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| Immigrants: Italians in Stornoway |
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Liz Willis
from London.
Posted 8 Oct 2004.
Peggy Smith, my mother, was helping me with research for a course on Italians in Britain during the Second World War when she wrote this.
From 'Thoughts and recollections of the 鈥淭allies鈥濃, by Margaret Isobel Smith, a.k.a. Peggy Flett, of Cullen, formerly of Stornoway.
[A Gazetteer of Stornoway, c1930, lists 4 addresses with Italian occupants (2 surnames)]
鈥淭here they were but as for social life they worked far too hard 鈥 still mixing ice cream 鈥榠n the wee sma鈥 鈥榦ors鈥! I don鈥檛 think there was much making friends with the natives although one of the [surname] boys did marry a girl from Sandwick 鈥 but I rather think that was after the war. The [surname] girls (2) were sent back to Italy to find husbands which they did and one made her home in Italy subsequently. The second stayed in the business in SY [(Stornoway)] with her Italian husband and their son married a local girl who has been absorbed into the family and the business.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 recollect that there was any hostility towards them 鈥 but I was only young at the time [21 in 1940] 鈥 we did think their ice cream was wonderful 鈥 we could get a cone for one (old) penny although they weren鈥檛 so plentiful and a small bag of chips was the same.
鈥淭here was much sympathy for the [surname] when they were interned [when Italy entered the war] and some resentment against the [surname] {[鈥) but I think that was restricted to the occasional drunken shout on a Saturday night and there were no broken windows or anything 鈥 to my knowledge. [鈥
鈥淚鈥檓 afraid my own memories of the war years are very hazy and mostly relating to getting through them and hoping that all family members would return safely. Being somewhat isolated in Lewis, away from the immediate impact of bombing, etc., rather selfishly we shut our minds I suppose to what was happening elsewhere and hoped if we ignored it it would eventually sort itself out to the ultimate good of all. Nothing we could do to change things, anyway.鈥
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