Amedeo Guillet:AMEDEO GUILLET, Italian war hero and diplomat, has died aged 101 in Italy where he returned in 2009 after spending more than three decades in Kentstown, near Navan, Co Meath.
In 1974, having spent 19 years as Italian ambassador on a number of postings, Guillet and his late wife Beatrice arrived at the Old Rectory in Kentstown. He said he would have had no peace in retirement in Italy. “I’d be invited here and have to go there, and be sent on official business – we would have had no time to ourselves,” he said.
Guillet came from a family of soldiers. As a young man he was a fine sportsman, with numerous triumphs in showjumping, racing and eventing and was selected for the 1936 Italian Olympics team. But when the chance came to serve in the Italian army in Ethiopia, Guillet felt he had to go.
Following the conquest of Ethiopia by Mussolini in 1936, Guillet fought for a period in the Spanish Civil War where Mussolini was supporting Franco. He later returned to the new empire of Italian East Africa, on the eve of the second World War. Here, he set up a large force of native cavalry. This became the faithful Gruppo Bande Amhara a Cavallo, with 800 horseman, 400 Yemeni infantrymen and 200 camel corps.
When the Italian army surrendered to the British, Guillet and his Gruppo Bande fought on as guerrillas, derailing British trains, blowing up bridges and looting convoys. He grew a beard and disguised himself as a Yemeni to escape capture, and lived as a fugitive in Eritrea for eight months.
After a period in incarceration, Guillet worked as a vet and a farrier in Yemen before returning to Italy and marriage to his childhood sweetheart and long-term fiancee, Bice Gandolfo.
After his army career, Guillet served as Italian ambassador to Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Morocco, and India, and to the UN in New York. In his home in Kentstown there were many photographs of leaders with whom he became friendly over the years, including King Hussein and Indira Gandhi.
He was also surrounded by photographs of friends, family, army colleagues and soldiers whom he had fought against and subsequently become good friends.
It was his love of hunting that first brought him to Ireland. He hunted with the Tara Harriers and the Meath Hounds. His friends in Meath included the former Irish showjumper Diana Connolly Carew, now Baroness Wrangel.
Last year, the Palazzo Barberini, headquarters of the Italian armed forces, hosted a celebration of his 100th birthday, attended by Guillet and his two sons, Paulo and Alfredo. The attendance included representatives of the Italian royal family, the army, government, and ambassadors. The ceremony included a specially commissioned piece by composer Tom Cullivan, Cavalcade of Kentstown.
Amedeo Guillet, born February 7th, 1909; died June 16th, 2010