Warrant Officer Class II Aldborough Tom RUNDLE (5241)
Umvoti Mounted Rifles, Union Defence Force

Date of birth: 18th April 1915
Date of death: 18th October 1944

Killed in action aged 29
Buried at Staglieno Cemetery, Genoa Plot I Row D Grave 2
He was born at Vryheid, Natal, South Africa on the 18th of April 1915 the son of Charles James Frank Skyring Rundle and Helen Florence Mary of Waverley, Vryheid, Natal, South Africa.

He was educated at Michaelhouse, Natal and at the King’s School Canterbury from January 1929 to March 1931 where he was in Langley House. On leaving school he returned to Natal where he went into farming.

On the outbreak of war he joined the Umvoti Mounted Rifles and was captured during the Italian Campaign in East Africa. He was taken to Italy where he was interned as a prisoner of war at Campo 52 at Chiavari, near Genoa. When the Italian government surrendered the Germans arrived at the camp to evacuate the prisoners to new camps in Germany. Aldborough Rundle and some of his comrades hid in a tunnel while the camp was being cleared but were discovered and entrained for Germany on the 12th of September 1943. As the train entered a tunnel between Brignole and Genoa he and four other prisoners crawled through a ventilator and dropped onto the track. They boarded another train bound for Rome but had to jump off it at Chiavari to avoid capture. Whilst hiding in the hills he became the leader of an Italian partisan unit and was known as "Tomazo”, gaining almost legendary status.

On the 17th of October 1944 he and four others went into Chiavari to capture a fascist. They were themselves ambushed by fascists and were captured, sentenced to death and led before a firing squad the next day. Together with another Italian partisan, "Vito", his hands were untied while the pair knelt side by side to allow a priest to give them a blessing before they were shot. When the blessing was finished Rundle leapt to his feet and ran. Six shots were fired at him as he fled but all missed until the Captain of the firing squad fired his machine gun which killed Tom Rundle .

The two bodies were placed in a tomb and the villagers of Carasco gathered around it in vigil through the night. When the allied forces arrived months later they exhumed his body and reburied it with full military honours.

He was posthumously mentioned in despatches for his work in escape, evasion and Special Operations which was announced in the London Gazette of the 20th of September 1945.
Langley House

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