Lieutenant Bruno GARIBALDI
2nd Battalion Garibaldi Legion attached to the French Foreign Legion

Date of birth: 17th August 1890
Date of death: 26th December 1914

Killed in action aged 24
Buried at Campo Verane Cemetery in Rome
He was born at Rome on the 17th of August 1890 the fifth of seven sons of General Ricciotti Garibaldi and Constance (nee Hopcroft) and was the grandson of the founder of modern Italy. His mother was English and came from Annerley in Surrey.

He was brought up at the family home in Riofreddo, Lazio in Italy and at an early age his parents decided that he would make his career in commerce and to prepare for this he was sent to the King's School Canterbury where he was educated from May 1904 to July 1909. Although not academically brilliant he excelled at rugby football playing as a forward in the Rugby XV in 1908/09 and winning his colours on the 21st of November that year.

The Cantuarian wrote of his 1908/09 season:-

"Very good in the open and much improved in the pack. Should be very useful."

He was also a keen rower, and was in the Rowing IV in 1908 and 1909, being elected as Captain of Boats in 1909. He was also in the Fives Pair in 1909.

On leaving school he went to work as an apprentice at a sugar refinery in Cuba eventually rising to become assistant manager.

On the outbreak of war in 1914 he joined the Garibaldi Legion which was being assembled by his brothers in New York. The Legion was made up of mercenaries whose ideals were to uphold freedom and democracy and had previously seen action in Greece in 1910 and in Mexico. The Legion originally offered its services to the British Government but the offer was declined. They then approached the French Government who also initially declined their services unless they were prepared to become part of the French army and wear the full French uniform. Compromises were made and the Legion became part of the 1st Regiment of the French Foreign Legion and were sent to the Argonne.

It was on the 26th of December 1914 during fighting at the Ravine do Medrissons that the Garibaldi Legion received its baptism of fire when the 2nd Battalion were detailed to attack a German trench. The front to be attacked was limited to 150 yards but the position was strongly held and protected by deep entanglements of barbed wire. After an artillery barrage lasting from midnight until dawn the Garibaldi Companies rushed forward one behind the other but were held up by the uncut wire. At one point an opening was found and a few men got as far as the German trench only to be killed.

It was during this engagement that Bruno Garibaldi was killed. He was first wounded in the hand but returned to the fight after first aid only to be wounded a second time. Supporting himself against a tree he continued to call his men forward until he was hit for the third and fatal time.

An eyewitness to the attack recorded the following:-

"The attack in which Bruno fell was one of the finest things I have ever seen. General Gouraud sent for me in person to explain why a certain system of trenches, which we were ordered to attack, must be taken and held, no matter what the price. We mustered for mass at midnight—it was Christmas, or the day after, I believe-and the memory of that icicle-framed altar in the ruined roofless church with the flickering candles throwing just light enough to silhouette the tall form of Gouraud who stood in front of me will never fade from my mind. We went over the parapet before daybreak, and it was in the first light of the cold winter dawn that I saw Bruno—plainly hit—straighten up from his running crouch and topple into the first of the German trenches, across which the leading wave of our attack was sweeping. He was up before I could reach him, however (I don't think he ever looked to see where he was hit), and I saw him clamber up the other side, and, running without a hitch or stagger, lead his men in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. I never saw him again alive. They found his body, with six bullet-wounds upon it lying where the gust from a machine-gun had caught him as he tried to climb out and lead his men on beyond the last of the trenches we had been ordered to take and hold. He had charged into the trench, thrown out the enemy, and made—for whatever it was worth—the first sacrifice of his own generation of Garibaldi."


His body was recovered the following day by his comrades and returned to Rome where he was buried amid much pomp and ceremony. The news of the death of his brother Constantino was received shortly before Bruno's body arrived from the front for burial and caused much anguish amongst the crowd who had gathered for the funeral. He was accompanied by two of his brothers in their French uniforms and by his sister Roma. In the crowds were the red shirted men of the Garibaldi Legion as well as representatives of the Greek, English and French colonies of Rome. His coffin lay in state in the main hall at Rome railway station wrapped in Greek, French and Italian flags. The procession which left for the cemetery included the French Ambassador, a Greek Minister and various Municipal officials.

His four brothers Rilliotti, Sante, Guiseppe and Enzio survived the war with the remaining brother, Menotti, who was in China during the war.

On the rise of Mussolini during the 1920s, the family was split between pro- and anti-fascists. Bruno?s parents were ardent fascists and on the death of his father on 1924 Mussolini organised a grand funeral which included the exhumation and reburial of Bruno and Constantino at Campo Verane Cemetery in Rome in front of the monument of Alfredo Mameli.

Today there is a monument to the brothers at Wichalade in the Argonne, as a well as a bust of Bruno on Cavicolo Hill overlooking Rome.
 

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