The Italian Connection

 by Roberta McGee

Many Italians came to Scotland in the late 1880s to escape poverty and with the ambition to set up small businesses such as ice-cream parlours and fish & chip shops. They were hardworking and family orientated and integrated well into their chosen community. Later, immigrants came to Scotland for political reasons. The Italian families who settled in Cumnock were originally from Tuscany. 

MARIO LUNI was born in 1882 in Castelnuova, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. We first find him on the 1911 census in Cumnock at 4 Ayr Road, an ice-cream shop, with two Italian-born assistants 24 years old Giovanni Rossi  and 16 years old Enrico Pucci. He travelled back to Tuscany in 1913 to marry Elvira Bertucci and returned to Cumnock immediately after their marriage. It was here that their three children were born, Ernesto (Ernie) in 1914, Pietro (Peter) in 1916 and a daughter Bice in 1919. 

Shop is below the Capstan sign

In 1920 Mario had a fish & chip shop at 6 Glaisnock Street, Cumnock, (which would be where Connell's was) and a cafe called "The Welcome Cafe" at 6 Ayr Road. The 1921 census shows that he was still at 6 Ayr Road with two Italian-born male assistants. The Catani family were boarding - Bruna 23 who was the housekeeper and three young male Catanis - Nello 13, Oyea 9 and Sirio 7 who were all born in Castelnuovo. On the 1930 Valuation Roll Mario was living at 10 Manse Lane, Cumnock.

Both Mario and his wife Elvira died in Tuscany - Mario in 1948 and Elvira in 1953.

Ernie and Peter carried on the business. The Cafe was on Ayr Road corner with the Fish & Chip shop upstairs. It was accessed by an outside stair at the side of the building. Ice-cream and confectionary were sold downstairs. It became a gathering place for the teenagers in the town and the Luni family were well liked by the townsfolk. 

Ernie Luni

Images - Cumnock Connections Tree

Peter married Giuseppina Guidi in 1948 at New Cumnock and opened a cafe there. Ernie married Letizia Marchi and about the 1960s they opened another Fish & Chip shop at the bottom of the Barrhill Road. Ernie died in Cumnock in 1987 and Letizia died in the Bute Nursing Home, Cumnock in 2016. Their son carried on their tradition and has a very popular fish and chip shop in Ayr. Unfortunately the Welcome Cafe is no longer there having been demolished like many other businesses in Cumnock.

Another Italian family to settle in Cumnock was the Quadris.

PRIMO QUADRI  was born in 1894 in Castelnuovo, Carfagnana, Italy and married Maria Elvira Lenzi. When he arrived in Cumnock is unclear. He was a salesman for fellow countryman Mario Luni at 4 Ayr Road. They had a son, Licio, who was known as Tony, in 1925 born most likely in Italy as I can find no record of his birth in Scotland. 

1925 was a turbulent time in Italy. Mussolini had declared himself Italy's dictator in which he had asserted his right to supreme power and under his fascist regime there was widespread unrest. 

On 10 June 1940 Benito Mussolini declared war on Britain. Overnight all Italians living in Britain were looked upon as 'enemy aliens' and the men aged between 16 years old and 70 years old were rounded up for internment. The fear that the Italians might work with the enemy led Churchill to coin the phrase 'Collar the Lot'. There were 3 levels of internment:-

     

• Category A - to be interned
• Category B - to be exempt from internment but subject to restrictions decreed by special order.
• Category C - to be exempt from both internment and restrictions

  Those classified in Category A were interned in camps being set up across the UK, the largest settlement being on the Isle of Man although there were others set up in and around Glasgow. 

Due to concerns over space to accommodate the growing number of internees a decision was taken to deport them to Canada and Australia. On 2nd July 1940 the 'Arandora Star', a converted passenger liner, was en route from Liverpool to a camp in Canada when it was struck by a torpedo from a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland. On board were 734 Italian internees (civilians), 438 Germans (including both Nazi sympathisers and Jewish refugees) and 374 British seamen and soldiers. Over half lost their lives including 446 Italians. Some of these men were from immigrant families from Ayr and Glasgow. This incident caused much public sympathy towards the 'enemy aliens'  and many of the Italians were released early.

