A NEW LIFE

Nicola Criscuolo

By the time Pasquale's and Pasqualina's son Nicola (my great grandfather) was born on 21 December 1875 the rebellion was over. In the ten years between 1860 and 1870, the fight was knocked out of the rebels, freedom fighters, partisans, resistance, macquis of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Call them what you will but don't call them brigands or terrorists.

Nicola was named after an older brother born on 10 August 1869 who died at the age of 4 on 19 September 1873. His elder brother Luigi was now 10 and he had a sister, Trofimena who was now three.

At some stage in the 1890s he joined the Merchant Marine. He made a few coastwise journeys from Amalfi or Salerno to places like Taranto then on 24 January 1896 he transferred to the Royal Italian Army. Whether the transfer was voluntary or not I have no idea. I don't know whether he saw active service. There is no evidence of any such action but he was serving at the time (1895-1896) of the First Italo-Ethiopian War.

He would've looked smart though in his uniform. 1.85 metres (6 ft 3 ins) tall. Short chestnut hair. Chestnut eyes. Well trimmed handlebar moustache.

I imagine that when he married Rafaella Fraulo on 8 February 1900, he marched down the aisle in that uniform. The story that I was told was that they married in the cathedral in Amalfi - he was from Scala and she was from Minori. I have no idea whether it's true but it's a lovely image. Her in her grandmother's or great-grandmother's wedding dress and him in his uniform getting married in that beautiful arabesque cathedral.

On 2 March 1900 there is an entry in his Matriculation Booklet which reads (to the extent that I can read the handwriting) "I declare that there is no obstacle to the holder removing himself to London for the period of two years from today under obligation to return in the case of a call to arms ... under pain of denunciation and punishment as a deserter. Dated 2 March 1900, Captain of the port."

I have no idea why he left. I supposed when I first started writing this story that he left because there wasn't enough land between them to support the siblings, there wasn't enough work or some other such reason but it was all pure supposition. It is entirely possible that what the newborn Italian government called the Brigandage was enough to drive him out of the country along with millions of his compatriots.

When he left Pontone in 1900, he was still 'under arms' under obligation to return in case of a call to arms.  In the 1901 census of England and Wales, Nicola and his wife Rafaella Fraulo were safely ensconced in Carlisle Street in Marylebone and he was working, probably unsurprisingly, as an ice cream maker and just over two years after having left Pontone, they celebrated the birth of their first child, Pasqualino, obviously named after his parents.

He had soon moved to Woburn Walk where he opened up a fruit and veg shop. Poor ol' Nick had to get up in the middle of the night and trapse down to Covent Garden with his hand-barrow to buy his fruit and veg for the day and get back to Woburn Walk to open at 9 o'clock. The air in Woburn Walk must have been good though because the children came thick and fast. In 1905 came Marie, in 1906 Amelia Josephine and in 1908 Antonio.

At some stage in February 1908, Nicola packed his bags and took ship again for Naples. His grandparents, parents, brother and sister must have been delighted to have him back. His aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and neighbours will have come running round. What's London like? Are the streets really paved with gold? How's Rafaella? How many children have you got now? Will you stay there forever?

Now there's a question? He might have said 'no'. He might have said that he planned to return as soon as he'd made enough money to buy a house of his own and a bit of land. It is certain though that he would have sat round the table at lunch or dinner drinking vino paesano and answering an endless stream of questions and telling captivating tales of life in London ... the underground, the markets (he practically lived at Covent Garden Market), Bond Street, Oxford Road, the Strand ...

On 4 March, he and the Corp Commandant signed his certificate of indefinite leave from the Royal Italian Army (Regio Esercito Italiano). It says of Nicola that "during his time under arms, he has conducted himself well and served with faith and with honour."It was signed by the mayor of Scala on 8 March 1908. I don't know how long he stayed. I don't know how often the ships sailed out of Naples to London. He might have stayed a week, he might have stayed a month.

The family wasn't through growing yet though. In 1910 Luigi arrived, in 1911 Andrea and in 1914 Alfred (grampa). The kids looked for all the world like Italians but they had dumped their exotic names for prosaic English Equivalents - Charlie, Julie, Marie (no change there then), Millie, Tony, Lou, Bob and Fred. Behind the front door they were Italian through-and-through but once they stepped out that front door they were pure Londoners. Life was good.

It wasn't all fruit 'n' veg though. In May 1914 Charlie died. Died in Western Hospital in Fulham of diptheria and pneumonia. His early death ensured that in the years to come he would acquire an almost legendary status - he would have been the brightest, the best, etc. cut down well before his time.

The Great War left the English end of the family largely unscathed. The boys were too young, Nicola was too old and, at least on this occasion, the Italians were fighting on the right side.

By the mid 20s these new Londoners were starting to pull rings onto their fingers. Giolina was the first when, in 1924, she tied the knot with restaurateur Giovanni Nolli (a nice Italian boy from Pontone) at St Aluysius' Chapel in St Pancras.In 1926 we find Antonio on the crew manifest for the Majestic. He was an 'assistant waiter' working the Southampton to New York route and, as is suggested later, there is a suggestion that this 18-year old stopped in New York for some time.

Antonio Criscuolo right

He next appears on the passenger manifest of the SS Montclare from Southampton to Quebec. The first thing that one notices is that he has been there before - between May and November 1929. He would have been 20 when he arrived and 21 when he went back to the UK.

