino, was born in a village of the Piacenza hills and at a very young age was taken to his father's house in London. However, he spent short holidays in Italy and between the ages of five and ten he returned to Luscisco - where his father owned a farm - and there he attended school, learning among other things - but certainly not in school - the dialect of the even today, after many years of absence, he speaks fluently. Today, in the capital of Great Britain Dino Accini in partnership with Perotti of Rustighini di Morfasso and Corinti own three businesses bearing the name of "Dino"
Dino's life is full of facts and events, sometimes dramatic, like an adventure novel. But above all it provides in every moment the exact measures of exceptional vitality which, not separated from an uncommon serenity and willpower, perhaps represents the most characteristic aspects of a person that not even the hardest tests were ever able to break. And the conversation with this man, cordial and a good talker but - like all strong people - particularly reticent in going into details about the most difficult moments of his existence, leaves the interlocutor with an unforgettable feeling of comfort and encouragement.
At 14 years of age, as soon as he left school. Dino began working in hotels, ascending through all the steps of the hierarchy: from hotel clerk, to waiter, to owner. A tough and tiring career which however gave him the foundations of the profound experience that he now has on the subject. Before the last war he was the soul of a courageous and brilliant initiative by founding the association of Italian coffee makers in London, a cooperative to which they belonged: 1200 cafés managed by Italians in the British capital. The aim - based on strictly economic principles - was extremely simple. The members made their purchases of material or supplies necessary for the businesses from the cooperative which, having such a high number of regular customers, was able to make supplies at exceptionally advantageous prices. Furthermore, the profits of the association were divided among the members who therefore obtained another advantage. The cooperative, which made available to the association, was divided among the members who therefore obtained another advantage. The cooperative, which even placed a college of lawyers at the disposal of its members, and which tended to create a certain uniformity of style among all Italian cafés, by representing such a high number of members, ended up constituting a force, not only economic, which facilitated not little activity among Italian merchants.
With the arrival of the last war, many Italian citizens (and Dino Accini, like his brothers, always maintained the nationality of his country of origin) were sent to internment camps. On the ship the 'Arandora Star' around two thousand internees from various countries, including around 750 Italians, set sail from England headed for an internment camp in Canada. With them was Dino Accini who on that occasion would experience the most dramatic adventure of his life. About 350 kilometres from the Irish coast, at 7 in the morning, the torpedo of a German submarine hit the Arandora Star which sank in 17 minutes. Partly equipped with life belts, or clinging to wood, boards and improvised ropes, the 2,500 internees - all men - had to survive in the icy waters of the sea. Fourteen hundred people, mostly elderly or weak people, perished and the memories flood between tragic scenes of panic and heroic acts of self-sacrifice and heroism. Only after 9 hours did a Canadian destroyer pick up the six hundred survivors. Dino Accini, who had never lost his calm and who - an avid smoker - at the moment of the torpedoing had lit up what could have been his last cigarette, was among those who escaped. Approximately five hundred and fifty of the seven hundred and fifty Italians lost their lives. Among them several people from Piacenza from the Vernasca area and other localities. The municipality of Bardi lost more human lives in the shipwreck of the Arandora Star than in the first great war. Brought back to England, Accini was, shortly afterwards, embarked again bound for an Australian concentration camp. After fifty-five days at sea and another torpedo which fortunately only slightly damaged the ship, he reached Australia where he remained for five years, living in an atrocious climate only partially mitigated by the good treatment enjoyed by the internees. But Accini also put this time to good use and, benefiting from illustrious internment companions including numerous university professors, he studied in depth the German and Spanish languages which, combined with the Italian, English and French he already knew, now make him a skilled polyglot.
Upon his return to England after the war, he had to restart his activities almost immediately. Fortunately, his wife, a teacher from Piacenza Fornaroli whom he met in S. Michel di Morfasso during one of his holidays in Italy, and his daughter were saved from the bombing. But his now profound experience in the field of restaurant management soon brought him back to the surface, giving him once again that podium and once again that position to which his abilities and his iron will gave him the right. He returns to Italy every year for the holidays and spends a short period in his sister-in-law's house, Fornarioli, at Belvedere, where we found him and where - with the help of his relatives - we were able to overcome his reticence and learn some of the salient episodes of his intense existence.
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