Description
Object description
A privately published biography (228pp, edited by his daughter, Ann Gimpel), and illustrated with copies of photographs, sketches, and documents, and focussing mainly on his love of rock climbing, with extensive details about climbs he had undertaken, but also discussing his family, being born in London (July 1920), schooling at Hampden Gurney CofE School, his early love of rock climbing, jobs including Claudegen (GEC) Neon Signs, Wembley (1936), hiking and climbing trips in England, Scotland and Wales (1936 – 1940), and the formation of the London Members of the Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland (1939), joining John Mowlem and Co (October 1938), as an apprentice Junior Engineer and Surveyor, sub-contracted to work on behalf of the War Office, Emergency Defence Works (August 1940), South East, a close call with a bomb during an air raid (October 1940), joining the Army (November 1940), being assigned to 'B' Battery, 41st Survey Training Regiment, Royal Artillery (RA), passing as Battery Surveyor, posting to 392nd Battery, 98th Field Regiment (Surrey & Sussex Yeomanry Queen Mary's) RA (March 1941), very brief details of his duties and movements, embarking on EMPIRE PRIDE (June 1942), climbing in Cape Town, South Africa, continuing on NIEUW AMSTERDAM to Port Tewfik, Egypt, joining 10th Armoured Division (Eighth Army), travelling through Egypt, the Battle of El Alamein (October – November 1942), climbing the pyramids (December 1942), contracting Diphtheria and evacuation to a military hospital in the Lebanon (February – May 1943), making surveys of the Lebanon, convalescence in Palestine (May – July 1943), rejoining the Regiment in Sicily (August 1943) before it moved to Italy (September 1943), joining the 4th Armoured Brigade at Foggia (October 1943), battles for the River Sangro, climbing Monte Camino (February 1944), joining the 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade near Monte Cassino, his transfer to No 2 Section, 29th Railway Survey Company, Royal Engineers (March 1944), becoming a Lance Corporal, rescuing an injured woman trapped in a minefield, moving to Riccione (November 1944 – April 1945) where at a dance he met his future wife, Luigina ('Luisa') Piazzani, their engagement (June 1945) and getting permission to marry, which they did in December 1945, Luisa moving to England while his unit was in Italy and Austria, his demob (April 1946) and post war life together, work as an Engineer and Surveyor in London, (1946 – 1951), with the Colonial Survey Service in Uganda (March 1951 – September 1953), and returning to the UK as a self-employed land and engineering surveyor. Together with: photocopies (31pp), plus some of the original pages (8pp), of a ms account (in Italian) by Luisa about Allied bombing of Riccione (September 1944); papers relating to the engagement of Edward Zenthon and Luisa Piazzani, including Notice of Marriage (June 1945); a report from 279th Provost Company, Corps of Military Police, giving good references for Luisa and her parents (September 1945); examination of Luisa by a RAMC Captain and her being 'fit to marry a British soldier'; their Permission to Marry; Italian marriage certificate; a portrait photograph of the couple; papers relating to her travelling to the UK; a newspaper article 'How Your Wife Can Get to Britain' ('Union Jack', November 1945); and an article from Italian newspaper Il Popolo about Italian wives of English soldiers with a photograph of Luisa and others (February 1946); Service papers including his Soldier's Service and Pay Book (AB 64), Record of Service, and Release to the Reserves on Grounds of National Importance; a Welcome Home Certificate and a programme for the Reception from the Paddington Welcome Home and Re-Establishment Fund (June - July 1946); a ms notebook, with ts transcriptions, giving details of all his locations and dates and total mileage covered throughout his Army service; photocopy of a ms notebook (42pp) with training notes (November 1940 – January 1941); an Italian child's exercise book, with Fascist cartoons on the cover, containing his notes and sketches for a Surveyor (Engineering) Trade Test relating to railways (1943); two copies of a MEDLOC pamphlet giving details of sights to see for troops on the journey returning from Milan, Italy, to the UK; 237 annotated photographs showing 41st Survey Training Regiment RA, Larkhill, Bonsley House, Cape Town (August 1942), German prisoners at Galal and Mersa Matruh (November 1942), Sidi Bishir, Tel el Kebir, Cairo (December 1942), Palestine, Sicily, Italy, and throughout photographs of friends and fellow soldiers and mountains; five pencil sketches and plans of railway bridges on the Kagenfurt – Unzmarkt Line; 10 pen and ink survey sketches of Italian mountains; eight ms letters, air mail letters and airgraphs from Mrs Phyllis Merrifield and her Mother, Mrs Mavis Rauch, who lived in Rosebank, Cape, South Africa, to Zenthon's parents (July 1942 – September 1945) saying how they had shown him round when he docked in South Africa, and keeping his parents up to date with news of him and their own family; and papers and 11 photographs relating to 29th Railway Survey Company RE annual reunions (1949 – 1973).