We also find from that entry on the manifest that he took Canadian citizenship on that first trip because when he went back - on the 17th of April 1930 - he was admitted as a 'returned Canadian'. The obvious conclusion is that the citizenship was necessary to enable him to move and work freely in the country.

We know that he stayed in the Royal York Hotel on his 1929 visit and that he stayed only as long as he needed to in order to pick up his Canadian passport which was issued on 21 November 1929.

The passenger manifest also has him working at the (and I quote) "Grurva Club" in the employ of Mr C Collins. I am forced to the conclusion that 'Grurva' is a misspelling or a phonetic spelling. Groover? Grover? Groova? I have no idea and there is no sign that I shall find out any time soon. In any event, by the 29th of April 1929, he was back in Toronto.

On the 11th of June 1932, he was heading back to Liverpool on the Duchess of Atholl and, asked for is occupation, he professes to be a waiter ... presumably at the Groover or Grover Club or whatever it was called. We also see that he has given the USA as his last place of permanent residence. This is one mobile 24-year old.

On the 21st of June 1932 his younger brother, Luigi, was on the Empress of Australia heading for Quebec. A musician (saxophone being his instrument) he was apparently going to stay with Antonio at 90 Wellington Street, Toronto and one might reasonably conclude that he was going to work at the Grover Club or whatever the hell it was called.

I'm starting to lose track now 'cos I have no record of Antonio returning to Toronto after his trip back to London on the 11th of June but that doesn't mean that he didn't of course.

Luigi's entry on the passenger manifest is interesting. He was carrying £40 in his pocket (£1,336 in modern terms) and he was detained - arrived at Quebec on the 26th of June and released on the 2nd of July ... as in immigrant. But on the 11th of August he was heading back to London on the Alaunia. Did he not make it? Did he hate it? Did the club owner not like him? He was a decent musician like my grampa was. Not in Stan Getz' class but good all the same.

I'm afraid that I can't make head nor tail of it. Tony was an astute business man and left a substantial sum when he died in January 1954 so one assumes that he was up to something constructive here but I have no idea what.

The next wedding was Amelia's was next. In 1929 she wed shop assistant Charles William Hastings in the same Chapel. Marie followed in0 1931. Like her sisters she was married at St Aluysius' Chapel to the son of the impressively named Herbert Gladstone Trebble - her husband being Herbert Roland.

Antonio was the first of the boys to find happiness when he led Helen Grace Brodhurst down the aisle of Whitfield Memorial Church in 1935.

Andrea Criscuolo's wedding at the Italian church in Holborn

Andrea (Bob to his mates) went the whole hog (see photo). He and his bride (fellow hairdresser Giovannina Balsamo) promised their lives to each other in August 1936 at St Peter's Italian Church in Holborn.

Alfred, afraid of being left out, followed quickly behind his elder brother and, in November 1936 at the registry office in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, he undertook to love, honour and obey Elizabeth Rose Banning.

In October 1937, having seen all but one of her children marry, Raffaella died.  The death certificate noted the cause of death as "auricular fibrillation, mitral stenosis and glycosuria".  She had been unwell for some time and photos taken during her later years have her in a wheelchair.  Her heart was clearly struggling and it is reasonable to assume that she was also suffering with diabetes.

In 1941, the last of the Criscuolo children, Luigi, married Geordie invoice clerk Anne Imrie at Eton registry Office in Royal Berkshire.

By this stage the 'kids' were working ... or at least the fellas were. Antonio was doing very nicely as a 'general salesman'. He was the moneyman in the family and wielded the power within the family that that gave him.

Bob was working as a barber or hairdresser. He used to boast that he had prettied the hair of many a famous personality; his favourite story involved Anthony Quinn and I never had any reason to doubt him.

Alfred was running his dad's shop in Woburn Walk and Luigi had set himself up as a journeyman electrician.

Between Alfred and Luigi getting married, Europe had gone to war again. Unfortunately for the Criscuolos in St Pancras however, this time Italy had come in on the wrong side.

Concerned about the effect that the Italian connection would have on his substantial business interests, Antonio had everyone change their names.  It must've been at some stage early in 1940 because when his wife took ship for New York on 31 July 1940 on board the SS Western Prince, she was Helen Grace Crisp. Tony had sent her out of the UK, we are told, to get her away from the war.  They were living in London and she was pregnant.  She didn't see the end of the war.  She died of a brain haemorrhage on 24 August 1940 at Providence Hospital, Seattle, Washington.

The change of name meant that when Anne Imrie married at the Registry Office in Eton in 1941, she married Lionel Crisp. Antonio became Anthony, Alfred simply changed his surname and I'm not quite sure what Andrea did ... that is to say whether he became Andrew or Robert or Bob. Everyone always called him Bob anyway.

When they ditched the surname, it seems that they also ditched the language. English only from now on in. I don't know whether, or to what extent it helped Tony's business interests but the name change was to last until well into the '70s.

Back to the war and Bob joined the army. I only ever got two things out of him about his war service. The first was that he served in North Africa and Italy and the second was that he did the laundry until they got to Sicily when he got promoted to chief scrounger on account of his being able to speak Italian.

Fred tried to join the Royal Navy (obviously before the change of surname) but his application was rejected on the grounds that he was Italian ... so they gave him a job at Marconi's instead! There's logic in there somewhere.

The others, as far as I know all stayed at home. Tony and Lou (I don't know that anyone ever called him Lionel) had businesses to run.

Prestofa

Meanwhile back on the Sorrento peninsula, the family that Nicola had left behind was lying low in a place called Prestofa up in the Lattari mountains and keeping out of the way of the Germans.