La Dolce Vita: The Churchill-Roosevelt Club, Venice
In the summer of 1945, with the fighting in Italy only just over, British servicemen arriving on leave in Venice could find themselves enjoying surroundings far removed from the familiar image of the military canteen. On the Lido, NAAFI and its wartime military arm, EFI, had taken over part of the former Casino complex and transformed it into the Churchill-Roosevelt Club — an Anglo-American leave centre for British other ranks and American enlisted personnel. Contemporary photographs show its imposing modern façade carrying the club’s name, while inside were surroundings that a later history of EFI would describe as perhaps the ultimate in club luxury enjoyed by British servicemen.
Yet the Churchill-Roosevelt Club was more than an extravagant setting in which to take leave. Behind its impressive surroundings stood NAAFI and EFI, the Women’s Voluntary Services, the American Red Cross and a substantial Italian workforce. Together they provided the catering, recreation and welfare facilities needed by British and American servicemen passing through Venice.
NAAFI Comes to Venice
By the spring of 1945, the long campaign in Italy was approaching its conclusion and EFI was moving north almost in the wake of the advancing armies. Among those making that journey was Moyra Miller of the ATS/EFI, whose later recollections provide a vivid glimpse of those final weeks. During the April offensive she travelled through the Argenta Gap, Ferrara and Padua before reaching Venice only four days behind the 56th Division. Driver H. C. Bartlett provides another glimpse of NAAFI’s arrival, recalling a photograph in the Eighth Army News showing what were described as the first lorries to reach Venice. They were, in fact, NAAFI vehicles. Once unloaded, their stores were transferred to barges and carried along the Grand Canal to the Ridotto Club, which opened on 2 May 1945 as NAAFI’s first establishment in the city.
Behind this picturesque arrival lay a considerable logistical operation. An official history of NAAFI/EFI records that furniture and equipment were moved north in readiness for new clubs at Venice, Udine, Trieste and Pola. Further supplies travelled by rail to Ancona and from there by sea to Venice, which became an important distribution point for EFI's expanding network across north-eastern Italy.
It is a wonderfully evocative picture of NAAFI’s arrival in Venice: its vehicles reaching the city with the advancing army, but the last stage of the journey having to be made in thoroughly Venetian fashion — by barge along the Grand Canal.
Miller arrived in time to witness VE Night in Venice. From her room overlooking the Grand Canal she remembered the bells of San Marco and Santa Maria della Salute ringing out amid the hooting and screeching of naval craft in the lagoon. It was an extraordinary setting in which to mark the end of the war in Europe — but for NAAFI and EFI the work was far from over.
As hostilities ended, attention increasingly turned from supporting an advancing army to providing recreation and welfare for the large numbers of servicemen who would remain in northern Italy. Venice offered possibilities unlike almost anywhere else in the Italian Campaign. The W.V.S. Bulletin later recalled how NAAFI and the WVS introduced servicemen to some of the cultural attractions of Italy — opera in Naples, concerts in Rome and, in Venice, even gondola tours.
But it was across the lagoon, on the Lido di Venezia, that EFI was about to create something altogether more ambitious.
From Casino to Forces Club
Across the lagoon from central Venice lay the Lido, long established as one of Europe’s fashionable seaside resorts. Here EFI found premises quite unlike the improvised canteens and requisitioned buildings that had accompanied the organisation during the long advance through Italy.
The building chosen for what became the Churchill-Roosevelt Club had been constructed as part of the Lido’s pre-war casino complex. A later account of EFI’s wartime work recalled that the casino had been built during Mussolini’s regime in an attempt to attract wealthy international visitors. Its marble floors and pillars, together with richly decorated walls and ceilings, provided surroundings of a kind rarely associated with a forces club.
The former Casino buildings on the Lido, photographed by Sgt Wolfe on 7 June 1945. The original British Army caption recorded that the buildings were being used as the “Roosevelt-Churchill” Club and NAAFI leave centre. © IWM NA 25542.
The club opened on 28 May 1945 and by 7 June 1945 contemporary British Army photographs record a leave centre operating on the Lido. The accompanying caption described the former casino buildings, adjacent to the Excelsior Hotel, as the “Roosevelt-Churchill” Club and the NAAFI, providing social amenities and games for Allied troops on leave.
EFI’s own later history left little doubt about the significance attached to the new establishment. Furnished, equipped and opened at remarkable speed during the summer of 1945, the Lido facilities were remembered as perhaps the ultimate in club luxury enjoyed by British servicemen during the Italian Campaign.
The surroundings may have been luxurious, but their purpose was practical. With thousands of servicemen remaining in northern Italy after the fighting had ended, the need for places where men could eat, drink, relax and spend their leave had not disappeared with VE Day. On the Lido, NAAFI and EFI had found an exceptional setting in which to meet that need.
The People Behind the Club
Behind the imposing façade and luxurious surroundings was the practical business of running a large forces club. One of those involved was Corporal Frank Cooper, a former soldier of the 9th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, who transferred to NAAFI in 1943 after his battalion was disbanded. His subsequent overseas service eventually took him to the Lido, where he recalled helping to open the Churchill-Roosevelt Club.
Cooper’s recollections provide a rare glimpse behind the scenes. He remembered a small core staff consisting of a captain, sergeant-major, sergeant, corporal and private, working alongside numerous Italian employees. The local workforce was evidently substantial: Cooper recalled that it took him and the sergeant an entire day simply to pay their wages in lire. His account also illustrates the unusual position of military personnel serving with EFI: while overseas he received his Army corporal’s pay together with additional payment from NAAFI.