Content description
A privately published biography (228pp, edited by his daughter, Ann Gimpel), and illustrated with copies of photographs, sketches, and documents, and focussing mainly on his love of rock climbing, with extensive details about climbs he had undertaken, but also discussing his family, being born in London (July 1920), schooling at Hampden Gurney CofE School, his early love of rock climbing, jobs including Claudegen (GEC) Neon Signs, Wembley (1936), hiking and climbing trips in England, Scotland and Wales (1936 – 1940), and the formation of the London Members of the Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland (1939), joining John Mowlem and Co (October 1938), as an apprentice Junior Engineer and Surveyor, sub-contracted to work on behalf of the War Office, Emergency Defence Works (August 1940), South East, a close call with a bomb during an air raid (October 1940), joining the Army (November 1940), being assigned to 'B' Battery, 41st Survey Training Regiment, Royal Artillery (RA), passing as Battery Surveyor, posting to 392nd Battery, 98th Field Regiment (Surrey & Sussex Yeomanry Queen Mary's) RA (March 1941), very brief details of his duties and movements, embarking on EMPIRE PRIDE (June 1942), climbing in Cape Town, South Africa, continuing on NIEUW AMSTERDAM to Port Tewfik, Egypt, joining 10th Armoured Division (Eighth Army), travelling through Egypt, the Battle of El Alamein (October – November 1942), climbing the pyramids (December 1942), contracting Diphtheria and evacuation to a military hospital in the Lebanon (February – May 1943), making surveys of the Lebanon, convalescence in Palestine (May – July 1943), rejoining the Regiment in Sicily (August 1943) before it moved to Italy (September 1943), joining the 4th Armoured Brigade at Foggia (October 1943), battles for the River Sangro, climbing Monte Camino (February 1944), joining the 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade near Monte Cassino, his transfer to No 2 Section, 29th Railway Survey Company, Royal Engineers (March 1944), becoming a Lance Corporal, rescuing an injured woman trapped in a minefield, moving to Riccione (November 1944 – April 1945) where at a dance he met his future wife, Luigina ('Luisa') Piazzani, their engagement (June 1945) and getting permission to marry, which they did in December 1945, Luisa moving to England while his unit was in Italy and Austria, his demob (April 1946) and post war life together, work as an Engineer and Surveyor in London, (1946 – 1951), with the Colonial Survey Service in Uganda (March 1951 – September 1953), and returning to the UK as a self-employed land and engineering surveyor. Together with: photocopies (31pp), plus some of the original pages (8pp), of a ms account (in Italian) by Luisa about Allied bombing of Riccione (September 1944); papers relating to the engagement of Edward Zenthon and Luisa Piazzani, including Notice of Marriage (June 1945); a report from 279th Provost Company, Corps of Military Police, giving good references for Luisa and her parents (September 1945); examination of Luisa by a RAMC Captain and her being 'fit to marry a British soldier'; their Permission to Marry; Italian marriage certificate; a portrait photograph of the couple; papers relating to her travelling to the UK; a newspaper article 'How Your Wife Can Get to Britain' ('Union Jack', November 1945); and an article from Italian newspaper Il Popolo about Italian wives of English soldiers with a photograph of Luisa and others (February 1946); Service papers including his Soldier's Service and Pay Book (AB 64), Record of Service, and Release to the Reserves on Grounds of National Importance; a Welcome Home Certificate and a programme for the Reception from the Paddington Welcome Home and Re-Establishment Fund (June - July 1946); a ms notebook, with ts transcriptions, giving details of all his locations and dates and total mileage covered throughout his Army service; photocopy of a ms notebook (42pp) with training notes (November 1940 – January 1941); an Italian child's exercise book, with Fascist cartoons on the cover, containing his notes and sketches for a Surveyor (Engineering) Trade Test relating to railways (1943); two copies of a MEDLOC pamphlet giving details of sights to see for troops on the journey returning from Milan, Italy, to the UK; 237 annotated photographs showing 41st Survey Training Regiment RA, Larkhill, Bonsley House, Cape Town (August 1942), German prisoners at Galal and Mersa Matruh (November 1942), Sidi Bishir, Tel el Kebir, Cairo (December 1942), Palestine, Sicily, Italy, and throughout photographs of friends and fellow soldiers and mountains; five pencil sketches and plans of railway bridges on the Kagenfurt – Unzmarkt Line; 10 pen and ink survey sketches of Italian mountains; eight ms letters, air mail letters and airgraphs from Mrs Phyllis Merrifield and her Mother, Mrs Mavis Rauch, who lived in Rosebank, Cape, South Africa, to Zenthon's parents (July 1942 – September 1945) saying how they had shown him round when he docked in South Africa, and keeping his parents up to date with news of him and their own family; and papers and 11 photographs relating to 29th Railway Survey Company RE annual reunions (1949 – 1973).
History note
Cataloguer SJO