Friday 6 March 2009

Seven weddings ... one family

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.

Her sister Amelia was next. In 1929 she wed shop assistant Charles William Hastings in the same Chapel. Marie followed in 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 (Bob to his mates) went the whole hog (see the photo above). 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.

Finally, in 1941, Luigi married Geordie invoice clerk Anne Imrie at Eton registry Office in Royal Berkshire.

'Course, it wasn't all partying. 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 in 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.

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