Ivan Anthony Sperduti - Profile

Ivan Anthony Sperduti - Profile

One aspect of the Worlington VE Day World War 2 project and exhibition was for Worlington History Group member to interview local members of the community to explore any information they could contribute. One such discussion focussed on any information about prisoners of one. One person remembers a person in Witheridge who had an Italian sounding name but didn’t think he was a POW. The only information we had to go on was that his first name was Ivan, and he had and an Italian sounding name beginning with S with locals using a nickname ‘Spaghetti’.

This stimulated some desk research to try to identify details about Ivan. The name closest to the vague information I discovered, using the available online search engines, was Ivan Sperduti who provided some possible matches to the limited information. This maybe not the person that was known to our interviewee and further research may be necessary.

Here is what we have found out about Ivan Anthony Sperduti.

Ivan Anthony Sperduti was born in 1933 in Plymouth, Devon. (England and Wales Civil Registration Birth Index 1916- 2005) He married Joan Brent in 1956 in Barnstaple, Devon. (England and Wales Civil Registration of Marriage Index 1916 - 2005) There was no record of his father and mother, except his registration of birth which was record as Plymouth with his mother’s name as Sperduti (England and Wales Civil Registration Birth Index 1916- 2005).

Ivan married Joan Brent in 1956. (England and Wales Civil Registration of Marriage Index 1916 - 2005)

The 1911 Census showed that the Brent family, including Arthur Herbert Brent, Joan’s father, living in Witheridge, having moved from Northampton. In 1911 Joan’s grandfather William Brent was employed as a Coachman Domestic. They lived in Fore Street, Witheridge (1911 Census: Ancestry On-line).

When Joan Brent was born in 1936 in Devon, her father, Arthur Herbert Brent, was 35yo, and her mother, Alice, was 32yo. She married Ivan Anthony Sperduti in 1956 in Barnstaple, Devon.

In the 1939 Register Arthur Herbert Brent (38yo) and Alice Brent (35yo) were recorded as living at Bow Cottages but there was no reference to their children, including Joan. Arthur Herbert was recorded as a Carpenter (1939 Register: Ancestry Online).

In 1950 the press (Crediton Gazette - Tuesday 20 June 1950) reported that Ivan, the newest member of Chulmleigh Young Farmers’ Club, took first prize in the under 18 class at sheep shearing competitions held at Colleton Mill Farm.

The Phone Book for Taunton in 1970 showed Ivan living at Park Lane Cottage, Ash Priors, Bishop Lydeard. (Extract of The Phone Book 1970 Taunton)

Joan Sperduti (Brent) died on 12 April 2012 in Somerset at the age of 76.

Ivan Sperduti died on 21 June 2019 in Taunton, Somerset, at the age of 86 (England and Wales Deaths 2007 – 2024).