Frank Lanteri

Frank Lanteri was a wine merchant who ran a successfulbusiness on High Street, Thornbury from around 1914 to his death in 1944.  He married Marrietta Napoli in 1913 and thecouple had two children Frank junior and Nita named after a relative in the Napoli family.

Marrietta was the daughter of Giovanni andThenia Napoli (nee Orsini) who married in Victoria in 1889.  They had a large family. Mariettawas the first, born in Tyabb in 1890, followed by Agata in 1891 who did not survivethe year. Emily Agata was next in 1892, thenFrancisco Sebastiano in 1897 and Giovannina in 1898. By 1900 the family had moved from the Mornington Peninsulato Melbournewhere Giovanni started working as a labourer and they lived in first Gladstoneand then Thistlethwaite Street,South Melbourne. More children followed with Letina who was bornand died within the same year of 1902.The couple’s birth rate started to slow after that with Nita born in1906, Giovanni junior following in 1909 and then a large gap before Vencenzlo camealong in 1917. The family may havesuffered some ill feeling during the First World War when Italy was the opposition because by1919 they had moved to 4 BentStreet in Northcote where Giovanni could easilypick up some labouring work in the building boom. He was however in his sixth decade and diedthe following year in 1920 aged 62 having fathered his last child just threeyears earlier. Seventeen years youngerthan her husband Thenia was now left with 14 year-old Giovanni, an 11 year-oldNita and three year-old Vencenzlo in her care.By then however the older ones were grown and able to help support theirmother and the younger children. Emilyand Giovannina were still living at home but had incomes as a machinist and afurrier. Francisco was the most seniormale of the house and also had a steady job as a brass finisher. Marrietta was married to Frank Lanteri asuccessful wine business in High Street, Thornbury. This was most likely the incentive for theNapolis to relocate to the Northcote area.

Vencenzlo died in 1939, just twenty-two.  Nita became a tailoress and Giovanni junior acabinetmaker. By 1931 the Napolis hadmoved to 42 Pender Streetin Preston where Giovanni junior was no doubtsupporting the family on his wages with assistance from his sister andbrother-in-law nearby. During WWIIGiovanni started registering himself as John no doubt to avoid the sameanti-Italian feelings that had existed during the First World War. A fellow Italian Marino Casamento who wasnaturalised as a British subject in 1938, was denied purchasing property in Brunswick because theTown Clerk felt that there would be public objection to “aliens acquiringland”. Casamento had been leasing afruit shop in Northcote for many years when the war broke out and he felt thatit was necessary to have a sign in his window stating his allegiance to theKing. Somewhere around this time Giovanni(now John) married Olive Rosetta and his mother continued to live with thecouple in Rene Street,Preston until her passing sometime in 1948aged 72.

Meanwhile the Lanteris were continuing tothrive in High Street with their grown son Frank junior following the familybusiness as a barman just prior to the start of WWII.  Their daughter Nita also became part of thefamily business at what was now 814High Street, Thornbury and was working insales. Frank senior died on 16 January1944 and the family placed a loving memorial notice in The Argus the followingyear with the epitaph “sweet memories always remain.” The son Frank had married Gwendoline by thisstage and the couple were living in Ivanhoe when his father decided to retireto Kew.Frank junior took on the High Street business and remained there tillthe 1960s.

Frank Lanteri was a good husband, father and providerfor his family.  The only time hefeatured in the news was briefly in 1926 when he hit a pedestrian with hismotor-car as he tried to pass a cable tram on High Street. The pedestrian Olive Edwards survived withonly a few scrapes and bruises.Motor-cars were still relatively new vehicles and an accident in one wascause sensation

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. 1848-1956)Saturday 7 August 1926, p.34. Motor-cars Collide: Young Woman Struck by Car

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. 1848-1956) Tuesday16 January 1945, p.14. In Memoriam

Australia Birth Index,1788-1922

Australia Marriage Index,1788-1950

Death Index Victoria, 1921-1985 : index todeaths in Victoria.Melbourne:Registry of Births, Death and Marriages. 1998.

Australian Electoral Rolls, 1903-1954