Arandora Star Italians who died | Anglo Italian Family History Society

Primo, who was working in Mario Luni's cafe, was arrested and interned on the Isle of Man. According to a newspaper report there were eight Italians detained in Cumnock but, unfortunately, no names. An older resident recalls the anger of the Cumnock townsfolk when they were arrested.  

Oban Times & Argyleshire Advertiser 15/6/1940 

On his release Primo went back to working in Mario Luni's cafe and in 1948 his son Tony married Paradisa Angeli at St Patrick's RC Church in Greenock. Tony and Paradisa (known as Rina) set up house in Cumnock. 

95/97a Glaisnock Street

Through the years Primo & Maria and Tony & Rina built up their businesses opposite the Town Hall in Glaisnock Street. They bought Bowman's Ice Cream and Confectionery shop. Older Cumnockians will remember the sitting area where they could enjoy a 'McCallum' or a '99'. Further up Glaisnock Street was Primo and Maria's fish and chip shop. There was a snooker room adjoining. In between the ice-cream shop and the fish & chip shop they created a cafe with a juke box where teenagers would gather.

Tony died in Cumnock in 1981 and Primo and Maria died in Cumnock in 1982 and 1986 respectively.   Rina, also died in Cumnock in 1998. 

R Grierson

THE TOGNINI FAMILY

Luigi Tognini was born in 1896 in Castelnuovo, Tuscany, Italy, the same area as both Mario Luni and Primo Quadri. He was only sixteen when he travelled from Italy to Cumnock to work in Mario Luni's fish & chip shop in Ayr Road. He returned to Italy in 1920 to join the Italian army. In 1921 he married Amelia Terni and later that year he returned to Scotland. His business progressed and he had, over the years, the Savoy Cafe and the Central Cafe in Ayr then a cafe at 163 Ayr Road Prestwick and a bungalow at Lilybank Road, Prestwick.  Luigi and Amelia had six children and Amelia travelled back to Italy to give birth each time. Two sons and two daughters survived - Renato, Piero, Anna and Aduo and were educated mainly in Prestwick and Ayr.

The day Italy entered the war on Germany's side Luigi closed his cafe, Next morning two policemen arrived at the bungalow, arrested Luigi and his oldest son Renato, and immediately took them away to be interned. Amelia was informed that the remaining family must leave the coastal region and move inland for a distance of at least 20 miles.  They persuaded a local merchant to take them in his car and they headed for Cumnock. They reached Auchinleck and, with the help of some villagers, managed to persuade a lady who lived on her own in Arran Drive, to temporarily let them have a room in her house.  Son Piero managed to secure employment at Josephine Antonucci's fish & chip shop in the village. Josephine's parents came from the same area in Italy as the Tognini family. 

On the morning of his 16th birthday Piero was arrested and taken to Barlinnie. From Barlinnie he was taken to an internment camp in Strachar, then down to Liverpool and finally to the Isle of Man where he was reunited with his father Luigi and brother Renato. He was released five months later on 12th December 1940 on the condition that he undertook work of national importance so he made his way back to his mother and sisters in Auchinleck and got a job as a woodcutter at a farm at Low Glenmuir, Cumnock. In 1941 they moved into a rented room and kitchenette in the Royal Hotel, Cumnock and in 1943 they moved to a flat at 29 Glaisnock Street.

During his time in Cumnock Piero met Tony Quadri while swimming at Cumnock Swimming Pool and they formed a lasting friendship. He also joined a small band which consisted of mainly Hawaiin guitar players. They called themselves 'The Twilight Serenaders' and were based mainly in the Cumnock area.

Luigi and Renato were released in January 1944 having been interned for four years on the Isle of Man. Luigi found work as a cobbler and Renato as a coalminer in Lugar. 

 

Kilmarnock Herald & North Ayrshire Gazette 14/7/1944

At the end of the war in 1945 the Togninis left Cumnock and returned to Prestwick where they re-opened their business/

                   

Source for the Tognini story - 'A Mind at War', an autobiography by Piero Tognini