ANGELO-DEL-CAUCHFERTA, Francois Xzavier Gonzales
Francois Xzavier Gonzales Angelo-del-Cauchferta was born on 4 November 1900. He married at Bethnal Green, London in 1936, Lily Elizabeth Maude Baker (1 June 1905-1981) and they had several children including a son, Michael Francois Xavier Angello-del-Cauchferta (1947-2002). Francois was a Spaniard and a member of the Mednarodni Graficni Likovni Centre (MGLR) and exhibited at the Ipswich Art Club in 1942, two works 'The Worker' and a sculpture 'Dolores' and he also painted the mayoral panels in Portsmouth Guildhall. In 1954 the Pegasus horses for 'Apollo the Sun God' were the work of Cauchferta. Francois Xzavier Gonzales Angelo-del-Cauchferta died at Newham, Essex and buried in Sutton Park St Edward the Confessor Churchyard, Guildford, Surrey in 1982.
Auckland Star 24 July 1937
LONDON, July 3.
Two years ago, Angello Del Cauchferta was found starving and wandering in Bethnal Green, London, with Spanish papers in his pocket. He was taken to a London hospital. There his body was found to be a mass of wounds. Sabre cuts across his knuckles. His chest and arms lacerated by machine gun bullets. A steel plate in his head. Angelo recovered, but his memory was gone. His brain was a complete blank. Now the mists, have cleared a little from his mind, but he said this week: "Who I am, or what I am, or how I came to be shot up like this, I don't know. But somehow the name Valencia is familiar to me. In my mind's eye I can see a long white house, surrounded by groves of fruit trees. And I think back bursting shells roar and ring in my ears. I see men fighting hand to hand, or with swords and bayonets. I can hear the screams of my mother, the cries of my father...I believe they were murdered...after that, nothing more. How I got to England I will never know." Angelo buried his face in his hands, trying desperately to recall the dim past. "I can remember a day or two after coming out of London Hospital, trying to walk to Southend. I was too proud to beg, and I must have dropped from weakness on the road. Anyway, I woke up in another hospital at Romford. There a pretty little nurse attended me devotedly, until I was fit and well again. She is now my wife. How can I describe our struggle to live after that? We married on £2. It lasted us three weeks. I had to do something. I went round the shops asking for work. One man who gave me some lettering to do liked my effort. I decided to make that my career and joined the local working men's institute to learn more. Soon I discovered a passion for art. From an old fur of my wife's, I made myself brushes, started to paint." Angelo's work is creating a sensation at the exhibition of working men's art at Bethnal Green Museum, London. The Archbishop of Canterbury was so impressed by Angelo’s illuminated missals that he said, "they are almost as good as anything I have at home. You must learn more." And he offered a scholarship on the spot.