I finished the piece about my uncle, Robert Dickinson, in the June newsletter by saying I was returning to Italy in June 2024. Accordingly, early in June, my sister Jane and I flew to Milan Malpensa for what was to be an emotional and unforgettable few days.
From Malpensa it was a short drive to the Milan Commonwealth War Cemetery, Robert’s final resting place. For my sister this was her first visit, but a place I have visited several times. However, this time I was able to visit Ron Dix’s grave, who since my last visit I have found out to be the other PoW sheltered by the Bauducco family (only named as Ron in Robert’s diary).
Robert and Ron were together 16 months in life, both with the Bauducco’s and with the same partisan brigade, and now lie feet apart in death. Jane laid a small wooden cross on Robert’s grave, having purchased it from Lincoln Cathedral, a building Robert would have known well as he had been a chorister at a nearby church in his youth. We waited in the cemetery for Andrea, a photographer working for Sky News.
The images Andrea took that day were not for Sky News, but for a short documentary on Robert’s diary being produced by Giordano Viozzi, director of the Casa della Memoria at Servigliano, which is now the custodian of Robert’s diary, “Servigliano Calling”. Once the photo shoot was complete we set off to our residence close to Montafia, the area where Robert was murdered.
Arriving at our residence we were greeted by Sherlock and Holmes, a.k.a Janet Kinrade Dethick and her husband Enzo. Over the past 18 months Janet had supplied much information on Robert, been able to confirm people and events, and had arranged a meeting with the mayor of Viale on this trip. For Janet’s help I will be forever grateful.
The following morning we visited Cortazzone where Robert lived the last ten weeks of his life. I had a hunch that Varesio Vincenza, who wrote a letter to my grandparents on 17th June 1945 describing Robert’s death, was from here. Details in the letter stated she lived close to Viale and visited Robert’s grave each Sunday to lay flowers. Some details in this letter have been proven not to be true and I suspect it was written to comfort the family. However, other facts such as that a comrade of Robert’s was killed the same night, are factual. Vincenza wrote that she cleaned and prepared Robert’s body for burial, something that cannot be proved.
Having found the café in Cortazzone, Enzo was sent in to chat with the locals. Nobody knew of Varesio Vincenza, but the café owner took us to the comune cemetery for a look around. I walked half-way down the first row of loculi, looked up and there it was, the tomb of Varesio Vincenza (marriage name Stroppiana). My hunch was correct!
Over the years there have been so many chance occurrences involving with the story of Robert, something that I just cannot explain.
During the afternoon we had a meeting with Oscar, the mayor of Viale. Oscar escorted us to the monument erected in 2001 to the memory of 17 partisans of the Aldo Brosio detachment who fell for their country. The instigator of this memorial was a 73-year-old Eugenio Morero, who at 18 years old was one of the three partisans who made witness statements for the War Crime Investigation into Robert’s death. Even 56 years later, Eugenio never forgot to have a plaque on the monument to his comrade and friend Robert Dickinson!
Following the meeting with Oscar we walked to the comune cemetery where both Robert and Ron Dix were originally buried before their bodies were moved to Milan in December 1945.
Only weeks before this trip I had managed to make direct contact with a descendent of the Bauducco family. Having searched for the family for 20 years, even visiting Gassino Torinese where the family had lived, I had found no trace. A local journalist assisted the search in 2023, but still nothing. The breakthrough eventually came from the UK! Having traced Ron Dix’s family I found out they were still in contact with the Italian family that had sheltered him. So, the following day was to be spent with Saverio, the son of Ginetta Bauducco (the teenage daughter in the household when both were sheltered). Ginetta (Gina) was mentioned several times in Robert’s diary.
The meeting was to be in Gassino Torinese, although Saverio lived in central Turin. Saverio had had no previous knowledge of the diary prior to my contact, but I was sure it was his mother who returned it to the Dickinson family in 1946. Today he was to see it for the first time as Giordano had spent six hours driving it up from Servigliano for the meeting. We met on a bridge over the canal that Robert had worked on during his short time in Gassino 112/4 work camp. I have to confess there were tears from both sides, but I was finally able to thank Saverio for his grandparents’ and mother’s kindness in sheltering Robert for 13 months. Saverio was joined by his wife Claudia and for lunch his daughter Camilla arrived. Before lunch Saverio was interviewed for the documentary.
During the lunch I was able to show Saverio and Camilla the diary in more detail.
When I had bequeathed the diary I left a small slip of paper with it that I knew was contemporary to the diary as it had been written on top of one of the diary pages, the pen imprint still faintly visible today. It had written on it “Bauducco, Via A Diaz, Gassino”. I explained to Camilla I was not sure who had written it. She took one look and said: “I do 100 per cent, that’s my grandma’s writing.” So, it was now confirmed that it was Ginetta that had returned the diary!
Saverio explained why my search for the family was never successful. Although his mother was called Ginetta to all, her christened name was Maria Concetta. Ginetta was born late in her parents’ life and had two sisters who were both over 20 years older. By the early 1960s both sisters and her parents had died, and she moved from Gassino to Turin.
Following several hours of chatting, Saverio took us to his parents’ tomb in Turin City cemetery. Sadly, I had missed meeting Ginetta by just over a year, Saverio said that she would have screamed with joy had we met as her war years were a very important part of her life, which she regularly talked about. He said at age 16 she was a gun runner for the partisans, young girls being at little risk of being searched.
The day flew by and we were soon back in Gassino ready to drive back to our residence for the final night. On our route back I had a call from Janet who had spent the day with Enzo’s family. She said they had found the ditch where Robert was murdered! On arrival we ventured out to it. The witness statements point to a ditch between Montafia and Cortazzone and there was only one ditch of proportion in which to hide somebody.
Difficult to confirm today, but detail in the statements would suggest this was very likely the place. Robert was injured and the partisan commander Malino carried him for 3km before hiding him in the ditch at Robert’s request. Malino knew he needed hospital treatment, so my thinking is he would have carried him towards where he knew the hospital was. Eugenio Morero’s statement says that several partisans were sent out in the night to take Robert to hospital and found him murdered in the ditch. The ditch is close to Viale where the hospital was situated.
The following day we returned to the UK, but that was not quite the end. Having returned to Stansted we had a meeting with Ron Dix’s half-sister Valerie, in Saffron Walden. It was Valerie that had put me in contact with Saverio. We chatted and she showed me the photo albums of the many times when auntie Ginetta had visited them.
Having now been able to thank Saverio I feel at peace with myself and I believe the story may now be coming to an end…
……then again not quite! On 9th August I received a message from Giordano Viozzi with video attached. Francesco Verducci, a senator for the Marche region, had picked up the story of Robert and the diary and made an emotional three-minute dedication in the Senate! This came out of the blue to me, but those three minutes made 20 years of investigations totally worthwhile. What would Robert think? A bricklayer from Lincoln being honoured in the Senate almost 80 years after his death.
For anybody else researching their family wartime history, one thing I will say is, never give up!