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Title
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Scola, Giorgio Enrico
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Family name
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Scola
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Given name(s)
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Giorgio Enrico
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Gender
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Male
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Full biographical data
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Giorgio Enrico Scola was born in 1916 in the coastal town of San Remo, in the Ligurian region of northern Italy.
Although the exact date of his migration remains uncertain, Giorgio moved to England as a young boy in the early 1920s with his parents. By 1940, he was living in Reading, Berkshire. Before the war interrupted everything, he was studying to be an architect.
Everything changed on 11 June 1940. Italy had just entered the Second World War on the side of Germany, and the British government responded with mass arrests of Italian nationals living in the UK. Giorgio, only 23 years old, was detained at Henley Police Station before being transferred to Reading Barracks. From there, he entered the chaotic and often improvised network of internment facilities. His journey took him first to Dixon’s Holiday Camp, then to Paignton Station, and finally to Warth Mills, a derelict cotton mill in Bury that had been hastily converted into a transit camp.
In late June 1940, Giorgio was among the internees forced aboard the Arandora Star, a passenger liner repurposed to transport detainees to Canada. The ship’s tragic sinking is one of the darkest chapters of Britain’s wartime internment policy. Giorgio survived the disaster and was taken to Arrowe Park, a tent encampment on the Wirral, before being moved again to Birkenhead, Edgehill, and Liverpool.
In July 1940, Giorgio was placed aboard the HMT Dunera, the transport ship bound for Australia. After stops in Takoradi and Cape Town, the ship reached Fremantle and then Port Melbourne.
Giorgio spent nearly five years in Australia, moved repeatedly between camps as the authorities reorganized their internees:
• September 1941 – Tatura Camp No. 2B (Victoria)
• May 1941 – Tatura Camp No. 4 (Victoria)
• December 1941 – Loveday Camp No. 9 (South Australia)
• December 1941 – Loveday Camp No. 10 (South Australia)
• September 1942 – Tatura Camp No. 2 (Victoria)
• March 1944 – Loveday Camp 14D (South Australia)
• January 1945 – Tatura Camp No. 2 (Victoria)
On 5 March 1945, Giorgio boarded the Dominion Monarch in Melbourne, beginning the long voyage home. The ship travelled via Sydney, Wellington, Panama, and New York, finally reaching Liverpool on 19 April 1945.
From Liverpool he was sent to Douglas on the Isle of Man, one of Britain’s main internment sites, where he remained until the war’s end.
In August 1945, Giorgio was finally released and allowed to return to civilian life in London and Reading.
After the war, Giorgio worked as a draughtsman and then assistant architect. He died George Henry Scola in 2006 in Reading, England, closing a life marked by extraordinary upheaval, endurance, and reinvention.
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Internee number
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25062
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25164
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Pre-Captivity Occupation
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architecture student
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Post-Captivity occupation
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draughtsman
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architecture student
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Birth date
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August 30, 1916
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Country of birth
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Italy
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Death date
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2006
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Country of death
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United Kingdom
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Contact details, URL inlcuding biography
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Julian Scola
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Bibliographic citation
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Julian Scola, ed. 12,000 miles behind barbed wire. The internment of Giorgio Enrico Scola (2024)
Giorgio Scola Service and Casualty Form
A Planer Jack (Ford Assembly), full size.
Arandora Star
Barmera, South Australia
Coventry 1941
Gioventù
Loveday ‘Somewhere in Australia’
Loveday Tents and Huts
Paesaggio in Victoria
Tatura , Piazza dello sport
Tatura 2B
Tatura, Camerate 9 e 10
Tatura, entrance and interiors
Tatura, Panorama dal campo tedesco
Tatura, veduta ovest
The "City" 1941