Other surviving evidence allows us to put names to some of Cooper’s contemporaries. A photograph taken on the Lido in 1945 identifies Captain S. R. Mitchell as the British officer in charge of the Churchill-Roosevelt Club. With him are Anita Ryan of the WVS and Virginia Schakel of the American Red Cross, representatives of the British and American welfare organisations working alongside NAAFI/EFI.
Captain S. R. Mitchell, NAAFI/EFI, with Anita Ryan of the WVS and Virginia Schakel of the American Red Cross at the Churchill-Roosevelt Club, Venice Lido, 1945.
From the collection of The National WWII Museum.
Together, Mitchell, Cooper, Ryan and Schakel begin to put human faces to the organisation behind the club. Alongside the large locally employed Italian workforce, they represent the different elements brought together on the Lido — NAAFI and EFI, the WVS and the American Red Cross. The Churchill-Roosevelt Club may have occupied extraordinary surroundings, but it was the people behind them who made the establishment work.
British and American Under One Roof
The very name Churchill-Roosevelt Club reflected its Anglo-American character. Prominently displayed on the façade were the words “For British O.R.’s and American Enlisted Personnel”, making clear exactly whom the club was intended to serve. Here British other ranks and their American counterparts could meet and spend their leave in the same remarkable surroundings.
The partnership extended behind the scenes as well. Writing in May 1947, the W.V.S. Bulletin described the Churchill-Roosevelt as a “brilliant club”, recalling how British Tommies and American GIs mixed together there while WVS and American Red Cross workers jointly ran the amenities during what the Bulletin called “two lovely Italian Summers”.
For servicemen fortunate enough to spend leave in Venice, the attractions extended beyond the club itself. The W.V.S. Bulletin recorded how NAAFI and the WVS helped introduce servicemen to the cultural attractions of Italy — and in Venice this included the particularly memorable experience of gondola tours.
The original cover of a contemporary NAAFI/EFI souvenir photograph set of the Churchill-Roosevelt Club, Lido, Venice. The five photographs below formed part of this surviving set.
Author's collection.
Inside the Churchill-Roosevelt
The surviving souvenir photographs of the Churchill-Roosevelt Club reveal just what EFI had acquired on the Venice Lido. Behind its imposing modern façade were vast marble halls, lounges, dining rooms and recreational spaces on a scale quite unlike the makeshift canteens from which EFI had operated during the advance through Italy. Contemporary accounts described the Lido premises as representing the very height of luxury in EFI club provision; these photographs show that this was no exaggeration.
The monumental entrance hall, with marble columns and its distinctive illuminated ceiling.
One of the lounge areas of the Churchill-Roosevelt Club.
The club dining room, laid out to cater for large numbers of servicemen.
One of the club's large recreational and social spaces.
The billiards and games room — one of the recreational facilities available to men on leave.
More Than La Dolce Vita
For men arriving in Venice after months — and in many cases years — of active service, the contrast with life in the field can scarcely have been greater. Marble halls, comfortable lounges, billiard tables and dining rooms on the fashionable Lido belonged to a world far removed from the conditions through which many of them had so recently passed.
Yet the Churchill-Roosevelt Club was more than an exercise in luxury. Its purpose was essentially a practical one: to provide servicemen remaining in northern Italy with somewhere to eat, relax and enjoy their leisure in comfortable surroundings. With the fighting over but thousands of men still far from home, facilities such as these remained an important part of service life.
The club therefore represents something of the wider story of NAAFI during the Italian Campaign. As the fighting moved north, its establishments followed; and when the fighting ended, the need for welfare did not. In Venice, that story found perhaps its most extraordinary setting — a former casino on the Lido transformed into a forces club where British and American servicemen, and the organisations supporting them, came together under one roof.
Editorial Note — The Club Today: The building which housed the Churchill-Roosevelt Club still stands on the Lido di Venezia. Built in 1938 as the Palazzo del Casinò, its distinctive façade remains readily recognisable from the wartime photographs. Today the building forms part of the Venice International Film Festival complex. Readers can explore the location and compare the surviving building with its 1945 appearance on Google Maps →
Sources & References
The National Archives
CAB 106/454, British Historical Section, Central Mediterranean: Administrative Monographs, Part V, Monograph 18, NAAFI/EFI.
Imperial War Museums
NA 25542, photograph by Sgt Wolfe, 7 June 1945.
W.V.S. Bulletin
No. 89, May 1947, “With the C.M.F. 1944–1947”.
W.V.S. Bulletin
No. 98, February 1948, “Far-Flung Activities”.
NAAFI News
Christmas 1947, “From Naples to Venice with the ATS/EFI”, by Moyra Miller, M.B.E.
Howard N. Cole
NAAFI in Uniform (1982). Includes the recollections of Driver H. C. Bartlett.
Leicester Daily Mercury
20 March 1996. Recollections of Corporal Frank Cooper and his wartime service with NAAFI/EFI.
WWII: The Digital Collections of The National WWII Museum
Virginia Schakel, Captain S. R. Mitchell and Anita Ryan sit outside, Italy, 1945.
View collection record
Churchill-Roosevelt Club souvenir photographs
Contemporary NAAFI/EFI photograph set, Venice. Author’s collection.
