Vehicle    From 2/7/1940  To 2/7/1940

Arandora Star

Categories: Tragedy

Countries: Germany, Italy

Deporting Italian and German prisoners of war the cruise ship was between Liverpool and Canada when it was struck by a torpedo from a German submarine. Of the 734 Italians on board, 486 died. Of the 479 Germans, 175 died. Amongst the dead were the father and grandfather of Paolozzi.

May 2009 - The BBC informs that there is a campaign for a memorial to the Welsh Italians who died on the Arandora Star, for the 70th anniversary in 2010. And here that the Teesside-based Italians will be commemorated on a plaque at Middlesbrough Town Hall. There are already memorials in Liverpool, Glasgow and Italy, as well as the one in London.

September 2023: The BBC reported on the recent identification of a body that was washed up on the South Ayrshire coast in August 1940.  ".. the unidentified individual was buried in an unmarked grave in Girvan's Doune Cemetery. More than 80 years later, detailed research has revealed his name - Francesco D'Inverno ..." We find the following story puzzling - it's not clear how, since his grave was unmarked, how this name has been associated with it. 

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Arandora Star

Commemorated ati

St Peters Church - Arandora Star

This carved memorial shows 3 drowning men reaching up to the cross from the w...

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Other Subjects

Manuel Mordelet

Manuel Mordelet

Non-British, killed by the Bali bomb.

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial
Treena Chappell

Treena Chappell

Treena Chappell was born on 18 August 1970, the younger child of Terence Chappell and Mary Chappell née Keaveney and her birth was registered in the Westminster registration district. Her brother, ...

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial
PC Alfred Smith

PC Alfred Smith

From Islington Tribune: "PC Smith heard the German Gotha G.V aircraft approaching and warned panicking factory workers in Central Street, Finsbury, to stay inside. He died when a bomb exploded a fe...

Person, Emergency Services, Tragedy

War dead non-military, WW1
2 memorials
Catholic martyrs at the Tyburn gallows

Catholic martyrs at the Tyburn gallows

105 Catholic martyrs lost their lives at the Tyburn gallows, 1535 - 1681.  The Tyburn Convent website explains but only lists a few.  We have found other memorials to a few of them: John Houghton a...

Group, Religion, Tragedy

3 memorials