Francesco D’Inverno’s family by his graveside in Douane cemetery

THE victim of one of the worst civilian sea disasters of the Second World War has finally had a proper family burial and a headstone installed above his grave, 83 years after his death.

When the body of Francesco D’Inverno washed up on the Scottish coastline in the days after the sinking of the Arandora Star in July 1940, nobody knew who he was.

He was buried in an unmarked grave in Girvan’s Douane cemetery, and that’s how the victim of the internee war boat’s sinking was left for more than eight decades, until detective work by Michael Donnelly and the team at the Girvan and District Great War Project worked out who he was.

Last year the Tribune appealed for help in tracking down Mr D’Inverno’s long-lost relatives, after it emerged he had married at St Peter’s Italian Church in Clerkenwell in 1939 and lived with his wife, Ginevra Tasselli, and his four stepchildren in King’s Cross Road.

Soon after, Mrs Tasselli’s grandchildren were found. And last Wednesday they, along with around 20 relatives, travelled up to Scotland to see him properly laid to rest, the way his wife – who never remarried – would have wanted.

Michael Donnelly, left, and Raffaello Gonnella at the ceremony

Mr Donnelly described the day as “incredibly emotional”.

“It was an amazing experience,” he said, explaining how Mr D’Inverno’s family also laid a wreath on the grave of the man who found Mr D’Inverno’s body on the beach all those years ago, when he was just a little boy. Having died just some months ago, the experience had marked his entire life his widow said.

Mr Donnelly said Mr D’Inverno represented something “for the wider Arandora Star community who have never had a funeral, a death certificate or a service”.

Italians and German nationals ended up on the Arandora Star simply because they were living in Britain at the time of the war, and the then-prime minister Winston Chur­chill wanted them gone.

Mr D’Inverno, who had been buried in an unmarked grave

While most internees were sent to Common­wealth countries, the men on the Arandora Star, a former luxury cruise liner, never got that far. The ship sank off the coast of Ireland just hours into the journey after she was torpedoed by a German U-boat. More than 800 lives were lost, the majority of them Italian.

The families of the men on board received a letter informing them of the tragedy, but then heard nothing more. Few bodies were ever recovered.

Mr D’Inverno’s headstone reads: “In Loving Memory of Francesco D’Inverno, born 17th April 1901, husband of Ginevra Tasselli, a victim of the Arandora Star tragedy, 22nd July 1940, finally found 2023.”

The words “we will never forget you” are written in Italian.

Raffaello Gonnella, whose maternal ­grand­father Quinto Santini perished on the Arandora Star but whose body has never been recovered, spoke at Mr D’Inverno’s funeral.

“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that finding Francesco is a massive, massive thing,” he told those assembled, “and being here today with the family and all of you, to dedicate his headstone after finding his grave and final resting place, is one of the most important and significant events relating to the tragedy and story of the Arandora Star in almost 84 years. It is unique and so very special.”

Poignantly, Mr D’Inverno’s funeral, nearly 84 years after his death, was held on April 17, the date of his birth, 123 years earlier.