• THE torpedoing of the SS Arandora Star in July 1940 decimated the cream of the London grand hotel and restaurant trade who were largely Italian in the 1930s.

A huge police sweep had seized most of the Italian colony in one night for deportation to Canada after Italy had declared war.

Among those who perished were Zavattoni and Maggi of The Ritz, Benini of The Hungaria, Cavadini of The Berkeley, Boscani of Hatchetts, and Zangiacomi of the Piccadilly. At the time they were personalities in their own right.

Gualdi, director of the Embassy Club in Bond Street, where the two princes Edward and George had held virtual court, clung to a raft for 10 hours having been wounded by his own Axis side*.

MICHAEL NEWLAND
Address supplied

*Source: A Village in Piccadilly by Robert Henrey, published by Dent, 1942.